Brian Flores’ lawsuit contains numerous bombshell claims, including one about tanking that will blow your mind.
Flores is suing the New York Giants for alleged racial discrimination. He says text messages he received from Bill Belichick proved the Giants had decided to hire Brian Daboll as head coach prior to even interviewing Flores for the position. The text messages appear to be concrete proof that the Giants violated the spirit of the Rooney Rule (see the messages here).
In addition to the allegations against the Giants, Flores makes more damning claims in his suit. He accuses the Denver Broncos of giving him a sham interview in 2019 before hiring Vic Fangio as head coach. He also has some huge allegations about the Dolphins.
In his lawsuit, Flores alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay him $100,000 per loss to lose games in the 2019 season.
The 2019 season was Flores’ first on the job.
Here is what the lawsuit says:
“Indeed, during the 2019 season, Miami’s owner, Stephen Ross, told Mr. Flores that he would pay him $100,000 for every loss, and the team’s General Manager, Chris Grier, told Mr. Flores that ‘Steve’” was ‘mad’ that Mr. Flores’ success in winning games that year was ‘compromising [the team’s] draft position.'”
As early as Jan. 2019, a report said the Dolphins were tanking. The team traded away many top players entering the season. Then they began that season 0-7 and were absolutely embarrassed in the first three games of the season, losing by a combined 133-16. The competition committee even was set to look into the team for losing so badly.
The Dolphins then went 5-4 over their next nine games, including winning the final two games of the season, to finish 5-11. They ended up with the No. 5 pick in the draft, while the 1-15 Bengals got the first pick.
Cincinnati took Joe Burrow, while the Dolphins drafted Tua Tagovailoa. The Chargers selected Justin Herbert the pick after Miami took Tua.
This isn’t the first time we have heard this allegation. We also heard all about the Dolphins’ tanking efforts all that season.
The NFL will have to look into this allegation seriously as it would undermine the integrity of the game. You also have to wonder about Ross’ competence in this situation.
Good NFL head coaches make multiple millions per season. Why would any coach permanently stain their reputation by losing over a maximum of $1.6 million, when the financial reward for being a good/winning head coach is so much greater? As Mike Tomlin would say, there isn’t an owner with a blank check big enough that should convince a head coach to tank.
The league will not be happy about that allegation.
