Tua taga aloa the quarterback for the Dolphins has opened up about his former head coach Brian Flores uh this is from ESPN Tua did not hold back when asked to describe the difference between having a coach who believes in him uh compared to one who didn't Miami Dolphins quarterback has flourished in two seasons under Mike McDaniel so much so that taga Vala was rewarded this offseason with a 4-year 22.4 million extension he had a far different experience under Brian Flores as coach for the first two seasons of his career an interview with the Dan lebatard show that aired Monday taga vowa said that he began to believe he didn't belong as an NFL quarterback under Flores and that McDaniel has had to train that out of him the past two seasons here's a clip of his quote to put it in simplest terms if you woke up every morning and I told you you sucked at what you did you don't belong doing what you do and then you have somebody else come in and tell you you are the best fit for this how would it make you feel listening to one or the other you hear it regardless of what it is the good or the bad and you hear it more and more you start to actually believe that I don't care who you are you you could be the president of the United States you're going to start to believe that about yourself during his rookie season in 2020 taga Vala was replaced twice in the fourth quarter of games by veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick then in 2021 there was speculation the Dolphins were interested in trading for desun Watson uh the Dolphins fired Flores in 20 after the 2021 season replacing him with McDaniel 2022 and his first season taga aloa threw for three uh 3,548 yards and 25 touchdowns despite missing four games due to multiple concussions and last season led the NFL with 4,624 passing yards threw for career best 29 touchdowns and earned his first Pro Bowl selection two attack of aloa has declined largely to comment on the nature of his relationship with Flores since the his former head coach was fired in January of 2022 three months after Flores was fir the quarterback as was asked specifically what he would consider their relationship to be and he said that's a big question well I'll tell you this I'm very thankful that he drafted me to come here and play for the Miami Dolphins that's what I'll say the Dolphins have faced Flores only once since his departure a 16 to10 win over the Pittsburgh sealers in 2022 where Flores was the linebacker coach after the game tagaloa was asked whether he spoke to Flores his answer was tur nope all right um that's pretty much it uh for those that don't know uh Flores is now in uh Minnesota as a DC um all right so all I'll say is this man I think that a few things can be right at the same time um I think that it sounds like Flores did not have a good relationship with Tua and his coaching style does not work at all but McDaniels does work for Tua and has brought out the absolute best in him and you love to see it I think if people remember Brian Brian Flores had a situation of like racism kind of happening one way or the other against him as far as the kind of forced like tanking that they were asked him to do and then kind of being I out in certain positions and things like that enough of that was proven to be kind of correct I know some of that is still in litigation but I think that that can equally be true as he was kind of an ass to Tua it sounds like a number of Dolphin players have also said that they didn't like his attitude or that he was like kind of a rude or a mean coach in the way he did stuff but you've had plenty of people praise Brian Flores for his attitude as well so I think multiple things can be true and I just think that this was just a bad fit period and and you could be hard on someone but I would hope that you at least try to if you're going to be hard you still give them a fair shake and you do your best to bring the best out of them that would be the things that I hope to see but honestly um you you you kind of I can see it both ways and it looks like that Tua now with the situation he's in when you watch that interview you see how much he's grown you know i' I've only heard bits and pieces of him in interviews but he talks about his growth and who he's become as a man and how that adversity has made him who he is but how much more he thrives in this situation and that quote about the difference you can see from when someone is telling you every day they don't believe in you versus someone being there and having your back and and being the win to to your sales man I think that that is a drastic difference and that's something that we all would want out of a coach out of a spouse or a partner out of whatever you want somebody that has your back and to also understand and I think everybody needs to do this you need to understand that different people talk in different ways and have different styles of doing stuff and as long as it doesn't get to a place of being abusive that sometimes tough love is something that people need in order to push forward in this case it doesn't seem like it works but uh I want to know what you think are you on the same page you agree that Tua was kind of not giv a fair shake with Brian uh how do you feel about his comments and whatnot let me know down in the comments [Music] w