Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa recently opened up about his negative relationship with former head coach Brian Flores. Flores’ constant barrage of harsh comments left Tagovailoa with very low morale.
Tagovailoa said that he had to have the negativity “trained out” of him when coach Mike McDaniel came to lead the team, as NBC News reported.
“Well, to put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you you suck at what you did, 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, you are the best fit for this, you are accurate, you are the best whatever, how would it make you feel listening to one or the other?” Tagovailoa told radio host Dan Le Batard.
“Regardless of what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to actually believe it. I don’t care who you are. You could be the president of the United States,” he continued. “If you have a terrible person telling you things you don’t want to hear or probably shouldn’t be hearing, you start to believe that about yourself. That’s sort of like what ended up happening. It’s basically been like two years of training that out of me.”
Tagovailoa was drafted by the Dolphins in 2020 and spent two seasons under Flores. Tua ended the Flores regime with a 13-8 record and 27 touchdowns with 15 interceptions. But he was also benched many times as Flores favored Ryan Fitzpatrick. Meanwhile, the team was unable to make the playoffs in either year.
However, since Mike McDaniel took over the team last year, Tagovailoa has earned a 19-11 record, with 54 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. The quarterback also finished last season, having played every regular-season game. The Dolphins made it to the playoffs in both seasons.
McDaniel has won a 20-14 record across two seasons with the Dolphins. Flores moved on to the Minnesota Vikings but ended up suing the league for “racial discrimination” and even claims that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross ordered him to lose games on purpose, which left him with a poor record with the team.
Brian Flores' class action lawsuit against the NFL - he is being represented by the same firm that represented Harvey Weinstein victims and former Fox News employees in their discrimination cases https://t.co/1EqJ7qDA4A pic.twitter.com/jrSjm12XHT
— Michele Steele (@MicheleSteele) February 1, 2022
Flores claims Ross offered to pay him an extra $100,000 per loss to ensure the Dolphins would own the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Flores also claims that Ross pressured him to violate league tampering rules by recruiting another quarterback under contract with another team.
“In making the decision to file the class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love, and that has done so much for my family and me,” Flores said when he filed the lawsuit. “My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.”
The NFL said the lawsuit was “without merit.”
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