There are a lot of people around TCO Performance Center who rave about defensive coordinator, Brian Flores, who was brought in to fix the Minnesota Vikings defense, prior to last season.
Before he took the job, he was coming off of a rollercoaster head coaching stint with the Miami Dolphins. It did not end well. When Flores walked away from South Beach, he had filed a lawsuit against the Dolphins, the NFL and multiple other teams.
But it wasn’t just ownership that Flores had problems with. There is a well-documented past between him and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. He played his first two NFL seasons under Brian Flores, as head coach of the Miami Dolphins. He’s still their QB1 now, under Mike McDaniel.
Tua sat down with Dan LeBatard recently, and ripped open a scab that clearly has not healed between him and his former head coach. In the interview, he calls Flores a terrible person and blames him for wrecking his confidence ( transcript below ).
Dan : “What’s the difference, in practical terms, between having a coach who didn’t believe in you the way that [Mike McDaniels] did, and what was happening with Flores?”
Tua : “To put it in simplest terms, if 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? 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? 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 could be the President of the United States.
You have a terrible person that’s telling you things that 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 what ended up happening. It’s basically been, what, two years of training that out of, not just me, but a couple of the [other] guys, as well, that have been here since my rookie year.”
Tua Tagovailoa – Dan LeBatard Show
How should Minnesota Vikings fans feel about this?
I mean, there’s no way to take this other than as a scathing report on Brian Flores’ head coaching ability. No matter whose fault it was, he failed to connect with and develop the most important young player on his football team, at the time.
Not only that, but it flies in the face of what type of culture the Minnesota Vikings have been preaching since Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell took over the reigns.
Related: Vikings’ General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on the Hot Seat?
Of course, Flores’ time in Miami was years ago, at this point. It’s very possible he learned a lot about his experience with the Dolphins, both positively and negatively. Some people just don’t vibe with one another. While Brian Flores’ time in South Beach didn’t go as planned, his tenure as Vikings DC has been the opposite.
KOC raves about “Flo” every chance he gets. Most players, on defense, love him as a person, and respect his abilities and knowledge as a coach. We’ll see if that’s how it stays, the longer he remains in place.
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