Years before they face off in a Week 17 contest, Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel and Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores were together with the New England Patriots.
Of course, Vrabel spent eight seasons with the team as a linebacker, winning three Super Bowls, but Flores also spent several years with the franchise as a coach, with one of those years overlapping with Vrabel’s tenure when Flores was a special teams assistant with the Pats in 2008.
While Flores was technically Vrabel’s coach, the Dolphins head man admits that Vrabel did more coaching of him than he did of Vrabel.
“I didn’t coach Vrabel. I would say he probably more coached me as a young guy in New England when he was there and he was a player,” Flores said. “He was pretty much a coach on the field then. I certainly didn’t coach him but I have a lot of respect for him. I think his toughness, his acumen, I think that shows up and you see it in the way his team plays. He’s somebody I call a friend. I have a great deal of respect for him…”
Vrabel isn’t the only connection Flores has with current Titans, as he’s also worked with general manager Jon Robinson, Director of Player Personnel, Monti Ossenfort, and Vice President of Player Personnel, Ryan Cowden.
“I think they’ve got a lot of guys on their staff who I’ve worked with,” Flores revealed. “Jon Robinson, their general manager. [Director of Player Personnel] Monti Ossenfort, who is a guy that I kind of came up with in the scouting game. [Vice President of Player Personnel] Ryan Cowden. There are a lot of relationships there with the Titans. I think they’ve done a lot of really good things over there building a team, building the culture. A lot of things that we would like to emulate.”
Tennessee and Miami will meet at Nissan Stadium on Sunday, with kickoff set for noon CST.
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