MIAMI — It started Sunday night.

In the hours after his incendiary comments about the attendance of player-led meetings, Tua Tagovailoa began to apologize to teammates. The process continued Monday and even a bit into Wednesday. Then came the public apology.

“I’ve made a mistake, and I’m owning up to that right now,” Tagovailoa said in a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon, explaining that he feels like his comments “added on to” the outside noise that’s already reached a din amid the team’s 1-5 start. “I’ve got to look at myself as a leader, protecting the team. I don’t feel like I did that to the best of my abilities. I felt like I let the emotions of the game get to me.”

The Miami Dolphins’ chemistry will certainly be tested in the days since Tagovailoa took private business into the public sphere. His comments broke a cardinal sin of the locker room — what happens here, stays here — yet as the franchise quarterback, the entire team, for better or worse, relies on him. Tagovailoa, however, doesn’t believe team culture remains an issue in the wake of his apology tour.

“I wouldn’t say so,” Tagovailoa said. “Having conversations with guys today and seeing the way guys are out there at practice, I wouldn’t say so.”

Most teammates, Tagovailoa continued, just wanted to know his intent. With that explained, the healing process could seemingly begin.

“In the moment, he didn’t mean it how everybody portrayed it,” tailback De’Von Achane said Wednesday, later deeming Tagovailoa’s apology as “him just being a leader.”

The initial comments came right after Sunday’s 29-27 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. When asked about how team leaders could prevent the “woe is me” mentality from setting in, Tagovailoa let it slip that maybe he and others might need to be more strict.

“I think it starts with the leadership in helping articulate that for the guys, and then what we’re expecting out of the guys,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re expecting this. Are we getting that? Are we not getting that? We have guys showing up to player-only meetings late. Guys not showing up to player-only meetings. There is a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make that mandatory? Do we not have to make that mandatory? So it’s a lot of things of that nature that we got to get cleaned up. It starts with the little things like that.”

Tagovailoa faced immediate backlash. The entire NFL world — from former MVPs to ex-players to analysts — seemingly used the opportunity to rip the one-time Pro Bowler.

“I hated every bit of that,” NBC analyst and former NFL safety Devin McCourty said. “I played in New England with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady and coach Belichick used to talk about, when you have true leadership, it doesn’t need to be talked about.”

Added McCourty: “If there’s a problem, Tua, you’re a captain of this team, you’re the quarterback. Go handle it. Don’t sit there in front of a camera and talk to media members about guys messing up.”

Although coach Mike McDaniel initially called his quarterback’s comments an attempt to be “a direct communicator” with a teammate, he later walked back his statements.

“Regardless of intent and what was on Tua’s mind after a loss as the franchise quarterback, that’s not the forum to displace that,” McDaniel said Monday, explaining that he hadn’t fully heard the comments prior to Sunday’s post-game press conference. “I think he knows that now. I do honestly believe there was no ill intention, but you’re talking about I think kind of a misguided representation of player-orchestrated film sessions.”

By Wednesday, McDaniel believed the issue to have passed, explaining that the team had “bigger fish to fry.”

“The first, last and only thing if I have anything to say about it and I did in several meetings today is the Cleveland Browns and our focus within that regard,” McDaniel said. “Absolutely, he communicated with his teammates both in group and individually, and there’s much bigger fish to fry in our team’s opinion and my opinion.”

McDaniel was certainly right. At 1-5, the Dolphins don’t need any more distractions — especially from a quarterback that has thrown the third-most interceptions in 2025. Besides, the team faces a future Hall of Famer in Myles Garrett on Sunday, and he couldn't care less about any internal struggles.

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