After Sunday’s loss to the Chargers, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa decided to air out dirty laundry by calling out unnamed teammates for being late to player-only meetings. The effort has been met with plenty of external criticism — and it could cause even more internal problems.
Among other things, Tagovailoa’s remarks forced coach Mike McDaniel to justify Tua’s decision to take team business public, while also explaining that he doesn’t share Tua’s concerns about a lack of accountability, since that would reflect poorly on McDaniel.
“Player-led meetings are extra things outside of what I demand,” McDaniel told reporters on Sunday. “We’ve been very accountable to me. It sounds like there was something on his mind with regard to the specific meetings with a couple individuals that he was trying to get corrected by being direct with communication. I think that’s the only way to lead. As far as where we’ve been at as a program, I think we’ve opened the air on all of that and it’s very clear how we hold people accountable and what’s non-negotiable with all those things. Clearly he’s sending a message, but from my standpoint, everything that I’ve asked of the guys, they have delivered on and so I’m sure whomever he’s talking to, they’ll deliver as well as he’s a direct communicator with his teammates.”
But being “direct with communication” doesn’t mean directly taking it to the podium. It means taking it directly to the players who are showing up late for meetings, and who are otherwise not doing the “little things” to which Tua was referring. And if Tua tried to do that before talking openly about his concerns, it means that the players didn’t respond to Tua when he attempted to address the situation privately.
It’s the latest example of how the franchise’s constant chatter about changing the culture isn’t changing anything. They talk and talk and talk and nothing ever changes. As evidenced by the team’s record (1-5) and by the fact that Tua decided to say what he said.
The situation will now spark a media feeding frenzy. Who was Tua referring to? What do the players think about Tua’s leadership efforts?
And it will all happen as the next train is on the tracks — a Week 7 visit to Cleveland, where the Dolphins risk falling to 1-6 and inching closer to widespread changes that could result in a new G.M., a new head coach, and (sooner or later) a new starting quarterback.
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