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The Miami Dolphins are struggling, as is their quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, but it didn’t keep him from showing off some dance moves after finding the end zone versus the Baltimore Ravens on November 11.
Up by just five points late in the fourth quarter, Tagovailoa rushed in a touchdown to put the final nail in the Ravens coffin.
What ensued was a reaction for the ages: Tagovailoa celebrated with the popular “smeeze” dance (or an interpretation thereof, depending on who you ask). Tagovailoa’s reaction fired up his teammates as the Dolphins went on to win their second game in five days with the 22-10 upset over Baltimore.
When asked about the touchdown celebration during November 17 media availability, he gave credit where credit is due: to his former Alabama roommate, Pittsburgh Steelers star running back Najee Harris.
“My roommate in college my freshman year, Najee. Najee would do the dance a lot,” Tagovailoa said. “He’s from the Bay Area, and I think that’s a Bay Area thing, right? I thought that thing was cool when I seen it, so learned how to do it and started doing it.”
Tagovailoa then reenacted the dance, which brought laughter and cheers from the Miami media members.
The dance brought a different kind of reaction from Najee Harris, though.
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Like a judge on “Dancing with the Stars,” Harris dug into him pretty well during November 19 media availability.
“He saw how terrible it was? I taught him it, but I never taught him to be that bad,” Harris said with a smile. “He has no rhythm, no nothing. It was horrible. But hey, I tip my hat to him. He tried.”
Harris said that he’d have to re-teach it to him and was appreciative of the shout-out. “Aloha, Tua! Shout-out to you.”
Breaking Bell
Since taking over the Pittsburgh Steelers from Bill Cowher in 2007, Mike Tomlin has been a firm believer in a one running back approach to the ground game. While most teams in the NFL employ a more modern rotational running back system, Tomlin is old-school. And it could be to the detriment of Harris’ career. Le’Veon Bell was never quite the same player after Tomlin ran him into the ground in Pittsburgh.
Though he hasn’t played since midgame in Week 8, Derrick Henry still leads the league in touches (combined rush attempts and receptions) with 237. But Harris is gaining on Henry and on pace for another lead.
With 220 touches through nine games, per Pro Football Reference, Harris is on pace to break Bell’s club record of touches in a season (407 in 2017). Harris will have one more game to do it, though, since the league implemented a 17-game schedule with the 2021 NFL season.
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