Tua Tagovailoa has hired armed guards ever since his car was broken into last year – with the Miami Dolphins quarterback speaking out after several fellow NFL players were targeted in robberies.
Joe Burrow was robbed this week while he was playing for the Cincinnati Bengals against Dallas Cowboys, weeks after Kansas City Chiefs stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes had their homes broken into.
Speaking about his reaction to his car being targeted, Tagovailoa said on Wednesday: ‘It was a little too close for my comfort with my family being in the house.
‘So we got personal security to take care of all of that. When we’re on the road, we’ve got someone with my wife, got someone also at the house, surveying the house.
‘Just let that be know. They are armed so I hope that if you decide to go to my house, you think twice.’
Tagovailoa married his partner Annah in 2022 – while they keep their life private, they have two children together. In July 2024, the quarterback signed a new four-year, $212.4million deal with the Dolphins.
Thieves ransacked Burrow’s $7.5million Cincinnati home while he played in Dallas on Monday night, around 1,000 miles away.
The mystery deepened on Tuesday afternoon when it was revealed that the call was made by Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Olivia Ponton, and not his long-time partner Olivia Holzmacher.
‘Someone is trying to break into the house right now. My daughter is there,’ the initial caller told police. ‘This is Joe Burrow’s house. She is staying there.
‘He’s at the football game. She’s wondering what she should do, if she should be hiding, or if she should go outside. She said someone was in the house.
Then, the daughter called 911 herself, saying, ‘Someone broke into my house. It’s like completely messed up.’
Earlier this year, the NFL issued a security alert to teams and the NFL player’s union after recent burglaries of the homes of Chiefs stars Mahomes and Kelce.
The memo, obtained by the Associated Press, said that the homes of athletes across many sports have become ‘increasingly targeted for burglaries by organized and skilled groups.’
Mahomes is said to have lost jerseys, medals, trophies and awards from the raid on his home while Kelce reportedly had $100,000 in jewelry and his first ever Super Bowl jersey taken.
A watch taken from the tight end’s mansion was later discovered in Providence, Rhode Island.