While Tuesday morning’s news will significantly alter the Dolphins’ draft plans, the allegations of tanking brought forth by former head coach Brian Flores are now in the team’s rear-view mirror. The NFL cleared the organization of wrongdoing here.
The Dolphins did not intentionally lose games, nor did Stephen Ross instruct Flores to do so to improve the team’s draft slot, per the investigation (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). Flores accused Ross of offering him $100K per loss in 2019. The NFL is not disputing Flores’ claim about the $100K offer but determined Ross’ proposal for losses was not to be interpreted as serious.
“Even if made in jest and not intended to be taken seriously, comments suggesting that draft position is more important than winning can be misunderstood and carry with them an unnecessary potential risk to the integrity of the game,” Roger Goodell said in a statement. “The comments made by Mr. Ross did not affect Coach Flores’ commitment to win and the Dolphins competed to win every game. Coach Flores is to be commended for not allowing any comment about the relative importance of draft position to affect his commitment to win throughout the season.”
[RELATED: Dolphins Docked First-, Third-Round Picks For Tampering]
Flores, whose tampering accusations led to punishment for Ross and the Dolphins, said he wrote a letter to Dolphins executives indicating concern about the owner’s offer. Flores had also alleged that GM Chris Grier informed him Ross was mad when the team’s wins down the stretch that season compromised its 2020 draft position.
Although Ross will be tied to the tampering charge, the investigation’s other interviews did not lend support to Flores’ account he was given a serious offer to lose games for draft positioning. Such an offer, even coming in jest, acknowledged as fact does not look great for Ross — who is having a rather eventful day — but the longtime Dolphins owner nevertheless avoided a multi-penalty morning.
“I am thankful that the NFL’s investigator found my factual allegations against Stephen Ross are true,” Flores said in a statement. “At the same time, I am disappointed to learn that the investigator minimized Mr. Ross’s offers and pressure to tank games, especially when I wrote and submitted a letter at the time to Dolphins executives documenting my serious concerns regarding this subject at the time, which the investigator has in her possession. While the investigator found that the Dolphins had engaged in impermissible tampering of ‘unprecedented scope and severity,’ Mr. Ross will avoid any meaningful consequence.”
Pertaining to the tanking accusation, the NFL determined the 2019 Dolphins — who had gutted their roster to begin a rebuild that year — “tried hard to win every game, including at the end of the year when they beat Cincinnati and New England, despite worsening Miami’s position in the 2020 draft.”
The Flores-led team’s upset wins late that season dropped Miami’s top 2020 draft choice to No. 5, when Tua Tagovailoa went off the board. The Dolphins were interested in packaging all three picks for Joe Burrow, but the Bengals were uninterested in that swap.
“The independent investigation cleared our organization on any issues related to tanking and all of Brian Flores other allegations,” Ross said in a statement. “As I have said all along, these allegations were false, malicious and defamatory, and this issue is now put to rest.”
The Dolphins’ roster purge led the likes of Ryan Tannehill, Laremy Tunsil, Minkah Fitzpatrick and others off the roster in 2019. Given the product the team was putting on the field to start that season, one that began with a 59-10 loss to the Ravens, Flores helming that Dolphins iteration to a 5-11 record made for a major surprise. It also prevented the Dolphins from securing the Burrow draft slot. The three-year Dolphins HC certainly did not accuse players or his staff of trying to lose games, making the upset over the Patriots moot with regards to his accusation Ross offered him bonuses for losses. But Tuesday’s report including that as evidence is nonetheless interesting.
Flores has also sued the Dolphins, along with other teams and the NFL, for racial discrimination during their hiring processes. Steve Wilks and Ray Horton have joined that class-action lawsuit. That matter remains ongoing, but the $100K-per-loss saga is now behind the Dolphins, who will deal with the consequences from the tampering penalties in the coming years.
Ha ha Brian! No bank records showing losses adding up in his account?
He never claimed he took the payment.
I know. So it was a baseless claim & proven by this report. He wasn’t a very competent HC, happens all the time. And for Brian to sit on those accusations for 2 years and only to say them upon being fired tells me he was lying. If the team went to the playoffs, it would never have come up by Brian.
