Flores looks to T.N.T. to ignite enthuisiam, effort
DAVIE The Miami Dolphins have a new slogan they hope will set the tone for Brian Flores’ tenure as head coach.
It “takes no talent,” with the acronym T.N.T. emblazoned in extraordinarily large letters in Dolphins colors on a far wall on the southeast side of the practice fields, is the mantra.
“It’s just the discipline that Coach teaches,” Dolphins standout cornerback Xavien Howard said. “He says it ‘takes no talent.’ Any time we mess up, do anything wrong, we’ve got to run to the wall.”
New Dolphins quarterback Josh Rosen happened to be the first player to run to the T.N.T. wall Tuesday, the second day of this week’s organized activities.
He was joined by freeagent rookie center Ryan Anderson after botching snaps during the quarterback-center exchanges in warmups.
Many other players toward the wall too.
Within the letters, the Dolphins are provided with reminders of things that do not take talent to overcome.
It takes no talent to compete, improve one’s body language or enthusiasm, know football rules and game situations, have peak conditioning or focus on ball security.
Any time a Dolphins player fails to abide by the T.N.T. rules or has an untimely miscue during practice, he must take a hike from his spot on the practeam ran tice field toward and run back.
Dolphins defensive back Eric Rowe, who is competing for a starting cornerback spot, said the defense had either 10 or 12 players on the field at one time, and all had to run toward the wall.
Rowe says Flores wants to “get those bad habits out of us.”
“It hurts, even though it’s a slight jog, from running way over there,” Rowe said of the Dolphins’ new discipline. “It’s tiring, so you don’t want to make mistakes like that,”
“It’s not a physical thing, but [more of ] a mental thing. We can’t have fumbles, ball-security issues or false starts, fumbling the center exchange, stuff that doesn’t take much effort to get right.” the wall