Brian Flores doesn't blame Patriots' Bill Belichick, says he's the GOAT

Only a few weeks after he sued the NFL for alleged discrimation in its head coaching openings and firing practices, Brian Flores cleared the air on his relationship with Bill Belichick, claiming that it hasn’t changed because of the chat that led into the lawsuit.

The New England Patriots head coach had accidentally congratulated Flores for getting the New York Giants job when he was apparentlytryingto write to other of his former assistants, Brian Daboll, instead.

What happened next is well known, Flores filed thelawsuit against the NFL and included Belichick’s messages as evidence. However, in an extensive interview withBrandon Marshall, Chad Johnson and Omar Kelly onI AM ATHLETE,the former Miami Dolphins head coach suggested that Bill had done nothing wrong and that he only has a lot of respect for him.

Brian Flores says he is “not mad” at Belichick

“He’s certainly that,” Flores said about Bill Belichick being considered the GOAT. “I think the one thing people don’t know about Bill is that he listens. He listens, so if you have — and, again, you’ve gotta earn the right for him to listen — but if you have an idea, a thought, a person (or) there’s a matchup we can win, a part in the game, he’ll listen. He may add something to it. He may through it out. But he listens. I think that’s one of his greatest strengths. I try to take from him when I was in Miami.”

“I’m not mad [at Belichick],” Flores said. “I mean, Bill did what a lot of us… He sent a text message to the wrong person. I mean, I’m certainly guilty of that before and, to me, I thought it was specific to the lawsuit in that, for me, it confirmed a lot of the things that I thought were going on — that I think a lot of Black or minority coaches think are going on as far.”

Flores, who also claims that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him money to lose games on purpose in 2019, has recently joined Mike Tomlin‘s staff at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hopefully, he willbuild on what he learned in all those years under Belichick’s wing – and of course, on his own head coaching experience in Miami.