On Friday evening, Tua Tagovailoa will receive his second consecutive Polynesian Football College Football Player of the Year Award in Waikiki, Hawaii.
The Polynesian Bowl Honorary Team Captains @ajepenesa24 & @Tuaamann here at Day 2 practice at Aloha Stadium #PolyBowl2k20 🤙🏽🌴 pic.twitter.com/PbyxmUiuKH
— Polynesian Bowl (@polynesiabowl) January 15, 2020
While he’s been in Hawaii this week, Tua sat down with KHON 2 sports, a local TV Station in Hawaii, to discuss his future in the NFL, how the decision came about, and to reflect on his time at Alabama.
Tagovailao shared how declaring for the NFL Draft wasn’t an easy decision, but a dream come true:
“It’s always been a dream to be able to go to the NFL and make a lot of money, just because I’m able to change my family’s life. So, I think that should say something really big about everyone from the west side, the south side, the east side. I mean, anything is possible for these kids,” said Tagovailoa. “If someone like me can come from Ewa Beach where we don’t really know too much people that make it big out of there, that should give everyone over here in Hawaii hope that if I want to sing, I can do it. If I want to go and fight, it doesn’t always have to be someone from the west side, from Waianae or something. I mean, anyone, anywhere here on this island or on the other islands, if they have a dream, they got to work hard at it for sure but any of those things are possible to accomplish.”
Tua not only broke numerous school records at Alabama, he had one of the highest QBRs this season, even though his season was cut short by an injury. But Tua made it clear, he’s not completely satisfied.
“Man, I didn’t accomplish everything that o wanted to accomplish in college. There’s a lot of goals that I didn’t accomplish. I don’t think I accomplished one goal this past season. Probably due to the injury, but I think there’s always more. You can always do more. There’s not one thing in life that you can say okay this is it. There’s always more that you can do. You get someone to come in to look at a paper. They’ll tell you what they feel like you should do. There more that you can do. You feel like you’re content with your workouts, hey there’s more that you can do…..Leaving all of this behind, you know it’s hard because deep down I know that I didn’t accomplish what I wanted to in college, but that’s just the game. You make business decisions in life and sometimes it’s a lot harder than it is on the flip side. It’s a decision that I made and I’m happy with it, got to live with it, and I’m going to make the best out of it.”
