Flores will face familiar foes

FOXBORO — Brian Flores was a beloved coach at Gillette Stadium for 11 years but now he’ll be the enemy at least twice a season.

Flores is in his first season as the Miami Dolphins head coach and he took the job knowing he’ll face the Patriots in two AFC East battles every year. The first comes this Sunday in the South Florida heat where the Pats have lost five of the last six seasons.

Flores says he’s "taken the approach like I do [...]

FOXBORO — Brian Flores was a beloved coach at Gillette Stadium for 11 years but now he’ll be the enemy at least twice a season.

Flores is in his first season as the Miami Dolphins head coach and he took the job knowing he’ll face the Patriots in two AFC East battles every year. The first comes this Sunday in the South Florida heat where the Pats have lost five of the last six seasons.

Flores says he’s “taken the approach like I do with any other game,” but since he’s only coached one game in the NFL as the boss, that line doesn’t hold a lot of weight. “The difference is I know a lot of these guys. I have personal relationships with the people throughout the organization,” he admitted. “They’re competitors, and they know that I’m a competitor. I’m watching players that I coached, that I spent a lot of time with. That part of it is different, but I think as a professional, you kind of move on from that and you go through your process.”

Flores spent most of his time in New England on the defensive side of the ball and enjoyed daily battles trying to slow down Tom Brady and the Patriots offense. That’s a major challenge and became an even larger one with the signing of All-Pro receiver Antonio Brown.

“This is a dynamic player,” Flores said. “They’ve got good coaches there. I’m sure they’ll find a way to get him involved in the offense. They could do it a few different ways. I could sit here and think of a hundred different ways they could do it. I’d probably drive myself crazy trying to do that.”

Asked what he thought of the Pats and Brady’s performance in the season opening 33-3 win over the Steelers, Flores didn’t flinch. “Same impression I’ve always had. This is a great player. He’s a great player — a future Hall of Famer,” he said. “I have nothing but respect for him. Obviously I spent a lot of time with him. I think more of him as a person than as a player. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about the guy.”