Taulia Tagovailoa (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Tua Tagovailoa’s younger brother, Taulia Tagovailoa, has landed a contract with a professional football team from another league.
On Monday, the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats announced on X/Twitter that they have signed Taulia Tagovailoa. The 24-year-old was on the Alabama Crimson Tide roster in 2019 before transferring to the Maryland Terrapins, where he played from 2020 to 2023.
Tua Tagovailoa was drafted fifth overall by the Miami Dolphins in 2020, and he has emerged as one of the league’s best passers. The younger Tagovailoa tried out for the Seattle Seahawks after going undrafted, but the NFC West club decided not to add him to their roster.
The Tiger-Cats dropped their season opener against the Calgary Stampeders on Friday, though quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell put together a superb performance with 300 passing yards, one touchdown and 36 rushing yards in the loss.
Over his four seasons at Maryland, Taulia Tagovailoa racked up 11,356 passing yards, 77 touchdowns, 37 interceptions and 206 rushing yards. Taulia sits first all-time in passing yards among Big Ten quarterbacks.
In his final season at Maryland, Tagovailoa completed 66.4 percent of his pass attempts for 3,377 yards, 25 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and five five rushing scores.
Taulia Tagovailoa Makes Right Choice To Start His Pro Career
Tagovailoa didn’t land a contract with an NFL team, but he made the right choice here in signing with the Tiger-Cats.
Doug Flutie and Warren Moon are the golden examples of quarterbacks who carved out successful NFL careers after coming over from the CFL. This isn’t to say that Taulia Tagovailoa will automatically emerge as a star in the NFL, but there is no issue in honing your craft and building up your value in a different professional league.
Former BC Lions CFL star Nathan Rourke had a tremendous 2022 season that led to him signing an NFL contract, too. Though he hasn’t played a snap there yet, Rourke is at least getting a nice paycheck by staying on active roster.
