MIAMI — Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is firing back at claims made by fired head coach Brian Flores in a lawsuit that names the NFL, Dolphins, Giants, Broncos and others, alleging discrimination and racist hiring practices.
Flores, fired following this past season after the 9-8 Dolphins missed the playoffs, dropped the bombshell lawsuit this week where he alleges he participated in a sham interview with the New York Giants for their head coaching vacancy this past month.
Flores he alleges that the Giants had already made up their mind to go with former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and that they just interviewed Flores to satisfy the NFL's "Rooney Rule." Evidence of that, the lawsuit says, is shown in texts from Bill Belichick congratulating Flores on the position when he had yet to do his pre-scheduled interview. Belichick meant to text Brian Daboll.
Apart from the Giants, Flores lobbed serious accusations at Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, claiming that Ross had offered to pay Flores $100,000 per loss in 2019, as he was angling for a better draft position. The lawsuit also alleges that Flores was pressured by Ross to violate NFL tampering rules to try and sign a prominent quarterback.
Ross released a statement late Wednesday night calling the accusations "false, malicious and defamatory." You can read his full statement below:
"With regards to the allegations being made by Brian Flores, I am a man of honor and integrity and cannot let them stand without responding," Ross wrote. "I take great personal exception to these malicious attacks, and the truth must be known. His allegations are false, malicious and defamatory.
"We understand that there are media reports stating that the NFL intends to investigate his claims, and we will cooperate fully. I welcome that investigation and I am eager to defend my personal integrity, and the integrity and values of the entire Miami Dolphins organization from these baseless, unfair and disparaging claims."
On Thursday's Peacock and Williamson NFL podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, hosts Brian Peacock and Matt Williamson discussed the lawsuit, and noted that the damage may already be done for Ross and the Dolphins.
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With the lawsuit, which names the NFL, Giants and Broncos as defendants for their role in forcing Black coaching candidates to participate in "sham" interviews, Peacock said he doesn’t think Flores is trying to win a court case or win some settlement.
“I don’t think Brian Flores is doing this to win a case in court," Brian Peacock said on the Peacock and Williamson podcast. "I think he’s doing this to make stuff public and to affect change. I think that is probably why he’s putting it all out there. Here’s everything that’s going on, whether there’s proof of it or not.”
Despite Ross' denial of Flores' accusations, Peacock said the Dolphins owner has already lost by these details coming to light.
“Stephen Ross already lost," Peacock said. "Even if (Ross) wins a court case if this gets that far, this is public. The Miami Dolphins are forever the team that tanked. This is out there. We will always remember Stephen Ross as the owner that tried to pay his coach to lose.”
The allegations put forth by Flores are now reigniting the "tanking" debate in the NFL, something that has been alleged in all major sports for years where teams "try" to lose in order to get a better draft spot in the end.
While the NBA has tried to solve that problem with a Draft Lottery, so even if you have the worst record, you may not get the top pick in the draft, the NFL doesn't have a lottery system.
While Matt Williamson said on the podcast that he doesn't have an issue with team's front offices doing a version of "tanking" based on roster construction, purposeful tanking at the coach and player level is very, very serious.
“It’s all about the sport’s integrity. I don’t think you’re going against the integrity of the league if the ownership and front office decides we’re going to trade our assets and put a bad team out there with the intention of not winning games," Williamson said. "But, if it gets to the coach and player level where they’re intentionally trying to lose games, that should be 'ban you for life' type stuff.”
The other place that these accusations could serious hurt the Dolphins right now is in their head coaching search. They're still on the hunt to replace Flores and are one of five (four if you count reports that the Vikings are going to hire Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell after the Super Bowl) teams who have not formally filled their head coaching vacancies.
It may make it more difficult to get a good candidate to sign on with allegations that his soon-to-be owner offered to pay a previous coach to intentionally lose games and violate tampering rules.
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