I don’t know about being thrown under the bus as much as a slap in the face about his teaching, coaching and mentoring style. GOOD leaders learn their people and push the buttons that make that individual WANT to do better and succeed. The New England way just isn’t it. Romeo Crennell, Matt Patricia, Josh McDaniels, Brian Flores…the only one whose had any success is Mike Vrabel
Its great that these guys are finally all going public with not only how horrible of a coach Flores is, but what a really rotten guy he is as well. Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg, and the national media eventually appologizes to the Fins for so hard they've been on the team since Flores was let go.
Tua and Austin Jackson took little veiled shots at Flores too during their press conferences yesterday.
Honestly, Fitzpatrick can eff off too. He was just as big a part of splitting that locker room that season with his selfish behavior when he was benched. That certainly didn't help Tua and his development either.
Keep in mind they didn't even score with Zappe last week against a bad defense. Mac Jones isn't any good but Bill has done a disaster of a job there
I don't think it was a hard dig the way social media made it out to be. Fitz spoke the truth, Flores was a douche, Tua didn't get a fair shake at things from the start and that led to McDaniel eventually coming in and fixing it the way it should have been.
Bill O'Brien had a good run. But he didn't adopt the hoodie-with-an-assh*le-demeanor that most of Bill's goon squad thought was the reason for his success.
Fitz has his own reason to dig in on Flo. He was having a good season and it could have gotten much better before Flo replaced him with the still injured and woefully unready Tua. That not only pulled the rug out from his last great chance to have a legacy, it also had to divide the locker room. There were other guys who were on short or expiring deals that knew their best chance to play well was with Fitz. IMO, coaches should NEVER put a QB in the game before the team recognizes him as the best man for the job. If I'm in year #10, on an expiring contract, and I've only played for bad teams, damn it if I'll be happy that my last opportunity to experience the tournament is going to be trumped by your desire to get a young guy some seasoning. Put him in when the playoffs are no longer possible. I'm convinced Flo did it to put Tua in a bad situation. Not to make him fail, but to see if he would sink or swim. That's malpractice. In the end, it worked out the best for Tua, who toughened up and learned how to get rid of the ball quickly. But it came at the expense of a possible (likely?) playoff run.
Putting in Tua because you think its best for his development as he was the future would be fine even if Fitz was better but Flores doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt on anything Tua related.
Looking back after watching the interview with Tua I posted above, it might be the reason WHY he didn't want to be the captain in previous years. Its a really good self introspective look at ones self.
If you watched the game you will see he played well even though they did not score. They had at least 4 drops, and bad penalties. He had one bad play where the held the ball too long and took a sack, several times he was sacked almost before he received the snap. Against Steelers they were missing 3 WR's and the #1 RB, yet he still looked and played better then Jones has. 3-1 as a starter I believe. Just imagine if he had weapons and an OL.
Tua's really a thoughtful guy. And his approach is really interesting. My son is struggling with work and I sent him this video because how he talks about life and his approach in general I think he could really relate. The culture has changed in the building. We've all been saying it, and every new coach that was their mantra. And they tried but it never happened. I think it finally happened and even if we don't get everything we want this year, I can honestly say it seems like were on the assent as an organization and a team. Maybe player will WANT to start coming and playing here from word of mouth.
I think that is already occuring. Chosen for one wanted to come here, and the other WR we traded for. Players want to be here.