Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovialoa brought more than football equipment when he visited the team at Miami Edison Senior High School on the practice field on Tuesday.

The former Alabama All-American also had a message for the teenagers.

MORE NFL:

· ALABAMA ROOTS: TOP 10 IN STARTS

· WHERE ARE ALABAMA’S FORMER PLAYERS AS NFL TRAINING CAMPS OPEN?

· WHERE ARE AUBURN’S FORMER PLAYERS AS NFL TRAINING CAMPS OPEN?

“I think the hardest thing is to be out here when everyone else isn’t, is to do a lot of dark grind work,” Tagovailoa told the team. “That’s what you guys are doing. Very proud of you guys. Continue to keep striving to be the best that you can be. Continue to do the things that aren’t popular. This isn’t popular, you guys being out here. You guys could be doing anything else. You guys could be sitting at home on the couch watching TV eating potato chips. You guys could be doing that. But you guys made a decision to come out here, and continuing to dream big, continuing to work on your dream.

“And I think the biggest thing is listening to the people that matter, man, really listening to the people that matter — your grandparents, your parents. If it ain’t your parents, it’s your uncles and your aunties. If it ain’t them, there’s got to be somebody you’re looking up to – your big brother, your big sister, somebody. One of you guys here got to be able to make it out to repay them. Everybody out here wants to do something big for their family. Am I right? Everybody out here. Everybody wants to do something like that whether it’s for their parents, their grandparents, whatever it is. That’s why you guys are out here.”

Tagovailoa partnered with Gatorade and Good Sports to present $65,000 in equipment to the program at the school beside the I-95 Express in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood about 11 miles from the Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium.

“I’ve been given the opportunity by Gatordade, with their Equity in Sports (program), they’re committed to reducing the barriers to play for all these kids that don’t have much,” Tagovailoa told the Miami Herald. “And so being able to give back to the community here is really special. And so for these kids, I know they’ve really appreciated it.”

Edison football coach Luther Campbell also appreciated Tagovailoa’s message to his players.

“It is a tough neighborhood,” Campbell told WPLG-TV in Miami. “We preach accountability, responsibility, and for him to reaffirm that, from a guy they look up to, that is a beautiful thing for us.”

RELATED: ALABAMA ROOTS: TOP 10 IN PASSING YARDS

The Dolphins are scheduled to hold their first training-camp practice on July 26. After Miami made the playoffs in Mike McDaniel’s first season as coach, Tagovailoa said the Dolphins could do more in 2023.

“I think we’re definitely legit contenders,” Tagovailoa told the Palm Beach Post. “There’s no doubt with the guys we have on the defensive side of the ball, with the guys we have on the offensive side of the ball. And now with this being the first time as an offense we get to come back understanding the plays already kind of molded into the offense a little more, I think it can get very, very scary, pretty dangerous.”

In his first season in McDaniel’s offense, Tagovailoa led the NFL in passer-efficiency rating, rate of touchdown passes and average gain per pass. In 2022, he completed 259-of-400 passes for 3,548 yards with 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions (and three of the interceptions came in one quarter after he sustained his second concussion of the season).

Tagovailoa missed five games and more than half of another because of concussions – one suffered on Sept. 29 in a 27-15 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals and the other on Dec. 25 in a 26-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Tagovailoa did not play again after the second concussion as he sat out the final two regular-season games and a playoff contest. Miami had an 8-3 record with a healthy Tagovailoa and a 1-6 mark in the games that he missed or sustained a concussion.

“God-willing, I can make it through the entire season,” Tagovailoa said, “and we can win a playoff game, we can win a Super Bowl, all of that good stuff.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.