Behind-the-scenes fallout, factors in wake of the Flores dismissal. And Bears call Flores
Flores already was essentially running the Dolphins building, according to a source in direct contact with Dolphins management. But he wanted even more control, the source said. He wanted the authority formalized, to eliminate the contract annoyance of general manager Chris Grier having final say on the draft and free agency.
He wanted more power in everything, final say on virtually everything. He wanted more people to report to him. He already had full authority to pick a coaching staff and planned to make more changes, beginning with the offensive staff. At least one of the offensive coordinators was expecting to be dismissed, if not both.
What’s strange about this is that Grier — who likes to avoid conflict — basically gave Flores everything he wanted. There wasn’t a single player on the roster that Flores didn’t sign off on. And yet Grier’s deference still wasn’t enough to appease Flores or sooth tensions between the two. As one Dolphins person said, people need to stop blaming Grier entirely for the personnel moves that didn’t work out the past three years and blame them both equally. And both deserve credit for the ones that worked out.
There were plenty of examples of Flores demanding his way on things that weren’t necessarily under his domain. He lobbied for the dismissal of Matt Taylor, the team’s top football media relations person, last spring, over the objections of the two executives who wanted to keep him, including team president Tom Garfinkel. Flores got his way, as he usually did
There were plenty of players who liked and admired Flores, and let’s be clear about that. But his arrogance and bristling personality rubbed some the wrong way. A close associate of multiple young Dolphins said the players complained to him that “he doesn’t understand dealing with men. He’s not approachable.” When Flores saw one young player in recent months, he told him: “Don’t come to my office talking about playing time.” The player had no such intentions. But multiple sources said he treated players different ways; a veteran such as Jason McCourty wouldn’t be treated with that same heavy hand. “He was stern with some but joked around with some guys,” the source said. “It was hard to read him.”
One veteran complained that Flores would pass him in the halls and never say hello, never even acknowledge his presence. He asked his friend why he wanted to work in a place like this.
Some players were puzzled by Flores’ livid reaction to media stories. When a trainer for a Dolphins player who had sustained an injury tweeted an update on the players’ injury after the 2020 season, the agent was immediately called and threatened with unspecified consequences if he didn’t delete the tweet. Why was this a big deal, when the season was over? Was there a competitive advantage lost? Other players were threatened with consequences if they revealed their injury status to reporters. When a story leaked about a potential offensive line change, Flores stormed into the meeting room and demanded to know who leaked it. Nobody said a word. But that was his primary concern that morning.
As for the relationship with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, a source confirmed that angry words were exchanged during the Tennessee game, as two media outlets have reported. Flores was furious with how Tagovailoa was playing and let him know. Tagovailoa resented Flores’ tone and his way of talking to people.
