Over the last several years, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and the NFL in general, have had to deal with all sorts of “-Gate” scandals. From SpyGate to BountyGate to DeflateGate, the league has tried to close these gates with severe punishments meted out to those involved and responsible.
If what former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores alleged in his class-action complaint against the NFL is true, the league will have a “-Gate” on its hands the likes of which it has never seen before.
The primary focus of Flores’ action is the league’s woeful history of hiring and promoting coaches of color, but this one bombshell put the focus in another direction.
From the complaint, filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York:
In January 2022, Mr. Flores, who spent three years as the Head Coach of Defendant Miami Dolphins, Ltd. (the “Dolphins” or “Miami”), found himself without a job. He was fired by the Dolphins after leading the team to its first back-to-back winning seasons since 2003. The purported basis for his termination was alleged poor collaboration. In reality, the writing had been on the wall since Mr. Flores’ first season as Head Coach of the Dolphins, when he refused his owner’s directive to “tank” for the first pick in the draft. 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.”
Flores also claimed that he was fired, in part, because he refused to participate.
“We are aware of the lawsuit through the media reports that came out this afternoon,” the Dolphins said in a Tuesday statement. “We vehemently deny any allegations of racial discrimination and are proud of the diversity and inclusion throughout our organization. The implication that we acted in a manner inconsistent with the integrity of the game is incorrect. We will be withholding further comment on the lawsuit at this time.”
Obviously, accusing a team owner of wanting to throw games, and offering to pay his coaches to do so, is as severe a non-criminal charge as can be leveled in any sport. While there was widespread conjecture that the 2019 Dolphins were “tanking” their season for higher draft picks during the season, Flores’ ability to get the team back on track with a 5-11 finish after an 0-7 start put those thoughts to rest in the minds of most.
This after the team traded quarterback Ryan Tannehill, edge-rusher Robert Quinn, left tackle Laremy Tunsil, receiver Kenny Stills, linebacker Kiko Alonso, defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick, and running back Kenyan Drake between March and October, 2019.
As Flores led this formerly gutted team to winning seasons in 2020 and 2021 (the first Dolphins head coach to have two straight winning seasons since Dave Wannstedt in 2002 and 2003), his January 10 firing came as a surprise, and many of Flores’ former players were not happy about it.
Dolphins players react emotionally, unhappily to Brian Flores’ firing
On Wednesday, NFL Network reporter Cameron Wolfe, who formerly covered the Miami Dolphins (among other subjects) for ESPN, told NFL Now host Omar Ruiz that he spoke with one of the potential witness who may be able to confirm Flores’ accusations, and that there are multiple potential witnesses.
As I mention at end, I spoke with a witness who said he heard Steve Ross offer Brian Flores 100K for every 2019 loss.
Flores’ team says they have corroborating evidence including messages from GM Chris Grier. IF proven, integrity of game in Q. Dolphins denied the allegations. https://t.co/KnIPjHMhjb
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) February 2, 2022
If that’s the case, and there are multiple people willing to corroborate Flores’ version of events, the NFL has a problem it hasn’t had since Pete Rozelle suspended Paul Hornung and Alex Karras in 1963 for betting on NFL games. Rozelle also fined five Detroit Lions players $2,000 each — Joe Schmidt, Wayne Walker, John Gordy, Gary Lowe and Sam Williams — for betting on the Green Bay Packers to beat the New York Giants in the 1962 NFL Championship game.
Obviously, the specter of a team owner scuttling his team’s season, and offering to play his head coach to do so, falls in a far more serious category than a handful of players making side bets on the Packers here and there. If true, Ross’ malfeasance would be more reminiscent of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, when a handful of disgruntled Chicago White Sox players looked to enhance their income by throwing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
All players involved in that fix were banned from Major League Baseball for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a former federal judge who was brought in by team owners to give the public faith in the game again. The Black Sox scandal was far from the only instance of players gambling on the game at the time — in fact, the practice was common in the early 20th century. But it was Landis’ scorched-earth methods, and insistence on absolute autonomy from the owners, that put the toothpaste back in the tune, so to speak.
Roger Goodell would face a similar existential crisis if Flores’ allegations are proven to be true, and the very least he and the NFL’s team owners would have to do in that case would be to force Ross to sell the team, and forbid Ross or any of his representatives from ever participating in NFL ownership ever again.
Because in Ross’ case, there’s another potential issue.
In 2019, at the same time he was allegedly trying to get Flores to lose games on purpose, Ross invested in sports gambling startup The Action Network as part of a $17.5 million fundraising round. Ross did so through his company, RSE Ventures.
“For the Action Network, it’s affirming to our strategy to have all four of the major US sports as investors,” CEO Patrick Keane said at the time. “To be able to call on the counsel of these kinds of owners is super-helpful to the company.”
It could also create super-thorny conflicts of interest if, say, a team owner was encouraging his coaches to lose games. There is no way to separate one entity from the other when it comes to the appearance of impropriety. It certainly gives Ross even more hard questions to answer as Flores’ lawsuit proceeds, and potentially gives the NFL the kind of headache it’s never had to survive before.
