MIAMI — Among the potentially seismic allegations Brian Flores made in his racial-discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and Miami Dolphins on Tuesday, one of the most stunning pieces was an accusation team owner Stephen M. Ross bribed Flores to lose games during the 2019 NFL season.
In the 58-page lawsuit, Flores said Ross offered him $100,000 per loss in 2019 as Ross hoped the Dolphins would lose enough games to land the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL draft. On Wednesday, one of Flores’ lawyers said there’s corroborating evidence for Flores’ claims, beyond what is detailed in the lawsuit.
“We’re going to prove that if this case continues to go,” Douglas Wigdor told CNN. “There’s going to be corroborating evidence, there’s going to be other witnesses, there’s going to be emails and texts. We’re confident in that allegation. As Brian said, you don’t just make that up.”
Wigdor LLP and Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek are jointly representing Flores in his case, which was filed with the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.
Less than 24 hours later, Flores embarked on a media tour Wednesday, making appearances on CBS, CNN and ESPN throughout the morning, with Wigdor and John Elefterakis, to discuss the suit.
On CNN, Flores was asked whether Ross explicitly made him the offer of $100,000 per loss and Flores said, “Yes he did, absolutely, 100 percent.”
“That’s not something you make up,” he said.
Miami fired Flores last month after three seasons, including back-to-back winning seasons in 2020 and 2021-22. Flores said what he believes is lack of cooperation in this regard contributed to his eventual firing.
“I would say that strained a lot of relationships in Miami,” Flores said.
Wigdor said Flores did not accept the payments, which would have amounted to $1.1 million after the Dolphins lost 11 games in 2019, exceeding preseason and early-season expectations as they began the year with seven straight losses.
Miami ultimately wound up with the No. 5 pick in the 2020 draft and selected quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. The Cincinnati Bengals landed the No. 1 pick and drafted star quarterback Joe Burrow, who led the Bengals to Super Bowl 56 on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the Dolphins, in a statement, said they “vehemently deny any allegations of racial discrimination and are proud of the diversity and inclusion throughout our organization denied the allegations made in the suit.”
“The implication that we acted in a manner inconsistent with the integrity of the game is incorrect,” the statement continued. “We will be withholding further comment on the lawsuit at this time.”
General manager Chris Grier was in Alabama on Tuesday for the Senior Bowl but has not been made available to speak to reporters since the season ended.
On ESPN’s “Get Up,” Flores reiterated his claims and provided more detail.
“That was a conversation about not doing as much as we needed to do to win football games: ‘Take a flight, go on vacation, I’ll give you $100,000 per loss,’ ” Flores told ESPN. “Those are his exact words.”
Flores said he told Ross, “That’s never going to happen.”
“I’m always going to try to win. That’s who I am and I owe that to the players in the locker room, but also the support staff that’s in the building who work extremely hard,” Flores said. “If you’ve been in an NFL building, everyone in that building’s job is important, and everyone works hard to try to get on the same page and move in the same direction and I felt like we were building that type of culture. I would never do that to them and, at the end of the day, I think it was the reason why I’m no longer there.”
Both Wigdor and Elefterakis said other minority coaches have reached out to them about being in similar situations, both with regards to racial discrimination and being incentivized to lose games.
Hue Jackson, who is also Black, on Tuesday also suggested he was incentivized to lose games while coaching the Cleveland Browns. The executive director of Jackson’s foundation claimed on Twitter they had records that would support Flores’ case, and that Jackson and other Browns executives were given bonuses to tank in 2016 and 2017.
Jackson, who was fired after totaling a 3-36-1 record in two-plus seasons and now coaches the FCS Grambling State Tigers, wrote on Twitter: “I stand with Brian Flores. I can back up every word I’m saying.”
Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell, who was previously Miami’s interim coach and is currently in Mobile to coach the National team in the Senior Bowl, declined to comment when asked about the suit, saying he doesn’t know the “ins and outs to that.”
Campbell was the Dolphins’ interim coach in 2015 after they fired coach Joe Philbin. He said his time in Miami was “good.”
Said Campbell: “I can’t think of any negative interactions I had with Steve Ross or anybody involved there.”
