Miami Dolphins assign 1 to Tua Tagovailoa but I don’t know why
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins announced the jersey numbers for their rookies last night and for the life of me I can’t figure out why Tua Tagovailoa got 1.
Yes, that is right, Tua Tagovailoa will wear the number one on his jersey as he begins his NFL career in 2020. After all the speculation, social media gifs, and memes, he apparently has selected one.
Generally reserved for kickers, number one doesn’t have a big history for the Miami Dolphins. It has been worn by four players. First, Garo Yepremium wore number one, and then it sat silently in the equipment room until 1988 when Tony Franklin wore it for one season. Back into the cage for another 12 years.
In 2000, punter Matt Turk wore the number until 2004, and then, again, it sat unused until 2017 when Cody Parkey wore it for one season.
Now, it will be Tua Tagovailoa’s to wear, and honestly, I think there were far better options. One doesn’t impress me. Sorry. Is it for him being a first-round pick? The first QB of this new regime? Is this nothing more than an ego attempt to say “I’m number 1!”? Probably not that last one.
Why not three or five though? Five isn’t a bad number and was his draft spot.
Maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all. Tagovailoa told reporters after being drafted that he didn’t care about a jersey number. So maybe it was just the first number that was available. There were rumors that Tagovailoa was considering the number one for his jersey pre-draft.
Through NFL history, 8 players have worn the number one and were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Of these eight, Jim Thorpe and Warren Moon stand out. Curly Lambeau, Fritz Pollard, is also post-1966 players.
In the modern era of the NFL, Jeff George wore number one as did Cam Newton. Kyler Murray took the number last year when he was drafted by the Cardinals.