Ryan Clark of ESPN recently made headlines for criticizing Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Clark said Tagovailoa didn’t spend time in the gym during the offseason in addition to other comments about the QB. Tua was asked about Clark’s comments, and he gave a fiery response. “I would appreciate it if you kept my name out of your mouth,” Tua said, via Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team. Tua Tagovailoa dealt with injury concerns during the 2022 season. That said, he’s one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL. Tagovailoa also explained how Clark’s comments were “a little weird.” “He probably knows more about me than I know about myself,” Tagovailoa added, per Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN. “I don’t know… it’s a little weird when other people are talking about other people when they’re not that person. Just a little weird. Like my background is, I come from a Samoan family, respect is everything. It does get to a point where, ‘hey, little easy on that buddy.’ We’re pretty tough-minded people, if we need to get scrappy we can get scrappy too, just saying.'” What did Ryan Clark say about Tua Tagovailoa? Clark didn’t hold back on Tagovailoa. His comments received backlash from not just Dolphins fans, but fans around the league. “Let me tell you what he wasn’t doing: He wasn’t in the gym, I’ll bet you that,” Clark said on NFL Live, via The Palm Beach Post. “He might spend a lot of time in the tattoo parlor. He was not at the dinner table eating what the nutritionist had advised. He looks ‘happy,’ he is thick, he’s built like the girls working at Onyx right now.” Meirov also shared a video of Clark’s comments. Clark received laughs from the NFL Live crew but upset many other people. Tua Tagovailoa will surely use his words as motivation throughout the 2023 season. For a young QB who’s career was considered to be in jeopardy due to concussion problems, one has to wonder why Clark would make these comments. The Dolphins have a chance to make a legitimate postseason run during the 2023 campaign. Tua Tagovailoa would love nothing more than to perform especially well this season and lead his team to a championship. Perhaps Clark unintentionally lit a fire underneath the young QB that will lead to a great season. The post Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa goes full Will Smith in fiery response to Ryan Clark’s criticism appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Ryan Clark is the textbook example of the old phrase that Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people. Was he seriously that disengaged in their conversation that he thought it wise to talk about his observations about a player's body? Seriously creepy.
Salty Tua gets results. A day after Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa fired back at criticism from ESPN’s Ryan Clark about Tua’s gym habits and diet, Clark has apologized. “When I decided to do TV I had 2 main priorities,” Clark posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “1. Respect all NFL players, coaches, executives and staff members. 2. Earn and keep the respect of those very same people. Those priorities are important to me, and when I miss that mark, I have to hold myself accountable. This game is difficult. Players sacrifice so much to be a part of the 1%. I have a responsibility to those players to be thoughtful in the way I present my opinions of them. In joking about Tua Tagovailoa, I didn’t meet that responsibility. It was never my intention to question Tua’s work ethic or commitment to the game, but I’m also aware enough to know that intent, doesn’t always match impact. How something is presented isn’t always how it’s received by everyone. I do my best to be honest when executing my job as well as being honest when I fall short. I fell short on Monday and for that, I genuinely apologize.” In a video accompanying the typed apology, Clark explained that he was joking — but that apparently people didn’t take it that way. “If I’ve offended you, Tua, if I hurt you, if I disrespected you, if anybody that supports and love you feels some sort of way because of what I said, I truly apologize,” Clark said. Clark also admitted that his initial reaction to Tua’s pulblic comments was far different. “My ego was involved,” Clark said. “When Tua was asked about how he felt about these comments and he said, ‘Keep my name out your mouth,’ yeah, my first thought is, ‘Or what?’ Or he says he’s scrappy, I think to myself, ‘Man, I fed my family on violence. I ain’t tripping on that.’” Although at times the video apology felt a little equivocal (and/or a little Michael Scott-ish), Clark brought it home with a clear mea culpa. “To Tua Tagovailoa and his family, I deeply apologize,” Clark said. “I’ve reached out. I hope to talk to you soon, brother. But just know, I wasn’t questioning the way you work. I wasn’t questioning how much it mattered to you. I was what I can consider now a bad joke. But, for me, it’s been a lesson. I’ll be better.” What was the joke Clark tried to make, you ask? Here’s what he said about Tua on Monday’s NFL Live on ESPN. “Let me tell you what he wasn’t doing,” Clark said. “He wasn’t in the gym, I’ll bet you that. He might have spent a lot of time in the tattoo parlor. He was not at the dinner table eating what the nutritionist had advised. He looks happy. He is thick. He’s built like the girls working at Onyx in Atlanta right now on the bottom.” Was it a joke? Clark was trying to be funny, but he didn’t seem to be joking as it relates to the observation itself. He seemed to believe what he was saying about Tua’s body. He exaggerated for effect, but it came from a position of authentic belief by Clark (we believe) that Tua doesn’t “look” the way he should. What if Clark hadn’t said it all in a joking way? What if he had simply said, “Tua looks like he’s not working out the way he should. Tua looks like he’s not eating the way he should. I’m concerned about him for that reason”? Wouldn’t that get us to the same place, if/when a beat writer had asked Tua about it later? Clark thinks the issue was the joke. The issue more likely is the observation underlying the joke. And Clark definitely didn’t apologize for that.
