Tua Tagovailoa knew his season was over upon suffering a dislocated hip. What he wasn't sure of was where things stood with his football career.
"I think my body went into shock," he said. "I couldn't really comprehend things at that given point."
The scene from mid-November now seems like a long time ago for Tagovailoa, who's in Miami for the Super Bowl and preparing for the 2020 NFL Draft. The former Alabama QB has some important dates approaching, beginning with a pair of medical tests in February.
"I feel really good," he said during a Thursday appearance on Super Bowl Live. "We're on pace to make a full recovery. We really can't tell until the CT scan and the MRI at the three-month mark. At this point I feel really good."
Tagovailoa said he'll attend the combine in late February. He just isn't likely to be taking the field in Indianapolis.
"My main goal is not to win the 40, not to win the bench press, but to win my medical," he said. "I'm going to go over there looking to win my medical and then go in and interview with the teams. That's pretty much what I'm going to do. And then hopefully there's a pro day down the line, either late March or early April."
An on-field demonstration could soothe the skepticism teams might have about Tagovailoa's health. The 6-foot-1, 218-pound prospect also dealt with knee and ankle injuries in his two years as Alabama's starter. Still, the 2018 Heisman runner-up is universally viewed as a Day 1 pick, with a host of clubs in the top 10 expected to be in the market for a quarterback.
That made declaring for the draft less complicated. Tagovailoa said Alabama coach Nick Saban advised him to make a business decision, not an emotional one. After three years in Tuscaloosa, and an abrupt ending to his college career, Tagovailoa admitted he was seriously considering returning for his senior season.
"It was hard," he said. "I was about this close. I was really close. Sitting down with my parents, my mom and dad, getting guidance, seeing where their heart was with all of this, that's kind of what I went off as far as making my decision to leave and enter the draft."
