Let’s start on page 5, paragraph 14, with Brian Flores’ supposedly faulty communication skills, the ones Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross cited in firing him as the team’s coach three weeks ago.
There, in plain and flammable English, begin the allegations that could get Ross separated from the Dolphins due to the owner’s questionable communication. Is quid pro quo a language the threatened owner can communicate in?
Ross offered Flores $100,000 for each game the Dolphins lost in 2019, the former Dolphins coach alleges in a lawsuit against the NFL for racist hiring practices. It adds how general manager Chris Grier said Ross was “mad,” that the team’s wins were “compromising” their draft position.
What’s the difference between an owner offering big money for his coach to throw games and some player shaving points with gamblers?
Answer: A big and powerful difference, considering one has the direct ability to fire a coach who doesn’t obey. That’s what Flores alleges was a prime reason he was eventually fired, too, after his five wins that season cost the team the No. 1 draft pick.
It’s such an incendiary charge that Ross should be less concerned what the NFL thinks about this than the FBI. Isn’t this a textbook allegation of attempting to fix games? Of attempting to bribe an employee in a game where millions of betting dollars on the line? Of — if we’re communicating properly — racketeering?
It’s all part of Flores’ 58-page lawsuit against the NFL that is equal parts historical and combustible. He doesn’t just name names. He names the biggest names, names their most private conversations and names the nefarious ways he feels the league is purposely tilted against black coaches.
Curt Flood once sacrificed his baseball career to gain free agency for players. Flores has sacrificed his coaching career to fight what is alleged racism in NFL hiring practices.
Flores, to be sure, won’t coach again in today’s NFL. But he might coach down the line in tomorrow’s NFL, the one he will no doubt help shape with this lawsuit. Everything changes now, because everyone’s on trial now. League executives. Owners. General managers. Everyone.
New England coach Bill Belichick’s recent text after congratulating Flores for getting the New York Giants’ job sits atop the lawsuit. Belichick says he mistakenly meant to text another Brian — Brian Daboll. He sent it before Flores’ “sham” interview was held, the lawsuit alleges. Think Belichick will invest in some reader glasses to get those pesky phone names right?
Flores’ lawsuit also mentions how John Elway, the legendary quarterback and Denver Broncos’ executive, showed up an hour late and apparently hungover to interview Flores in 2019. As if the interview didn’t even matter.
The big, punishing broadsides are saved for Ross, though, in a manner that will make the Dolphins owner fight for his franchise — assuming he wants to fight them. Beyond allegedly trying to fix games, there’s a simple NFL-style felony of trying to steal another team’s quarterback.
The lawsuit alleges how Ross wanted Flores to, “recruit a “prominent quarterback in violation of League tampering rules” after the 2019 season. Flores refused.
In the winter of 2020, Ross invited Flores to meet at a yacht when that same quarterback, “conveniently” showed up at the marina, the lawsuit says. Ross attempted carry through with a planned meeting, it says. Flores refused and left the marina.
The quarterback is one name not named in the lawsuit. But come on. New England’s Tom Brady was on the outs with Belichick in 2019. He was property of the Patriots until becoming a free agent the winter of 2020. Flores worked with Brady for 15 years in that franchise. Connect the dots.
The larger point alleged in the lawsuit is that, “From that point forward, Mr. Flores was ostracized and ultimately fired.” It added he was given an “angry black man” stigma in the media.
The big-picture of the lawsuit states it was filed on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, for a purposeful reason.
“In certain critical ways, the NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation,” it reads. “Its 32 owners — none of whom are Black — profit substantially from the labor of NFL players, 70 percent of whom are black. The owners watch the games atop the NFL stadiums in their luxury boxes, while their majority-Black workforce put their bodies on the line every Sunday …”
Here’s a guess: One team owner will be in a fight to watch games again from his luxury box. Steve Ross’ tenure has been marred by Bullygate, by a cocaine-sniffing assistant coach and years of unsuccessful seasons.
Those are foot blisters for Ross compared to this lawsuit. The Dolphins owner is alleged to offer his coach $100,000 to fix games. Forget the Patriots. Here comes the FBI. That’s one team you don’t want on the schedule.
Ross fired Flores for a lack of, “communication and collaboration.” Flores still lacks that collaboration gene, as this lawsuit attests. But his communication skills are honed enough that Ross better prepare for a legal fight of his own if he wants to remain owner of the Dolphins — if that’s even possible now.