Tua Tagovailoa's response to dangerous tackle will keep Dolphins fans up at night

It was bated breath for every Miami Dolphins fan on Monday Night Football when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw an interception to Rams linebacker Christian Rozeboom and then got involved in the ensuing return. Tagovailoa cornered Rozeboom running up the sidelines and then made a diving tackle at him, nearly taking a knee to the side of the head.

With Tua's extensive history of horrifying head injuries, it was a play in which the quarterback put himself directly in harm's way, perhaps unnecessarily. Considering that he's also already suffered another brutal head injury this season and this was only his second game back from that concussion, it was the last type of play any Dolphins fan wanted to see from him.

Watching that play out at SoFi Stadium was bad enough. However, Tagovailoa's response and reaction to the play in question when asked about it after the game is the actual cause for concern when considering his long-term health with the Dolphins.

Tua Tagovailoa's reaction to dangerous tackle is alarming

When asked about the hit, Tua tried to play it off humorously (we have to hope) by saying that he asked Rozeboom after the play why he didn't just go out of bounds on the return. And while the Dolphins quarterback did acknowledge that it was a poor form on the tackle, the whole context of his response just feels like he's missing the point.

It's positive that he feels good after the play and didn't suffer an injury, without question. Having said that, there are several alarming issues with how he reacted to it after the game.

This is professional football. Whether joking or not, essentially saying that an opposing player is supposed to accommodate you by running out of bounds instead of trying to get extra yardage — particularly in a game wherein the Rams were trailing at the time — is just asinine. Sure, it's good that Tua wasn't "planning" on using his head to make the tackle but he still did it.

Many fans have said that Tagovailoa simply needs to be protected from himself at this point. It's quotes like this that elicit such a reaction. If he had just come out and said that it was a bad tackle that he'll try to clean up, that would be one thing. But framing any semblance of accountability around wondering why the defender didn't run out of bounds? That cheapens the accountability in the situation and, moreover, it also frames it as Tagovailoa all but saying he could find himself in harm's way again if another player doesn't "just run out of bounds".

Maybe I'm overreacting to this. But when Tagovailoa went down with a concussion that left him, unfortunately not for the first time, frozen while lying on the field, there were questions thereafter if he should ever play football again. Those weren't overreactions then — they were viable medical concerns with his history of head injuries. So to see him react to very nearly suffering another so nonchalantly and without any real remorse for being in such danger is concerning to say the least.

We all want Tua to stay healthy. Once again, though, he has to help himself. And on Monday night, he made no real inclination to first do that or to secondly make us think he'll do that moving forward.