Ex-Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores on Tuesday responded to his former QB Tua Tagovailoa calling him “a terrible person” with as much grace as one could reasonably expect.
Flores, now the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, met with Minneapolis-based reporters for a previously scheduled media availability.
And for as much as he wanted to talk about what he’s trying to help build in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, all the reporters there wanted to discuss was the bus Tua threw him under on The Dan Le Batard Show.
Brian Flores Responds to Tua Tagovailoa
Tagovailoa, as a reminder, all but called Flores emotionally abusive during their two years together.
“Well, to put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you, ‘You suck at what you did, that you don’t belong doing what you do, that you shouldn’t be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven’t earned this,'” Tagovailoa said.
“And then you have somebody else (Mike McDaniel) come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this. Like you are accurate, you are the best whatever, you are this, you are that,’ like how would it make you feel listening to one or the other? You see what I’m saying?
“And then you hear it, you hear it regardless of what it is, the good or the bad, and you hear it more and more. You start to actually believe that I don’t care who you are. You, you can be the president of the United States. You have a terrible person that’s telling you things that you, you don’t want to hear or that you probably shouldn’t be hearing, you’re gonna start to believe that about yourself.
“And so that’s sort of like what, what ended up happening, and it was, I mean, it’s basically been what, two years of training that out of, not just me but, you know, a couple of the guys as well that have been here since my rookie year all the way till now.”
“If you woke up every morning and I told you that you suck at what you did, that you don’t belong, that you shouldn’t be here, that you haven’t earned this…
and then someone come and tells you, ‘You are the best fit for this…How you that make you feel?”
– @Tua describes the… pic.twitter.com/bBHI6IsVlj
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) August 19, 2024
Flores certainly disagrees with Tagovailoa’s characterization of his behavior. But on Tuesday, he tried to take the high road.
“Look, I’m happy, genuinely happy, genuinely happy for the success that Tua has had, and I really wish him nothing but the best,” Flores said.
“I think player relationships are very important to me. I think that’s kind of the foundation of coaching. I got into coaching because I was impacted as a young guy by my high school coaches, college coaches, going all the way back to Pop Warner.
“I got into coaching because I want to make that same kind of impact, positive impact, pour it into young people, as KO (Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell) says all the time, the best versions of themselves. That’s really my goal always in coaching. I wish nothing but the best for Tua.”
Pressed more on the specifics of their relationship, Flores said:
“Part of coaching is correcting. I’m always gonna correct. I’m always going to have a high standard. Look, I’ve done a lot of reflecting on this situation. Reflecting on the situation, communication. I think there’s things that I could do better, for sure. And I’ve grown in that way. I’ve tried to apply the things that I could do better, the things that I’ve learned over the last two, three years.”
As for Flores’ reaction to Tagovailoa calling him “a terrible person,” Flores replied:
“Look, I’m human. So, you know, that hit me in a way that I wouldn’t say was, you know, positive for me. But at the same time, I, you know, I’ve got to use that and say, ‘Hey, how can I grow from that? How can I be better?’ And that’s really where I’m at from, from that standpoint.
“Do I feel like, you know, that’s me? No, but, you know, how can I grow from that situation and create a world where that’s not the case that anyone says that about Brian Flores?”
PFN’s Take
There are plenty of people who are great coordinators, simply not cut out to be head coaches.
Flores simply wasn’t equipped to handle the interpersonal aspect of the top job, and the Dolphins fired him in no small part because of it.
That’s strange because he seemed to have plenty of players who liked him a lot when he was the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots prior to his time in Miami.
(He looks to have allies in Minnesota, too. Vikings defenders Joshua Metellus and Harrison Phillips stood in solidarity with Flores before his news conference started.)
When he arrived in Miami, Flores went through a personality transformation. That’s not us saying that. People who worked with him in both cities noticed the change, including former Patriots and Dolphins linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who alluded to Flores’ evolution in interviews after Miami cut him.
Perhaps Flores thought he had to model his behavior after that of his mentor Bill Belichick, an old-school coach who doesn’t believe in coddling modern athletes.
But Flores never had the credibility in Miami that Belichick needed in New England to get away with it. And Flores didn’t have the deft touch needed to pull off being a disciplinarian without losing the support of his most important players.
Tagovailoa’s comments this week shone a light on that failure. The rest of the league has taken note.
If Flores ever has realistic hopes of being a head coach again, he’ll have to convince owners that he’s truly learned from his rocky time in Miami and changed.
It will take more than one news conference to accomplish that.