Tua Tagovailoa's unfortunate injury another bad break in what has become a sad tale

At one point, Tua Tagovailoa had such promise as a potential NFL star that the 2019 season had teams "tanking for Tua" as Tagovailoa prepared to enter the draft.

Then, late in Alabama's 2019 season, Tagovailoa suffered a horrific hip injury. He was brought down as he threw away a pass and couldn't get up. He was carted off. Tagovailoa rebounded from that. But it was the first of many unfortunate injuries for him.

Tagovailoa's career has had some peaks and many more rough moments. There was another stroke of bad luck on Thursday. He was in the warmup portion of practice, days before he was to start for the Atlanta Falcons in the season opener, and he suddenly was grabbing his side and going to the ground. He hurt his oblique. On Friday, he was ruled out with the injury. What might be his only chance to start for the Falcons this season suddenly vanished.

It was the type of bad break that you don't see often. But for Tagovailoa, it has been a regular occurrence.

Tua Tagovailoa's unfortunate football luck

Tagovailoa has entered a new phase of his career. He's trying to resurrect what he once had.

Tagovailoa's career will be remembered a certain way and it won't be completely fair to him. He was a good quarterback for a while, battling back from that hip injury at Alabama to be the fifth pick of the NFL Draft and have some good seasons. In 2023 he led the NFL in passing yards and was named to the Pro Bowl. In 2024 he led the NFL in completion percentage.

He was pretty good. But then came the concussions.

Tagovailoa suffered some high-profile concussions, a couple of which came in prime-time games. He said he considered retirement due to the concussions. He continued to play and probably should have won 2023 NFL Comeback Player of the Year. In 2024 he signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract with the Dolphins. At that point, it was a great success story, considering all he had been through.

The money is nice. But it's not everything. And so much for Tagovailoa in his football career has been unlucky and unfair, and it hasn't let up since he signed that extension.

Tagovailoa's numbers fell hard after his last major concussion, which came in a 2024 Week 2 game on Thursday night against the Buffalo Bills . His play continued to deteriorate to a point in which the Dolphins benched him last season, then cut him with a $99.2 million dead-cap hit this offseason. It's the biggest dead-cap hit in NFL history. Tagovailoa's career was not in a good place. He's just 28 years old.

The Falcons gave him a shot on a one-year deal, partially because Michael Penix Jr. was recovering from ACL surgery and the team was unsure he'd be ready for the season opener. Penix couldn't make it back in time for Week 1 so Tagovailoa got the nod to start against the Steelers , even though he hadn't looked great in training camp or the preseason (he was booed during a preseason start at Miami , which he didn't deserve). But he had a shot to start, and that was a way to put something positive on tape. He needed a chance like that if there was to be any path back for him to be a starter in the league. He probably wouldn't have had many starts for the Falcons either, with Penix likely to return soon. He had to take advantage.

Then, during a routine warmup, he suffered an injury that will keep him out at least this week. It seems likely that by the time he's ready to return, Penix will be the starter. There has even been talk of the Falcons possibly releasing Tagovailoa, who has a scant $1.2 million deal.

It's an unbelievably sad break for a player whose entire career has been turned sideways at multiple points due to injuries that were not his fault. He has just been cursed.

The NFL is a violent world and there are many stories of careers that were cut short due to injury. But Tagovailoa's career arc seems particularly cruel. He'll spend this week on the sideline due to another fluke injury, hoping for another shot to start at some point, not knowing when or if it will happen.