The NFL even validated his claims, but used a joke defense to brush them aside. And it’s ludicrous to say he was incompetent. Winning 5 games in 2019 with that torn down roster was vastly overachieving. He then led them to winning records in two straight seasons, despite horrendous offensive lines and rocky QB situations, while coming off a scorched earth rebuild.
90% of the time, all new HC’s inherit a bad roster. Lovie Smith, M Eberflus, Jags Pederson, Daboll NYG, Minny’s O’Connell, McDaniels in Miami, Allen in NO all have bad rosters this year.
I can see Bowles, McDaniels, & Hackett having what would be considered above average rosters this season. And Hackett is saved by the Russ trade otherwise a sub 500 roster.
I have never heard of co-OC’s before, but Brian did that. He feuded with Tua and from everything I have read wasn’t liked by the majority of players. Tried being Bill B mean and it didn’t work. Same for all of Bill’s other failed HC’s; Patrcia and Judge.
Only Houston and Chicago this year have comparably bad rosters to the one Flores inherited. NO and Miami are wildly better rosters this year. And despite all that, he turned in winning seasons two of his three years coaching.
You can defend him all you want. He’s an average HC (24-25 record says average to me). He clearly didn’t mind trading Tunsil & M Fitz while both were on rookie contracts. Tunsil has had a solid career w/ The Texans and M Fitz is a gold standard at safety for Pitt.
Miami and NO m ay hover around 500 this year, but I don’t expect them too.
You think he wanted those guys traded? That’s on Grier, like the horrific drafting. And he led them to their first consecutive winning seasons since the early 2000s, then was fired.
Well then Brian was even more foolish to take the job and have no responsibility over the roster. I can’t believe a coach coming from NE would cede 100% of roster building.
When a HC forfeits any say in the roster, they are set up to fail. He didn’t have to take the offer if he wasn’t satisfied with it.
Coaches get final say on the roster usually, but they don’t usually get a say in trades. Especially a rookie coach. Agreed that he still could’ve declined the offer if he didn’t like it but who knows. Maybe it wasn’t a concern for him going in or he got overruled by the higher ups.
Do you follow the Dolphins at all? Did you start watching football just a year ago or something? The team Flores inherited was horrendous. And after the first few games, people thought they could realistically go 0-16 with one of the worst point differentials of all time.
Regardless of all of this publicity he’s gotten over the last year, Flores is a fine coach.
I know the game, probably better than you. He accepted the Miami job. So start pandering about his roster. Brian could have declined after interviewing. He didn’t and 3 years later was 1 game under 500. That will always get HC’s fired.
…stop pandering…
“I know the game, probably better than you.” Now that’s a baseless claim!
Only been following it since the 1970’s. How about you? First thing google came up with in my search ‘how long does an NLF HC last?
The average tenure for an NFL coach is approximately just 3.2 years. Just one day removed from the final game of the professional football season, five coaches have already lost their jobs, with at least a few more firings expected this week.
Here’s the link link to google.com
Anything else rook?
Appeal to authority. Fallacy. Does someone who watches Law & Order on tv for 20 years automatically know more than someone who’s been a lawyer for a week?
It’s not baseless if the NFL literally said it happened in the report but believes it was said in jest. It’s the league protecting one of their own, imo. Ross and Snyder are in a rare class of owner right now, that give off very bad optics. Add the Watson mess and the league is juggling investigations, inquiries and public relations at every turn, every day.
Humor is now outlawed? That’s what in jest means. Like I said, if Brian would have won and made the playoffs, he never would have made that claim.
‘In jest’ is interpretive, and the NFL is conveniently interpreting it as a joke to protect Ross, especially on a day when they fined/suspended him. I would not be surprised if there was a backroom deal made where they clear him of this (to save the NFL’s reputation; can’t have owners literally trying to lose games) but impose the harsh penalties on the tampering thing.
If what you’re saying has even a little bit of merit, that means the NFL is rigged. There are plenty of billionaires that would like a pro team, especially in the NFL. Big bucks to be earned. The NFL isn’t short on perceptive buyers & especially with the way values of teams are going. D. Tepper paid around $2B a few years back for Carolina. This year Denver, similar size market as Charolette, was double the price.
