Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell threw his support behind defensive coordinator Brian Flores on Monday after Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa called Flores a “terrible person.”
“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. He really has,” O’Connell said, per ESPN.
“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.”
Flores, 43, was the Dolphins’ head coach for three seasons from 2019-’21, and coached Tagovailoa during his first two years in the NFL after Miami took him at No. 5 overall in the 2020 draft.
Tagovailoa, 26, lashed out at Flores during a Monday interview with the “Dan Le Batard Show” during a comparison with current coach Mike McDaniel.
“If you woke up every morning and I told you, 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, you haven’t earned this right,” Tagovailoa said. “Then you have someone else come in and say, ‘Dude, you’re the best fit for this, you are accurate, you’re the best whatever, you are this, you are that.’ How would it make you feel listening to one or the other? You see what I am saying?”
Flores, who spent 15 years with the Patriots organization before joining the Dolphins, led Miami to records of 5-11, 10-6 and 9-8 before he was fired.
Tagovailoa went through growing pains but went 13-8 as a starter under Flores.
“You hear it, regardless of what it is the good or the bad,” Tagovailoa said. “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 telling you things you don’t want to hear or things you shouldn’t be hearing, you are going to start to believe that about yourself. That’s sort of what ended up happening. It’s been two years of training that out of, not just me, but of guys that have been here since my rookie year.”
Tagovailoa has made major strides as a quarterback under McDaniel, earning a Pro Bowl nod last season after throwing 4,624 yards, 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions while completing 69.3 percent of his passes.
Last month, Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension with Miami.
Flores, who sued the league for discrimination after he didn’t land a head coaching job in 2022, is in his second year as the Vikings defensive coordinator after spending a year as the Steelers linebackers coach.