On Wednesday, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had a chance to respond to recent criticism from ESPN’s Ryan Clark regarding Tua’s physique. On Thursday, coach Mike McDaniel was asked about Tua’s decision to come to his own defense. McDaniel was happy to get the question — because he wasn’t happy about the narrative. “I was starting to get annoyed, I was hoping for the opportunity to talk about, if I understand your question correctly, how Tua’s offseason has been,” McDaniel told reporters. “I can say hard facts that I’ve seen with my own eyes. And its top five on the team in terms of, we’ve had a lot of guys really stepped their game up. “If you want to talk about somebody that’s committed to doing what he’s doing for the right reasons, he was already invested before this year, but then taking a bunch of things that have happened, he really put an onus on controlling what he can control. So you want to talk about every metric that [strength and conditioning coach] Dave Puloka and his strength staff really track, which is pretty much everything to the degree of blinks, every metric of strength that is measured, he’s shattered his previous highs. And in some instances, he’s almost twice as strong with things and that’s been a daily commitment that he hasn’t wavered from. “He’s taken his nutrition to another level. He’s taken his commitment to what he’s trying to do and really thought outside the box and really, really worked at it, so I couldn’t be happier with the work that he’s put in and what I’ve factually viewed from my own eyes. Basically, you’re happy for guys as a coach when you can see in the present that down the road, they’re going to have no regrets, meaning the results are what the results are, but you know that without any shade of gray that you’ve put your best foot forward, and he really he really has. And I think his teammates would agree. We are getting the absolute best version of Tua that’s existed.”
I think the bit about being built like chicks working at Onyx should have clued in most people in that he was joking.
I had to google what it was- and I think it made me laugh harder once I saw that it's a strip club. Poor Salty Tua didn't deserve that comment, LOL. I'm glad he fired back though and his coach added a few words.
Good for Tua. He finally got tired of everyone criticizing every single thing that he does and making jokes at his expense since the first day he stepped into an NFL field. He has had some thick skin for the past four years, it had to come out eventually. I really think his comeback was directed at everyone in the media, not just that bozo Clark, for the constant nitpicking over the past few seasons.
He was clearly joking. The problem some have is the personal nature of the comments. He didn't say that Tua gained weight, which is an objective fact. He said that he was fat and ignored his health in an offseason following a year plagued by injury. That brings someone's commitment to the game and his body into question. For as many childish takes as we make about "disrespect", it's something else to personally disrespect somebody. I didn't see the show but I'd be surprised if Ryan Clark made any other jokes during the hour.
Yeah but even those comments were so over the top, and clearly but accurate even by a casual observer, that the whole thing just seems to be him sarcastically using more ridiculous versions of anti-Tua rhetoric he hears. But that's just me reading it...I haven't watched it, so it could come off way different when you hear and see him.
He turned into a joke about him being thick and looking like a stripper but he starts off by seriously saying he wasn't going to the gym.
I don't think he meant for it to come off as disrespectful as it did. The reporter's question gave it life that it didn't deserve. I can't blame Tua for his response and I'm glad Clark didn't dig in. This will be happily forgotten by tomorrow.
Of course Clark apologized. He was about to get his *** whooped by a clan of angry Samoan warriors for insulting their Chief. If they were all in Hawaii it would have happened already
