'The Violence Of The Game Is Something I Enjoy': Getting To Know Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores recently sat down with CBS4's sports anchor Jim Berry to talk about football.
Coach Flores: "The violence of the game is something I enjoy. I'm a physical person by nature physical person by nature."
Don't let Brian Flores' soft spoken way fool you. His inner toughness was honed during his upbringing in New York.
Coach Flores: "I had four brothers. We grew up roughhousing with your brothers watching, wrestling, and body slammin' each other."
Initially, his rambunctiousness nature did not include football. Flores' parents are from Honduras. His dad was a soccer player.
Jim: "Is it true that the first time you put on a pair of shoulder pads you put them on backwards?"
Coach Flores: "Uh that is true, yes that is true. I put them on backwards. It was my uncle who said you need to turn those around."
Flores soon figured out the game, playing it at Boston College and then studying it as a young workaholic in New England.
In New England, he was part of what became known as the Patriots' 20/20 club.
Jim: "Work twenty hours a day and make 20 grand, a year, if that.?"
Coach Flores: "That was it."
Jim: "But you loved it?"
Coach Flores: "Loved it"
Jim: "Why?"
Coach Flores: "To be able to do a small part to help the team to win was something that is important to me, it's just something that I've always enjoyed."
Flores played a big part in New England's last Super Bowl victory, running a defense that shut down the high powered LA Rams offense.
While preparing that game plan, Flores was also interviewing for his dream job as an NFL head coach.
Flores did all of that with a heavy heart, knowing his mom was in the final stages of a battle with cancer.
Coach Flores: "It was a tough time but at the same time I knew that if I didn't put my best foot forward from a work stand point, from an interview stand point really whatever I was doing I would be disappointing her. And we can't do that."
With the Dolphins, Flores wants to build a team that puts its best foot forward on a foundation of trust.
Coach Flores: "If you get eleven guys on the same page, you got to get eleven guys to trust each other. That's a hard thing to do, I tell the players it's hard to get two people to trust each other much less eleven and you know that resonates with them."
Flores wants his players to trust that he will not play favorites.
Coach Flores: "We're gonna play the best players period. That I firmly believe in that, we don't do things just to do them. So what kind of message does that send."
So far, Flores has been all business. He admits even his wife tells him he should smile more during his sessions with the media.
Coach Flores: "I've got a sense of humor. I certainly have a sense of humor. But, this is, but maybe I don't say this enough but this game is supposed to a fun game. We'll try to create an environment where we're tough, we're smart, disciplined, but were also having fun."
If the pundits are right, the Dolphins won't have much fun in the near future while Flores tries to rebuild the franchise's winning tradition.
Jim: "A lot of folks aren't expecting much of the Dolphins this year or next year or maybe the year after. So how do you take that on?"
Coach Flores: "My goal is to win every week period. "We're gonna do everything possible to win every game every week. But that starts by winning every day. If we just continue to build, good things will happen. I firmly believe that."
The Miami Dolphins kick off against the New Orleans Saints in their final preseason game on Thursday August 29. You can watch that game on CBS4. Pregame starts at 7, kickoff is at 8pm.
