Tua Closes Door on Flores Topic

The Miami Dolphins quarterback conducted his first media session since his comments about former head coach Brian Flores.

Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, shakes hands with Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1), before the start of their game agains the New York Giants during NFL game at Hard Rock Stadium Sunday in Miami Gardens. / Bill Ingram / USA TODAY NETWORK

Tua Tagovailoa conducted his first media session since his Brian Flores comments went viral last week, so naturally, the subject was brought up.

And also, not surprisingly, the Miami Dolphins quarterback didn't have much to say on the matter.

Tua said he had not heard from Flores, now the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator, since the comments aired last week, nor had he seen Flores' comments in response to Tua's assertion that he basically told him "you suck" every day.

And then, for good measure, Tua was asked whether he'd like to add anything to the conversation, and he quickly responded: "There's nothing more I'd like to add to that."

Tua provided a complete answer to a question related to his relationship with Flores. This one was about the idea that having the support of a head coach is more significant for a quarterback than for a player at any other position.

"Yeah, 100 percent," Tua said. "This is a quarterback-driven league; I 100 percent think that. Without a good team, without a good quarterback, I don't think you can do much in this league. Sure, you can have a good defense, but there's really good offenses in this league. You got to put up points and you got to find ways to do that. So I definitely believe that, for sure."

Tua played for Flores for his first two NFL seasons before Mike McDaniel took over as head coach. McDaniel publicly and privately backed his quarterback.

In those two seasons under McDaniel, Tua's career took off — the scheme and having Tyreek Hill certainly helped — and he secured a lucrative second contract this summer.

There was one oddity during Tua's time under Flores, and that was the decision to insert him into the lineup as a rookie in 2020 as the Dolphins headed into their bye after defeating the San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets by 26 and 24 points, respectively, with Ryan Fitzpatrick throwing three touchdown passes in each game.

Remember that this was the COVID season, and the Dolphins' bye was moved up several weeks.

One conspiracy theory has Flores putting Tua into the lineup to fail, though that doesn't mesh with what we know about Flores and how he reacted to even the suggestion of tanking the 2019 season when the Dolphins were in full rebuilding mode.

It could have been that Flores legitimately thought Tua was ready and that the bye was the perfect time to make the switch with the extra practice time, or perhaps the call came from the front office.

"That's a great question," Tua said. "I'm not going to answer that, truthfully, right now. But I think I know why, but I won't speculate or give anyone any speculations on that. Whatever you want to create to think, think that, but other than that, I think that'll just stay here with the organization."

TUA'S COMMENTS THAT STARTED IT ALL

It was no secret that Tua didn't have a good relationship with Flores. Still, he made it crystal clear during an interview on the Dan Lebatard Show With Stugotz about Flores's and McDaniel's different approaches.

"Well, to put it in simplest terms, 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?' And 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?

"And then you hear it, you 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. You can 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 like what ended up happening, and it was, I mean, it's basically been what, two years of training that out of, not just me but, you know, a couple of the guys as well that have been here since my rookie year all the way till now."

Flores responded the next day from Minnesota when he showed up for his weekly media session flanked by two of his current defensive players.

Flanked by two Minnesota Vikings defensive players in a show of support, Flores said he hoped to learn from his experience with Tagovailoa, one the quarterback made clear Monday was pretty toxic.

"Part of coaching is correcting," Flores said. "I'm always going to correct. I'm always going to have a high standard. I've done a lot of reflecting on the situation, [on] communication. I think there's things that I could do better, for sure, and I've grown in that way. I've tried to apply the things I could do better and the things I've learned over the last two, three years.

"I would say over the long haul, I've had a lot of great relationships over my 21-year career in the league. But I'm also always looking to get better and evolve."

Flores also indicated he hoped to connect with Tagovailoa to mend fences. He said he was happy about the quarterback's success over the past two seasons under head coach Mike McDaniel.

"I just want to say I'm genuinely happy for the success that Tua's had and I really wish him nothing but the best," Flores said. "Player relationships are very important to me. That's kind of the foundation of coaching. I was impacted as a young guy by my high school coach, my college coach. I got into coaching because I want to make that same kind of impact, pour into young people."