MINNEAPOLIS -- Brian Flores will be the next coaching star of the New England Patriots, and to understand why is to understand where he is from. He grew up in the housing projects of Brownsville, Brooklyn, maybe the toughest neighborhood in New York, so there was nothing about Bill Belichick or the Patriot Way that could ever shake him.
Life had roughed Flores up early, prepared him for full-contact drills inside the NFL's most demanding environment.
"I never backed down from anybody," Flores said. "If people see you're scared, or as somebody who backs down, you're going to deal with it every day.