The Miami Dolphins and Washington Commanders traveled to Madrid to close out the NFL’s 2025 International Series with the league’s first-ever game in Spain. While the Dolphins were able to claw out a 16-13 overtime victory over the undermanned Commanders, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa made an interesting comment about a new place he’d like to play after the contest.
After giving his opinion on the future of the NFL’s International Series, many were quick to call out his suggestion, including former Dolphins WR Kenny Stills.
Former Dolphins WR Kenny Stills Rips Tua Tagovailoa After Viral Postgame Comment
While the offense was able to gain some yards, the Dolphins’ effort was not the greatest as they scored just one touchdown to three field goals, including a couple of goal-line stops — typical for the course for the 18th-ranked unit in PFSN’s Offense Impact metric. No matter what happened during the game, Miami emerged victorious, improving to 4-7.
Given they were wrapping up the International Series, a reporter asked Tagovailoa where else he would like to play after back-to-back seasons with international games in places like Madrid and Frankfurt, Germany.
“Shoot, it’d be pretty cool to go play in Jerusalem,” the Dolphins QB responded. “I don’t know, that’d be sick.”
It’s far from the first polarizing comment the QB has made this season.
Many were not a fan of the surprising suggestion given the Israel–Palestine conflict and the current political climate in the United States. This led to Stills, a former Dolphins wide receiver, calling out Tagovailoa on X, reposting the clip of the QB and saying, “Lacks awareness in all areas of his life.”
Lacks awareness in all areas of his life https://t.co/sHOvuoVRlr
— Kenny Stills (@KSTiLLS) November 16, 2025
While a harsh criticism of the Dolphins quarterback, the suggestion really doesn’t make a lot of sense, as other countries seem to have a bigger NFL fan base than Israel. While countries like Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, and now Spain have gotten international games, there are quite a few other countries the NFL would likely consider before making its way to the “Holy Land.”
Countries such as Canada, South Korea, Australia, and Argentina have larger identified audiences to garner an international game. There are also issues with seating capacity if Jerusalem were to be considered as an international sight.
Further, Jerusalem isn’t in Europe, as Tua had mentioned in his response. Jerusalem is geographically located in Asia, specifically in the Middle East region, which is also known as Western Asia.
The smallest stadium in the NFL is Soldier Field in Chicago, which holds 61,500 fans. Even with a significant renovation being recently completed, the largest stadium in Jerusalem is Teddy Stadium, which seats approximately 31,700. This would be the smallest stadium to host an international NFL game by far, making the chances seem slim at best.