Brian Flores Claims Dolphins Owner Offered To Pay Him $100K For Every Loss To Tank For No. 1 Pick

Former Dolphins HC Brian Flores has filed a lawsuit against the NFL and the New York Giants alleging racial discrimination during the hiring process. 

Flores cites specific text messages from Patriots HC Bill Belichick in which he appears to mistakenly congratulating Brian Daboll for getting the Giants head coaching job despite the fact he was texting with Flores. 

In the lawsuit, Flores alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay him $100,00 for every game he lost so that they could tank for the No. 1 overall pick that eventually became Joe Burrow. 

“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.”

The lawsuit also claims that Ross set up an impromptu meeting with a “prominent quarterback in violation of league tampering rules” but Flores refused to compile and it ultimately impacted his stand with the team. 

“After the end of the 2019 season, Mr. Ross began to pressure Mr. Flores to recruit
a prominent quarterback in violation of League tampering rules. Mr. Flores repeatedly refused to comply with these improper directives. Undeterred, in the winter of 2020, Mr. Ross invited Mr. Flores onto a yacht for lunch. Shortly after he arrived, Mr. Ross told Mr. Flores that the prominent quarterback was “conveniently” arriving at the marina. Obviously, Mr. Ross had attempted to “set up” a purportedly impromptu meeting between Mr. Flores and the prominent quarterback. Mr. Flores refused the meeting and left the yacht immediately. After the incident, Mr. Flores was treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with.

“From that point forward, Mr. Flores was ostracized and ultimately he was fired.
He was subsequently defamed throughout the media and the League as he was labeled by the Dolphins brass as someone who was difficult to work with. This is reflective of an all too
familiar “angry black man” stigma that is often casted upon Black men who are strong in their morals and convictions while white men are coined as passionate for those very same attributes.”

The lawsuit later explains Flores side of the story in terms of him being fired as the Dolphins’ head coach despite a winning record this past season. 

“The following year, in 2020, despite this discriminatory treatment, the Dolphins improbably won 10 games, narrowly missing the playoffs, and Mr. Flores was mentioned as a potential coach of the year candidate. In 2021, Miami again finished with a winning record, and fans, pundits and experts all agree the team played extraordinarily hard for Mr. Flores. Nonetheless, Mr. Flores was terminated just three years into his five-year contract with the
Dolphins. He was told that he was being terminated for “poor collaboration,” which itself has discriminatory undertones.

“Mr. Flores’ only failure to collaborate was his refusal to tank the 2019 season as
had been requested by Mr. Ross. When he refused, and then over-performed and led the team to winning records in two consecutive seasons with a roster few experts predicted could do so—he was fired.

“Mr. Flores was discharged from his duties as the Dolphins Head Coach on January 10, 2022. Countless current and former players, executives and media analysts expressed their dismay at Mr. Flores’ termination,29 and he immediately became one of the top Head Coach candidates on the market.”

Flores interviewed for a number of head coaching jobs this offseason including the Giants, Bears, Texans and Saints.

Flores, 40, began his NFL coaching career with the Patriots back in 2004 as a scouting assistant. He held a number of positions including pro scout, special teams assistant, assistant offense/special teams, defensive assistant, safeties coach, and linebackers coach before serving as the de facto defensive coordinator in 2018. 

Miami hired Flores away to be their head coach in 2019 before firing him abruptly after the 2021 season. Flores posted a record of 24-25 (49 percent) with no playoff appearances.