Brian Flores is a great young coach who did a good job holding the Miami Dolphins together after a disastrous three-year tenure under former head coach Adam Gase.
In 2019, Flores, fresh off a Super Bowl LIII win with New England, became the first Black head coach in Dolphins history, inheriting a 7-9 team that was reeling and lacked leadership, discipline and star power.
His historic tenure began poorly, as the team started 0-7. But they finished 5-11, which included a huge 27-20 victory in New England over his former boss on a late TD with only 24 seconds remaining. That win gave Dolphins fans hope for the following season.
Flores responded with a 10-6 season in year two and a 9-8 record in his third and final season in South Beach.
While the team rebounded from three straight losing seasons in 2020, drama also emerged that year after the team selected Tua Tagovailoa fifth overall in the NFL Draft.
Flores had reportedly wanted Justin Herbert, who went sixth to the Chargers, so the tension started at that moment.
Tua ended up getting hurt in his rookie season and missed six games. In 2021, his last under Flores, and in 2022, Tua missed games as well. In 2023, Tua thrived and played his first full season without injury. Working with head coach Mike McDaniel, and receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, Tua threw for 4,624 yards, 29 TDs and 14 INTs and earned his first Pro Bowl nod.
In contrast, Flores was fired after the 2021 season, sued the team and league for racial discrimination, was hired by the Steelers in a role he was way overqualified for and then finally ended up in Minnesota as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator.
So both moved on and the past was the past.
At least we thought it was.
Earlier this week, Tua appeared on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and vented years of frustration with his former head coach.
“To put it in simplest terms,” said Tagovailoa. “if you woke up every morning, and I told you that 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. You are accurate, you are the best whatever, you are this, you are that.’ How would that make you feel, listening to one or the other? You see what I’m saying?”
It’s obvious they didn’t get along, but Tua didn’t stop there.
“And then you hear it and 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,” said Tagovailoa. “(If) you have a terrible person that’s telling (you) things that you don’t want to hear or probably shouldn’t be hearing, you’re gonna start to believe that about yourself. That’s sort of what ended up happening. It’s basically been two years of training that out of, not just me, but a couple of the guys as well that have been here since my rookie year all the way ’til now.”
Now the disdain the Dolphins’ Pro Bowl QB has for his former coach, which isn’t a surprise, is out in the open for basically no reason.
So instead of focusing on getting the Vikings’s defense ready for the season opener in two weeks, Flores had to address Tua’s feelings.
