Chris Long Lauds Tua Tagovailoa for Owning Up After Getting Caught Red-Handed About His Reading Habits

After a string of disappointing seasons, Tua Tagovailoa enters what feels like a do-or-die year. To be at his best, he sure needs to be focused on self-improvement. And, you can count the quarterback’s reading habit as a big part of that process.

Whether it’s to chew on a good story or to find an inspirational quote, Tua says that books have helped him keep his mind right. Through reading and also podcasts, the Miami Dolphins quarterback says he’s taking full advantage of his downtime this offseason.

Tua decided to flex this self-improvement journey in his latest interview at training camp. “I watch a good amount of podcasts, [and] listen to like a good amount of audiobooks as well. I’m reading a book right now,” he said on The Hochman, Crowder & Solana Show. 

Reading or tuning into podcasts has become a bedtime habit for Tua. “So, that’s kind of like my process before I got to bed, kind of helps with the dreaming aspect of it,” he added.

It all sounds like a solid process. But the QB was exposed soon enough. In an immediate follow-up question asking what he was reading, Tua had no answer.

“I don’t know what I’m reading … funny,” Tua said. Well, if you’re going to lie to the media about reading, we recommend that you at least know a random book title to back yourself up.

Clearly, Tua was trying to impress everyone by looking more intellectually inclined. Still, hey, at least he didn’t lie once confronted about it. That’s what former player Chris Long lauded Tua for the most in reaction to the clip.

“I actually have a lot of respect for Tua not trying to lie in that situation. Sometimes you have to take a sack, and to me, that was very mature of him,” Long said on the Green Light Podcast.

At the same time, though, Long suggested that Tua always have a fallback book to get out of those situations. “I wouldn’t have gotten myself into that situation. You’ve got to have a book in your back pocket,” he professed.

It’s a great strategy that many fake readers employ. Long recommended saying a simple book like the Lord of the Flies.

That said, Long’s co-host, Nate Collins, suggested that maybe Tua is making a major transition in life, and the book that he’s reading would give that away. So, perhaps he wasn’t comfortable sharing the book title.

The funniest part about Long’s advice for Tua, though, was that when he was asked what his fallback book was, it took him a while to remember as well. “Uh, there’s a book right now that I’ve been reading. It’s been in my car for f**king 6 weeks,” he said.

It’s the classic answer that we all give when we act like we’re reading something. Before he knew it, Long backed himself into the exact situation Tua was in. But he was able to wiggle out of his jam by remembering the name of his book, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

All in all, this is a good lesson to all you fake readers out there. Remember always to have the title of a book in your back pocket if you don’t want to look as foolish as Tua.

But also don’t continue to lie if you get caught red-handed, not knowing what the book is about. It’s always more respectable to be upfront, like the quarterback was.