EAGAN, Minn. — Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores took a conciliatory tone Tuesday towards Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, a day after the publication of an interview during which Tagovailoa known as Flores a “horrible particular person.”
“I am genuinely, genuinely completely satisfied for the success that Tua has had,” Flores mentioned, “and I actually want him nothing however the very best.”
Flores was the Dolphins’ head coach for Tagovailoa’s first two seasons in Miami in 2020 and 2021. He was fired in January 2022 amid hypothesis that his relationship with Tagovailoa was strained.
In an interview that befell final week with “The Dan Le Batard Present,” an excerpt of which was aired Monday, Tagovailoa in contrast Flores’ teaching fashion with that of present coach Mike McDaniel.
“If you happen to awakened each morning and I advised you [that] you suck at what you probably did, that you do not belong doing what you do, that you simply should not be right here, that this man ought to be right here, that you have not earned this proper, after which you’ve got any individual else are available in and inform you, ‘Dude, you’re the greatest match for this,'” Tagovailoa mentioned, “how wouldn’t it make you are feeling listening to at least one or the opposite?”
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Flores responded Tuesday by talking about Tagovailoa for a lot of a beforehand scheduled information convention that lasted practically 17 minutes. Vikings security Josh Metellus and defensive lineman Harrison Phillips flanked Flores as he started talking, a present of help that Flores mentioned “meant so much.”
His voice shaking at occasions, Flores appeared to acknowledge that his teaching fashion won’t have hit properly with some gamers in Miami and indicated he has labored to enhance over the following three seasons.
“I believe a part of teaching is correcting,” Flores mentioned. “I am all the time going to appropriate. I am all the time going to have a excessive commonplace. And I believe, look, I’ve completed quite a lot of reflecting on the scenario, reflecting on the scenario and communication. I believe there’s issues that I might do higher for positive, and I’ve grown in that approach, and I’ve tried to use the issues that I might do higher and the issues that I’ve discovered during the last two, three years.
“However I might say over the lengthy haul, I’ve had quite a lot of nice relationships over my 21-year profession right here within the league. Gamers, coaches, personnel, tools, individuals within the kitchen. I imply actually throughout the board, I’ve had quite a lot of nice relationships. I will proceed to do this, however I am additionally all the time trying to get higher and concerned.”
In his interview, Tagovailoa mentioned having a “horrible particular person telling you issues that you do not need to hear or in all probability should not be listening to” will ultimately result in an individual beginning to imagine these issues.
“Look, I am human,” Flores mentioned in response. “In order that hit me in a approach that wasn’t … optimistic for me. However on the identical time, I’ve bought to make use of that and say, ‘Hey, how can I develop from that? How can I be higher?’ And that is actually the place I am at from that standpoint. Do I really feel like that is me? No. However how can I develop from that scenario and create a world the place that is not the case that anybody says that about Brian Flores?”
It is unclear when Flores and Tagovailoa final spoke. Flores mentioned he has considered reaching out to Tagovailoa to assist each of them transfer on from their time collectively in Miami. The Vikings and Dolphins do not meet within the common season.
“Possibly if that point arises or is accessible, I am actually open to that,” he mentioned. “However I bought quite a lot of different issues happening too, as he does. And once more, I am simply actually targeted on the fellows right here and the work that we’re placing in right here.”
Finally, Flores mentioned, he bought into teaching to make the identical influence on younger individuals because the coaches he performed for had on him as a youth in Pop Warner via his time at Boston Faculty.
“I need to make that very same type of influence, optimistic influence, pour into younger individuals,” he mentioned, “serving to them grow to be as [Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell says] on a regular basis, the very best variations of themselves. And that is actually my objective, all the time at teaching. So I want nothing however the very best to Tua and actually greater than something, I am simply targeted on the 2024 Vikings and the gamers we have now.”
Talking after observe Tuesday, Phillips admitted that he was initially “just a little extra reluctant or on edge” when Flores changed Ed Donatell because the Vikings’ defensive coordinator after the 2022 season. Donatell’s strategy had been “relationship-driven,” Phillips mentioned. When Flores arrived, Phillips mentioned, “I did not [know] if that was going to be replicated or if he’d have those self same passions exterior of soccer.”
Because it turned out, Flores quickly invited all the protection to his new Minnesota residence to fulfill his household, socialize and eat.
“An announcement that we all the time joke round with is, ‘You’ll be able to’t have distinctive outcomes with out distinctive relationships,'” Phillips mentioned. “And he is completed a extremely nice job of growing these distinctive relationships the place you’ve got a Stanford child from Nebraska sitting on the bus subsequent to an inner-city child from Louisiana. We’re buddies due to the protection that coach Flores has and the distinctive relationships that he has created between us.”
Phillips mentioned it was Metellus’ concept to flank Flores at first of his information convention.
“We simply love him, man,” Metellus mentioned. “He is been nice to us. I do know everyone else has their very own opinion, however so long as he is been a Viking, he is been good to the crew.”
