How fatherhood has matured Tua Tagovailoa, evolved how he views QB competition

Tua Tagovailoa’s face lit up. For several seconds, his wide smile never vanished. His eyes sparkled.

This, moments after completing what he dubbed his part-time job as a football player, came not while discussing plays, or teammates, or coaches. He was thinking about — and gloating about — his 3-year-old son, Ace, and 2-year-old daughter, Maisey.

The 28-year-old Tagovailoa is no longer the football-first, bright-eyed phenom shouldering the weight of expectations that often follow 5-star recruits and first-round draft picks. He’s four years into marriage with his wife, Annah, and embracing life as a family man.

Because parenthood, Tagovailoa said, is his first job.

“I think kids are the best at this age,” Tagovailoa said. “I think it’s the best, man. I’m just glad I still get to live my dream out and be able to play. I’m so blessed. But it’s the best, man.

“You throw five picks, you come home, they’re smiling, they love you. You throw five touchdowns, they’re smiling, and they love you.”

Tagovailoa, who’s competing with Michael Penix Jr. for the Falcons’ starting quarterback job this summer, carries a new perspective.

After starting 76 games across six years with the Miami Dolphins — a tenure that included a tied-for-ninth-place MVP finish in 2022, an NFL-best 4,624 passing yards in 2023 and a league-high 72.9% completion rate in 2024, but ended with a turnover-filled season in 2025 — Tagovailoa was released in the spring and signed with the Falcons.

Tagovailoa wanted to compete for a starting job. The Falcons offered that. And Tagovailoa, a native of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and ever the caring father, wanted his kids to experience a different environment. South Florida, he said, is similar to Hawaii, where it’s warm year round. Atlanta offers a chance to get some cold, if only just a little, and “feel Christmas,” Tagovailoa said.

The Falcons provide a fresh start on the field, and a fresh start for his family. And for this iteration of Tagovailoa, that’s the best of both worlds.

“I think a fresh start sometimes is not just beneficial for me, but for anyone,” Tagovailoa said. “Your outlook on life is dependent on your thoughts, dependent on things that you think of, which go to your heart, which then you end up speaking about. I just think a fresh start is not bad in terms of wanting a change of scenery.”

There are, however, cons to a new team and new system. Football is universal, Tagovailoa said, but terminology differs between coaches. So, one concept with the Falcons might have been labeled something different with the Dolphins.

To hasten his learning process, Tagovailoa, who admittedly “wasn’t good at school growing up,” uses flash cards. He’s also leaned on Annah for help during walk-throughs. She reads out plays, and Tua runs through the rep in his house.

That might be the biggest difference in this quarterback battle than those of Tagovailoa’s past. He competed with Jalen Hurts in 2018 at Alabama and with Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2020 in Miami. This time, Tagovailoa’s life is more than football.

He has lessons from those battles tucked away. But only so much of it translates to the present, when he’s simply not the same person he once was.

“I’m married now. I have kids. Just in a different stage of my life,” Tagovailoa said. “So, I guess at this point, you kind of are who you are at this point, with how I see it.”

Tagovailoa is walking the tight rope between family life and building chemistry with his teammates. He wants to find time to get together this offseason and home in on specifics with receiver Drake London, tight end Kyle Pitts and the rest of his targets.

London said he hasn’t spent too much time sitting down and picking Tagovailoa’s brain about his philosophies, in part because of that tight rope, but their chemistry is building, nonetheless.

“I know he has a family and stuff. So, once he’s out of here, he goes home to his family and things like that and spends time with them,” London said. “But when we’re out here on the field or we’re in the facility and stuff, we definitely sit down and talk about what’s going on, what we see and everything like that.”

Tagovailoa’s personality and character have generated rave reviews from teammates. London joked he throws up the shaka, a traditional Hawaiian gesture where he raises his thumb and pinkie finger.

“He’s a great dude,” London said. “Always got a smile on his face. Very, very chill. He’s a great dude, and him and (Penix) are getting along very, very well. Both of them are just competing and working really hard together, and I love it.”

Pitts, who’s had a different starting quarterback for Week 1 in each of his first five years as a professional, said Tagovailoa is funnier than he expected.

“I got to give it to him — he likes to crack jokes a lot,” Pitts said. “But when it’s time to work, he works. He’s very smart. Hearing it from his perspective, it’s pretty cool. So, just eager to play beside him and whoever gets the job.”

Tagovailoa has quickly grown to respect Penix, who shares a similar affinity for his fellow left-handed signal-caller.

At one point in his life, perhaps Tagovailoa wouldn’t have been as supportive, as helpful, to his competitor. But he learned that skill as he grew up, and he’s lived plenty since his last competition — enough to feel it would be wrong to not help.

Because now, as Tagovailoa sees it, he’s still living his dream as an NFL quarterback. And that’s just his side gig. His full-time responsibility and newfound identity aren’t as Tua, the southpaw passer, but as Tua, the father and husband.

He hopes to add Super Bowl champion to his résumé, and at least publicly, he’s fine if he’s not the one leading the charge. It’s a message, and a selflessness, perhaps only found through his diverted journey into a full-fledged family man.