MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tua Tagovailoa has been free of Brian Flores for more than two and a half years, but the scars of their time together with the Miami Dolphins are apparently still fresh.
Dan Le Batard, on his show Monday, played a clip of a recent interview with Tagovailoa in which the local sports personality asked the Dolphins’ QB1 to discuss the difference between playing under Mike McDaniel and Flores.
Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa Still Doesn’t Like Brian Flores
Tagovailoa, who has made clear in recent years how little he enjoyed playing under Flores, didn’t hold back.
“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, right?’
“And then you have somebody else 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, 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
One of those players Tagovailoa references?
Presumably, right tackle Austin Jackson, who acknowledged late last season that he was a frequent target of Flores’ acid tongue — often in front of the entire team.
MORE: Simulate the NFL Season With PFN’s Playoff Predictor
“You know, I [was] the fifth tackle taken in the first round, first-round draft pick,” Jackson said in December. “I had high expectations. So I had high expectations. Every time I didn’t perform, it was noted and highlighted. It was very much so highlighted, to say the least.
“But that just made me a better football player at the end of the day. Very tough. I understand this is football, and there’s certain things that are, you know, done in football.”
The Dolphins fired Flores in early 2022 and replaced him with McDaniel, who exudes positivity. He has transformed Tagovailoa into a Pro Bowl quarterback, and advocated for Tua getting the big-money contract extension he signed earlier this summer.
Flores, who sued the team in federal court after his termination on racial discrimination grounds, has been the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator for the last two years.