Brian Flores isn’t ready to talk about his job with the Miami Dolphins just yet, but according to him, his initial goals for the NFL started much higher.

Speaking to the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero, the de facto defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots didn’t come into the league looking to be a coach first. According to him, Flores initially wanted to become a General Manager and not a coach.

During the talk, Flores noted that when he was looking to break into the league, he sent a letter to every team, offering to work for free in exchange for a chance just to be in the NFL. Then-Patriots personnel chief Scott Pioli responded, giving Flores a chance and interviewing him.

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“I told them I’d work for free so they called me back,” Flores said. “And they didn’t ask me to work for free, which I thought was great. I didn’t make a lot but at the same time, I’d been poor my whole life so what little I made, I felt like I was rich. It was a win-win situation. I really enjoyed that time. Everybody talks about the money but to me it was about the process, it was about learning and getting better and it stayed that way for me.”

Flores spent much of his early days in New England running errands for others in the organization, before he ended up falling in love with the idea of coaching. “Being around players you get a chance to make an impact. You get to know them, you get to know their families, you get to know where they grew up.” he said. “To me when you connect with a player, and they trust you, and they know you care about them, you can be as demanding and tough and get on them as much as you want. That’s kind of my style. They don’t like me all the time. That’s the truth. But they respect me and they know I respect them.”

For the Miami Dolphins, these are no doubt good things to hear from Flores, as it looks like he genuinely does like to form bonds with the players he coaches. For the Dolphins, they’ll hope that these bonds translate to Flores turning the franchise around.