Brian Flores continues to gain momentum with his lawsuit, which has now reportedly seen witnesses corroborate one of his key claims.
According to reports, Flores has someone to back up his claims that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per loss in 2019 in hopes of improving the team’s draft position.
The team started the season 0-7 before winning 5 of their final 9 games, including their final two against Cincinnati and New England to finish at 5-11.
That saw them end up with the #5 overall pick, which they used to select Alabama quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa.
That, in and of itself, turned into a mess. Ross already seemed to doubt the long-term viability of Tagovailoa, especially after the pursuit of Deshaun Watson last season. That set up an uncomfortable situation as Miami heavily explored acquiring Watson last year, before eventually backing out of the running for his services.
Tagovailoa has battled injuries and has been inconsistent in his two seasons with Miami, but having little security and an uncertain future likely didn’t help the situation. He’s already made it known that the entire fiasco was tough on him, but the Dolphins seem to be past all that as most reports seem to indicate the new coaching staff will build around him.
Meanwhile, the guy who directed them to back-to-back winning seasons is out of work, and the more we learn, the more there seems to be to the story. While nothing Flores does will see him resume his coaching career there, he’s burning down the franchise that did him wrong and Ross could potentially find himself forced to sell his franchise if things continue down the road they appear to be on. And given some of the other legal speculation that’s out there, that might end up not even being the worst thing that happens to him.
As for the NFL, the league has denied any wrongdoing regarding Flores’ claims of racism or discrimination. They’ve also said little about the tanking allegations, which likely means they’re at least looking into it.
But give Flores credit. He’s committed to seeing this through and it’s a cause he truly believes in. He’s already made it clear that he’s not concerned about his coaching future, knowing full well this could possibly cost him that opportunity. He’s more concerned about shining a light on a problem most people already knew existed. Instead, with the Super Bowl now looming, it’s all coming out during the time when the league is already in the spotlight, which they’re probably not happy about.
As a result, it’s going to be interesting to see whether Roger Goodell addresses the “integrity of the game” by trying to sweep all this under the rug, or if he’ll let the Dolphins be the sacrificial lamb to try and make it look like the NFL really does care enough to do the right thing.
Either way, this whole thing seems like it’s just getting started and it will likely continue to be one of the more fascinating stories to monitor, especially if any additional details continue to come forward.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
