National Football League

Tua Tagovailoa rips ex-Dolphins coach Brian Flores: 'Terrible person'

Published Aug. 19, 2024 11:35 a.m. ET

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Brian Flores never appeared to be a Tua Tagovailoa fan, and the quarterback has confirmed the feeling is mutual.

Flores was Tagovailoa's head coach for the first two years of the QB's NFL career with the Miami Dolphins, and the former Bill Belichick assistant embraced a tough-love coaching style. 

That's a markedly different style than the laid-back, encouraging tone that Mike McDaniel has taken publicly and reportedly privately since replacing Flores in 2022. Just ask Tagovailoa himself, which is what Miami radio host Dan Le Batard recently did with the Dolphins' franchise quarterback.

"To put it in simplest terms," Tagovailoa said, "if you woke up every morning and I told you that you sucked 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, 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…' how would it make you feel listening to one or the other?"

Tagovailoa said that it also mattered how constant the reinforcement was, either negatively from Flores or positively from McDaniel.

"Regardless of what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to actually believe that," Tagovailoa continued. "I don't care who you are. You could be the President of the United States. You have a terrible person telling you things … that you probably shouldn't be hearing, you start to believe that about yourself. And so 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 there since my rookie year."

Tagovailoa was the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft but played sporadically in his rookie season under Flores, as the coach often opted for veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick in key moments. In 2021, Tagovailoa played in only 13 games due to injury and put up pedestrian numbers, including 2,653 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. 

Despite again being limited to 13 games in 2022, Tagovailoa threw for nearly 1,000 more yards — 3,548 — in his first season under McDaniel, with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 25 to 8. He also led all qualified NFL quarterbacks with a 105.5 passer rating. 

In 2023, Tagovailoa's first full season, he led the NFL in passing yards with 4,624 and had 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, receiving his first Pro Bowl nod. The Dolphins have reached the playoffs in each of McDaniel's first two seasons as head coach.

After Flores was fired by Miami following the 2021 season despite a 9-8 record, he sued the NFL on racial discrimination grounds, citing his treatment by the Dolphins and several other teams he interviewed for as head coach. The case remains ongoing. Flores is now the Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator.

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