Sometimes you can’t coach the way you want because your GM has a big ego.
How can you laugh at this guy? He exposed behaviors and guess what, Ross doesn’t play by the rules. But billionaires outweigh coaching making a few millions. Plus the can of worms that would be created would be bad for the NFL right? Who made the quote saying that jokes about tanking can be “misunderstood”? Roger Goodell and whose job is it to protect the owners? Roger Goodell so if you don’t think more is going on than you’re nieve.
So the NFL said Flores’ claims were true, but that Ross was kidding? That’s quite a conclusion to reach.
Not really Oooof and no one really knows.
Misunderstandings happen all the time and this is a plausible scenario.
Also, Flores is a great defensive mind but was clearly not ready to be a head coach because his interpersonal and leadership skills are lacking.
This might be another example.
His leadership skills were so lacking that he led them to their first consecutive winning seasons in almost two decades.
If you read the horror stories about his leadership style at Miami, you’d understand what I’m saying.
It’s not about game management.
Comprehension and loyalty are a few other traits where he’s lacking. You want guys running your team on game day that can’t differentiate a legit offer from a joke? And if he thought it was legit why wouldn’t you stop right there, who would want to work in such conditions?
Ah yes, very serious and plausible alternative there.
Tell me where that’s wrong. He couldn’t tell a joke from a serious statement and he tattled on them so why the delay? Oh, he got fired and wanted to drag them down.
Fire someone unreasonably and he stops keeping his mouth shut.
I haven’t heard one of those stories and I read a lot so please share an article with us.
Randy – Here’s an excerpt from one article:
“What Ross did mention, though, was the fact that Miami was not collaborating and working well as an organization. There was a disconnect between the team’s leader (Flores) and those on his staff. What’s wild about the relationship between Flores and his team is that he essentially stopped all communication around Thanksgiving. This coming with a month and a half remaining in the year, in the midst of a winning streak and playoff run. The Dolphins ended the season on an 8-1 run despite Flores’ assistants allegedly not knowing what was going on. With these reports continuing to surface, it’s no wonder management moved on.”
So Flores was right but because he went on to win games then Ross is in the clear.
League really is a joke
Yeah, the conclusion I reached was that, as an owner, you’re allowed to pressure and incentivize the team/coach to tank, but you’re exonerated from blame so long as the latter two parties ignore you and remain competitive. Makes perfect sense
Yeah this whole thing stinks. I interpreted it as “Ross encouraged tanking but he was probably joking and the Dolphins won anyway so it didn’t really matter”.
Maybe my tin foil hat is on too tight but I don’t think its a coincidence that they lumped this together with the tampering stuff, a day after the Watson ruling. NFL is hoping this will cover up all the criticism they’ve been getting the past day for how the Watson ruling turned out. Then you lump the tanking accusation with the tampering stuff. The tanking accusation kind of gets swept under the rug as everyone talks about the tampering punishment. Worst case scenario, they’ll spit something out saying that they thought the punishment was adequate for the tampering AND the tanking accusation.
Coverup by the nfl. They just suspended the owner for tampering, but hey, he doesn’t do bad things like tanking? Please.
Brady in the thick of another NFL court case, shocking.
Yeah, the coach must have made up lies but then why as the Dolphines owner suspended and the team punished?
National Faultless Liar gangs!
As far as I know a 0-17 team and 17-0 team get the same revenue share from those lucrative deals the NFL has with the broadcast networks. There’s nothing gained by attempting to tank.
There are other revenue streams helped greatly by winning and merchandise sales, not to mention desire to win before kicking the bucket. Ironically, going into that year, people thought the target of tanking would be Tua. Whoops.
0-17 doesn’t fill the seats. Where’s the money coming from to make up for that
Seattle’s owner has a large position in Microsoft and Denver’s new owner has Walmart. Almost every owner has similar strong financial positions outside of the NFL. Anything they get from stadium revenue is just gravy.
Flores got HOSED.
NFL doesn’t want it on record that TANKING actually takes place.
We all know it does.
My thoughts exactly
“Clown Court finds No Clowns”