Brian Flores talked about winning in the place where he ‘grew up’ as a coach
"I basically grew up in this building, from a professional standpoint."
Brian Flores is no stranger to helping his football team pull off upset wins on the road. And he’s certainly no stranger to watching the quarterback of his team march downfield to score a last-second, game-winning touchdown.
The only difference on Sunday was that instead of it coming for the Patriots, this time it was against them.
In the final game of his first season as head coach of the Dolphins, Flores led his team to a dramatic win over the heavily-favored Patriots. That it came at Gillette Stadium made it that much more improbable and memorable.
“Look, there are a lot of memories here,” Flores said afterward. “I basically grew up in this building, from a professional standpoint. That’s the word I was looking for. From a professional standpoint, I basically grew up here. So, there are guys on that team, guys on the coaching staff, there are people in this building from janitors to security people, media, that I built a lot of relationships with.
“It’s great to win, but it’s not about me, really,” Flores continued. “It’s more about those players in there, they work extremely hard. They put a lot into this. There are people out there that said this is a meaningless game, and that’s just not the case. These guys work extremely hard and I’m just happy for them, that they won that game.”
Miami finished the season 5-11 under Flores, with the rebuilding effort underway. Still, the first-year head coach tried to place perspective around his team’s accomplishment.
“I mean, every win, and any win is a big one to me,” said Flores. “That’s a very good football team. Great coaches, great players. This is a tough environment. It’s hard to win on the road in this league. So, our guys played hard, they competed for 60 minutes. It took all 60 minutes. And I’m proud of that group, I am proud of that group.”
After starting 0-7 (including a 43-0 loss in Miami to the Patriots in Week 2), Flores took pride in his team fighting to a 5-4 record in the second half of the season.
“Hard work, overcoming adversity,” Flores said when asked to describe his team in 2019. “And I think, you know, with adversity, with defeat, when you struggle, I think one or two things happen. It either breaks you, or you get stronger. I think this team got stronger over the course of the season. And I am proud of that. And we need to build on that. With kind of answering that question, right off the top of my head, that’s what I would say.”
Here’s what he had to say to his team in the locker room after the game:
https://twitter.com/MiamiDolphins/status/1211396137795670018
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