Florida

Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa Seemingly Cracks Top-Five in Florida Senate Race

The Miami Dolphins quarterback caught some attention Tuesday night when he emerged as a potential Senate candidate in the midterm election

Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa seemingly cracks top-five in Florida Senate race originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Florida voters seem to think Tua Tagovailoa has a future in politics. 

While the Miami Dolphins quarterback is slowly creeping his way up the NFL MVP ballot, he seemingly cracked the top-five of another ballot on Tuesday night – the Florida Senate election.

As the votes from the midterm election started to roll in, this image circulated around Twitter showing the 24-year-old – referred to simply by his first name – having garnered over 17,000 votes. Don’t mind the fact that Tagovailoa is still six years under the age threshold to serve in the Senate. 

So, did over 17,000 voters write in Tua’s name? Not quite. Rather, some prankster saw the photoshop opportunity with the name of a real candidate – Tuan Nguyen – and ran with it. 

While Tagovailoa likely won’t be appearing on any political ballots anytime soon, his MVP candidacy is no fluke. He’s currently fifth with +1500 odds, behind fellow quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, according to our betting partner, Pointsbet

The third-year quarterback has emerged as one of the hottest names around the league. 

Miami opened their season in surprising fashion, winning their first three games and handing the Super Bowl favorite Buffalo Bills their first loss of the season. However, just as quickly as the Dolphins and new head coach Mike McDaniel endeared themselves as the up-and-coming team, they found themselves the face of one of the most contentious issues in football – concussions. 

In that Week 3 matchup against the Bills, Tagovailoa went down hard and seemed to struggle to maintain his balance in the immediate aftermath. He was evaluated for what the Dolphins claimed was a back injury before returning to the field and leading Miami to victory in the second half. 

The NFLPA quickly announced an investigation about his evaluation with concerns that team officials violated concussion protocol by allowing Tagovailoa to return to action. 

No less than four days after the initial hit and with the investigation still open, Tagovailoa started against the Bengals and sustained another scary hit that left him visibly hurt and required him to be stretchered off.

In the days and weeks after those successive hits, the Dolphins found themselves struggling on the field and tied up in controversy off the field. Tagovailoa’s absence was evident as Miami fell to 3-3. 

Since making his return in Week 7 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tagovailoa has been blistering opposing defenses, scoring seven touchdowns, recording the highest QBR in the league and leading the Dolphins to another trio of wins. 

While the Florida Senate election has come to a close, the MVP race is just heating up. Tagovailoa will have another chance to improve his odds this Sunday when the Dolphins host the Cleveland Browns. 

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