Unlikely Source Put Brian Flores under the Microscope
Former Minnesota Vikings assistant coach Mike Pettine retired a couple of weeks ago, and not long after, he announced on a Cleveland Browns-themed podcast that he doesn’t see eye to eye with Vikings defensive boss Brian Flores.
Pettine came from the top rope this week, chatting on a podcast about the Browns but revealing some Flores tidbits.
The comments came out of left field, adding more fuel to the fire that suggests Flores may be an acquired taste.
Flores Scrutiny Gains Oxygen
Pettine takes his version of the high road regarding Flores.
Pettine on Flores
Freshly off the Vikings’ coaching staff, Pettine joined The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, largely because he head-coached the Browns over a decade ago.
The show’s host asked Pettine about any thoughts he’d like to give about Flores, and he replied, “Probably not many that I would prefer to share. I mean, we didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. That’s why I spent this past year on offense. I was there in ’23 and ’24 on defense. I’ll take the high road on that one.”
It didn’t take a psychologist to realize that Pettine simply doesn’t like the guy.
Unrelated to Flores, Pettine added, “The grind of the league, it’s tough. And I’m in a position now where I can step away. I don’t know if I can declare this as being a permanent thing.”
“But the year that I took off after Cleveland, that I needed so that I could feel like I could see colors and smell smells again, that was one of the best years that I’ve had. I’m going to step away and get right, mentally and physically, and make an evaluation down the road.”
Tagovailoa, Fitzpatrick — and Now Pettine
This is a pattern.
In the summer of 2024, Tua Tagovailoa, Flores’s quarterback with the Miami Dolphins from 2019 to 2021, called Flores a “terrible person” in a regular ‘ol podcast. Around the same time, Ryan Fitzpatrick, another quarterback from that team, said on a show that Flores acted like a “dictator” at times.
It’s also worth noting that Flores has failed to secure serious head coaching consideration beyond initial interviews in the three straight offseasons.
While it doesn’t necessarily hurt his ability to thrive with the Vikings, there is something about Flores that some folks just don’t like. The evidence is piling up.
Awful Timing for Flores
Pettine dished on Flores at an awful time: when the interview went worldwide, he was still under consideration for the Pittsburgh Steelers job. The Steelers hired Mike McCarthy of Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys fame a few days later, but for a recent coworker — a relatively respected one — to tell the general public that he doesn’t see eye to eye with a head coach hopeful is just a terrible look.
Perhaps Flores’s chances were already toast in Pittsburgh, and Pettine’s comments meant nothing. Still, Flores was also a frontrunner for a while to earn the Las Vegas Raiders’ coaching job, and the job remains vacant.
Pettine’s interview should have been a layup for Flores, a perk rather than a setback. But that’s not how it went down.
Is Pettine’s Retirement Even Real?
Some have questioned whether Pettine even retired — or if he bolted the Vikings under a retirement pretense because he wanted to get the hell away from Flores. After all, he told the Browns podcast that he had coached offense last season, and Pettine’s background is almost entirely defensive operations.
SI.com‘s Will Ragatz opined on Pettine’s alleged retirement, “His comments about Flores raise some highly speculative questions. Is it possible Pettine wanted to keep coaching but was essentially forced out of the building in Minnesota to accommodate Flores?
“Fifty-nine isn’t all that old in the NFL coaching world. If the Vikings felt like that relationship was broken or toxic and they had to choose one of them, it probably wasn’t a difficult decision to go with the coordinator who has led one of the best defenses in the league in each of the last two years.”
Reminder: Flores is revered by fans, and folks on social media almost entirely sided with Flores over Pettine during the fallout of the interview.
“Flores has a bit of a reputation, mostly developed during his three-year stint as the Dolphins’ head coach (2019-21), for being somewhat difficult to work with behind the scenes. With that said, O’Connell and various Vikings defensive players have had nothing but good things to say about Flores during his time in Minnesota,” Ragatz added.
Pettine could pop up as soon as this offseason and serve as a defensive coach for another team. He didn’t sound too committed to retirement in the interview.
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