One sure way to deflect criticism when pressed on any statement, no matter how odious, is to insist that you were only joking Whether you’re a first-grade kid or the President of the United States (there are times when it’s tough to tell the difference), it’s an easy out, albeit with variable effectiveness.
In the case of Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, the accusations made against him by former head coach Brian Flores regarding “tanking” (intentionally losing games) for more favorable future draft picks, the NFL decided after a six-month investigation by former U.S. Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White and, a team of lawyers from the Debevoise law firm, that those accusations were without merit. The accusations regarding the Dolphins tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton, however, had merit, and the team has been punished accordingly.
Ross, never one to avoid pressing his luck in the worst possible fashion, immediately went hard with a statement.
Statement from Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross: pic.twitter.com/M1SEwzejDP
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 2, 2022
Yeah, well, about all that. When you read the NFL’s statement on the tanking allegations closely, it’s clear that it was discussed. From that statement:
- The Dolphins did not intentionally lose games during the 2019 season. Nor did anyone at the club, including Mr. Ross, instruct Coach Flores to do so. No witness contended otherwise. The Dolphins competed hard to win every game, including at the end of the season when they beat Cincinnati and New England, despite worsening Miami’s position in the 2020 draft.
- On a number of occasions during the 2019 season, Mr. Ross expressed his belief that the Dolphins’ position in the upcoming 2020 draft should take priority over the team’s win-loss record. These comments were made most frequently to Team President and CEO Tom Garfinkel, but were also made to General Manager Chris Grier, Senior Vice President Brandon Shore and Coach Flores. These comments, which he took to be suggestions that he lose games, troubled Coach Flores and led him to express his concerns in writing to senior club executives, each of whom assured Coach Flores that everyone, including Mr. Ross, supported him in building a winning culture in Miami. After this, Mr. Ross no longer made any such comments to Coach Flores.
- One such comment is a claimed offer by Mr. Ross to pay Coach Flores $100,000 to lose games, as to which there are differing recollections about the wording, timing, and context. However phrased, such a comment was not intended or taken to be a serious offer, nor was the subject pursued in any respect by Mr. Ross or anyone else at the club.
“Every club is expected to make a good faith effort to win every game,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in the statement. “The integrity of the game, and public confidence in professional football, demand no less. An owner or senior executive must understand the weight that his or her words carry, and the risk that a comment will be taken seriously and acted upon, even if that is not the intent or expectation.
“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. 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.”
The NFL would rather poke itself in its collective eye with something sharp than fall to any admission about the integrity of the on-field product, and thus, we revert to the “I was just kidding” defense. This was laid out by White and her team, and acknowledged by Goodell, and that was the seeming end of it.
Flores, now the senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, had this to say in his own statement:
Brian Flores statement pic.twitter.com/jdASYx9oNg
— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) August 2, 2022
In February, Flores filed a class-action claim against the Dolphins, claiming racist hiring practices, and he also dropped this bombshell via his legal team:
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.”
Not too different in scope than “One such comment is a claimed offer by Mr. Ross to pay Coach Flores $100,000 to lose games, as to which there are differing recollections about the wording, timing, and context. However phrased, such a comment was not intended or taken to be a serious offer, nor was the subject pursued in any respect by Mr. Ross or anyone else at the club” from the White report.
The NFL is claiming differences in tone and context in this matter, when the truth is, every side has agreed that there were these discussions — thata team owner “expressed his belief that the Dolphins’ position in the upcoming 2020 draft should take priority over the team’s win-loss record.” There is no way to slice and dice such a statement in a way that does not cast serious aspersions upon a team’s intent to win at all times.
Ross’ insistence that he and the Dolphins have been cleared of “all of Brian Flores (sic) allegations” is especially egregious, because the White investigation didn’t even step into the scope of Flores shredding the NFL’s allegedly racist hiring practices. One assumes that the NFL did not include any such investigation in the report, if there has been such an internal investigation, because Flores’ lawsuit is ongoing. In June, the league filed a claim to have Flores’ lawsuit moved to arbitration, which would ostensibly allow the league to avoid a expanded and public discovery process.
At this point, it’s easy to imagine that everyone over at 345 Park Avenue is thinking, the less discovery, the better.