Dolphins HC Brian Flores Played Jay-Z at Practice to 'Challenge' Kenny Stills

Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores told reporters following his team's 22-7 preseason win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday that he supports wide receiver Kenny Stills' ongoing protests against systemic oppression.

The comments came in light of Stills criticizing Jay-Z and Roc Nation for its entertainment and social justice partnership with the NFL despite San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's continued NFL absence.

Flores then reportedly played numerous Jay-Z songs at a team practice following the comments. He addressed the reasoning behind that playlist:

Kaepernick, who began protesting systemic oppression by kneeling or sitting during the national anthem in the 2016 season, has been out of the NFL ever since despite his interest to keep playing.

Flores and Stills haven't always seen eye to eye lately.

After Stills criticized team owner Stephen Ross for hosting a fundraiser in support of President Donald Trump, Flores told reporters that he believed the wideout should have discussed those concerns internally before doing anything publicly.

Stills then played Nas at his locker, per Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel. Jay-Z and Nas had a years-long rivalry that Omari White of Newsweek called "one of the biggest rap-lyric feuds of all time."

At this point, however, any public-facing issues between Flores and Stills seem to be dissipating.

Will Manso of WPLG Local 10 gave credit for how Flores handled the situation:

And Dolphins beat writer Hal Habib also relayed postgame comments from Stills, who didn't seem bothered by Flores' playlist choices:

"We talked about it in-house and he handled it in-house, but yeah, for the most part I think it was just him trying to see if I could handle this—if somebody was going to heckle me or play Jay-Z music in another stadium. If I was going to be mentally strong enough to withstand that type of treatment, I guess. But I’ve been dealing with this since 2016—music, boos, racial slurs, so I don’t think a little bit of Jay-Z is really going to ruffle my feathers."

The Dolphins open their season against the Baltimore Ravens at home Sunday, Sept. 8 at 1 p.m. ET.