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Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell came to the defense of his defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who was criticized by Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Tagovailoa made headlines on August 19 after calling out Flores for being overly critical of him during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, calling the former Dolphins head coach a “terrible person” on “The Dan Le Batard Show.”
Responding to the fanfare, O’Connell vouched for the “great relationships” Flores has cultivated since arriving in Minnesota during the 2023 offseason.
“I don’t particularly have a comment on something that took place with another team, or I don’t like to comment on comments of other players on other teams, but I can just tell you I know that the players Flo works with, he’s got great relationships here,” O’Connell said, per Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “He really has. I know [Minnesota reporters] have heard a lot of them talk about how much they enjoy playing for him, and how much I enjoy working with him every day, and that’s all I can really comment on, and I’d just like to leave it at that.”
Asked about the contrast in coaching styles between his current coach, Mike McDaniel, and Flores, Tagovailoa touted McDaniel’s positive reinforcement as what helped him overcome the doubt he said Flores instilled in him.
“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 there, that you haven’t earned this right,” Tagovailoa said. “And then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this.’ … How would it make you feel, listening to one or the other?”
Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell Sets New Example for Brian Flores After Fallout With Dolphins, Tua
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Courtesy of the Minnesota VikingsVikings coach Kevin O’Connell said he’s not surprised by the buzz Brian Flores is garnering ahead of 2024 head-coach hirings.
Few coaches from the Bill Belichick tree have properly installed the “Patriot Way” elsewhere. The tough-love approach to coaching only worked when a player-leader like Tom Brady backed Belichick’s methods of motivation.
It’s a new era of quarterback and fewer players seem to be open to that approach. That’s the likely disconnect between Flores, who worked under Belichick for 15 years, and Tagovailoa. The defensive coach-quarterback relationship has seemingly been a difficult match in recent years.
Since Flores was dismissed from the Dolphins, he’s seen different coaching styles with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Vikings.
“[Flores] learned from Kevin O’Connell ways to connect with players in manners he had not done in his career,” Minnesota Star Tribune reporter Ben Goessling said on the “Purple Insider” podcast, recalling his profile of Flores in September 2023. “I have to think that some of these things are related to [Tagovailoa].”
Goessling agreed with host Matthew Coller that they hadn’t heard any comments remotely close to Flores as a “terrible person” and that the issue with Tagovailoa was likely a “personality conflict.”
Brian Flores Addresses Relationship With Tua Tagovailoa After His Dolphins Fired Him
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GettyBrian Flores and Tua Tagovailoa during Dolphins mandatory minicamps in 2021.
Flores will likely be asked about Tagovailoa’s comments in his weekly news conference on August 20 — but he has spoken publicly about his relationship with the Dolphins quarterback before.
On the “I Am Athlete” podcast in 2022, Flores said his relationship with Tagovailoa wasn’t strained.
“This is an interesting topic because it wasn’t strained,” Flores said. “We had a good relationship. It was a player-coach relationship and I think, in a relationship like that, the coach challenges the player and oftentimes the player challenges the coach.
“I think there was a great deal of respect between the two of us. You hear this crazy narrative that’s out there, but this is a young man who works who developed and got better over two years and I think he’s got a bright future and I wish him all the best. The world can think what it wants to think — ask Tua. I’m here to say what I got to say and you can ask him. I think he’d say the same thing.”
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