LAS VEGAS — When the Brian Flores lawsuit rocked the NFL world Tuesday, the most prominent angle was his complaint that the league isn’t doing enough to discourage discriminatory hiring processes when it comes to head coaches. But the more explosive allegation may well be that his own boss, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, tried to pay him to lose on purpose in 2019 for a better draft pick in 2020.
For an organization that defends the shield at all times, the NFL may need to take that accusation — and a similar one made by former Browns coach Hue Jackson a day later — even more seriously than any potential failures with adherence to the Rooney Rule. The league reportedly will investigate those claims, which call into question the integrity of individual games throughout a season and, accordingly, whether fans could be shelling out cash to go to games their franchises aren’t even trying to win.
“I would never be a part of something like that,” Steelers star pass rusher T.J. Watt said Thursday before Pro Bowl practice at Las Vegas Ballpark. “When you have guys that are so competitive, there’s no way I could possibly do that.”
Of course, the issue at hand is more with a concerted effort from front offices — and, in this case, coaches — to tank games or even an entire season. Players themselves have every motivation to play their best, produce and — ideally — set themselves up for more stats, more accolades and more money.
But if the decision makers atop the mastheads of individual teams believe that it could be better for them in the long run to lose before they can win, that presents a prickly situation for any sports league that wants every game to matter and thrill the paying customers. Now, the idea that rebuilding can be a sound long-term strategy is certainly nothing new. It happens in every major pro sport and in just about every city at some point, and it’s part and parcel with the entire concept of replenishing talent through a draft.
“I would never tank. To tank takes away from the game, something that we all contribute to and work at,” Steelers captain and NFL union rep Cam Heyward said Thursday at the Pro Bowl. “I just think for a team to do that would be a horrible look. I don’t know all the details, but any tanking, of any form, I’m not a fan of.”
What makes the bombshells from Flores and Jackson so significant is to see such brazen attempts at losing intentionally laid out in plain terms. In the Flores suit, he states that Ross tried to bribe him with $100,000 for each loss beyond his coaching salary in his first season. In the days since that surfaced, many have wondered that if Flores had truly bottomed out instead of leading Miami to a 5-11 record (and the fifth overall draft pick) would he have even kept his job?
“To attack the integrity of the game, that’s what I felt was happening in that instance,” Flores said on the “CBS Mornings” show Wednesday. “And I wouldn’t stand for it. ... I think it hurt my standing within the organization and ultimately was the reason why I was let go.”
Taking measures to lose can happen on a smaller scale, too, as evidenced by a Week 17 game early last year. The Eagles were accused of tanking that one against Washington so they could finish with just four wins and improve their draft position, although their loss cost the Giants a playoff spot and sent Washington to the postseason instead. Then-coach Doug Pedersen denied that he benched starting quarterback Jalen Hurts in the fourth quarter to make a loss more likely, but he faced harsh criticism and then was fired about a week later.
Jackson, on the other hand, found himself confused that his job security looked better and better every time his team failed on the field. He backed Flores by revealing that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam offered him financial bonuses to tank as part of a four-year plan to remake the roster and become competitive. The Browns went 1-15 in 2016 and winless in 2017, using back-to-back No. 1 picks on Myles Garrett and Baker Mayfield as a result.
“I wasn’t offered for $100,000 every game, but there was a substantial amount of money made within what happened in the situation every year at the end of it,” Jackson said Wednesday on ESPN. “I didn’t really, truly understand why until all those numbers, you add it up, and you go, ‘What is this?’ ... No coach takes a job to lose.”
The Steelers faced Jackson’s Cleveland teams during those two historically lean years and went 4-0. He actually was fired after losing to them in Week 8 of 2018, seven games after playing them to a tie in Cleveland. They also matched up with Flores and the Dolphins in that 2019 season, an easy 27-14 win on a Monday night at Heinz Field, even with Mason Rudolph filling in at quarterback for Ben Roethlisberger.
For their part, the Dolphins and Browns have denied the allegations.
As the 2022 draft takes center stage in a couple months, much will be made of what the Steelers should do with the 20th overall pick. You likely have friends and family who wish they would be on the clock even sooner, even if it had meant dropping more games and not making the playoffs. Mike Tomlin’s 15 seasons of never having a losing record is one of the most-cited statistics for current coaches, and one that the NFL would likely hold up as, well, the standard if the league becomes mired in a tanking controversy through all the Flores fallout.
