Interviewed Thursday on the NFL Network’s set at Super Bowl LIV in Miami, former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was asked how close he came to returning to school for his senior season.

He made his point by pinching two fingers together as near to each other as they could come without touching.

“I was about this close,” he said. "I was really close.

“But 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 enter the draft.”

Tagovailoa emphasized to Pro Football Talk: “I was very close," repeating that line twice more.

Tagovailoa said coach Nick Saban did not try to sway him one way or the other in making his decision earlier this month to enter the NFL draft. But Saban did offer one particular point of advice to Tagovailoa that helped make up his mind.

“The thing that stuck with me from Coach Saban was, when you make a decision, don’t make an emotional one," he told NFL Network. "If me and you have this [relationship], we’re always going to have it. Don’t feel like you need to pressure yourself into staying because of the relationship that we have, and if you go, we won’t have it. No, that’s not what it is.

"So he said make business decisions. What’s going to best for you and your family. Don’t make emotional decisions. So that’s what we did.”

Saban said last month that Tagovailoa was the only Alabama player given a top 15 draft grade by NFL evaluators with whom Saban communicated. Recent mock drafts project Tagovailoa will be chosen No. 5 by the Miami Dolphins.

“Coach Saban’s thing was, I’m not trying to persuade you to go. I’m not trying to persuade you to stay,” Tagovailoa told ESPN Radio on Thursday. “But here’s the information that I can give you. Coach Saban gave the information that we needed as a family. His thing was, we’re behind you guys 100 percent. Whatever the decision is, we’re behind you.”

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