Tua Tagovailoa went through the grinder during the offseason, and his efforts have not gone unnoticed. However, while Tyreek Hill has greeted the Miami Dolphins quarterback’s transformation with ridicule, head coach Mike McDaniel said he was furious about his receiver’s jokes.
In a conference during the team’s first training camps, Hill could not help but refer to the physical transformation of his signal-caller. “Seeing him now and where he’s come from and how skinny he’s gotten – what’s that stuff everybody is taking? Ozempic? He had to be taking that, I don’t know,” the Cheetah joked.
The joke caused immediate reactions in the rest of the players, who rode on Hill’s coattails. Among them was wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, who later jokingly admitted, “I told him, ‘I miss chubby Tua, man.'”
But not everyone reacted with the same sense of humor to Hill’s occurrence, starting with McDaniel.
McDaniel admitted to being furious
At a press conference Thursday, McDaniel addressed Hill’s taunts against Tagovailoa with a joke of his own. “I was literally mad. Like, man, I should have thought of that joke. It’s so topical,” the Dolphins HC admitted.
Jokes aside, McDaniel recognized his quarterback’s effort. “He’s really taken his diet seriously…He hasn’t done things to lose weight, he has done things to stay in shape,” the coach said.
Later in the same conference, McDaniel admitted that he took Hill’s joke a little personally. “I’m okay not being the tallest guy or the most physically imposing, but (I) like to have, like, a lesser joke, and I caught wind of, you know, reeks, and that was so strong…”
Tagovailoa’s transformation
The Dolphins quarterback has yet to speak about his weight loss, nor has he responded to Hill’s comments. Observers speculate that he must have lost between 10 and 15 pounds. However, when asked about it, Tua said: “I don’t know. It’s whatever I’m down to right now.”
The effort has paid off. When talking about his new physique, Tagovailoa admitted, “I feel better, quicker on my feet, more nimble, all of that.” He explained that losing weight will help “Extending plays more this offseason and then during the season, training camp, all of that.”
McDaniel admired his player’s dedication. “Honestly, it’s just Tua trying to find another level of his game and another level of being a professional… It wasn’t to correct something that needed to be fixed; it was an opportunity to get better, in his mind, I think.”
