clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Dolphins owner allegedly offered Brian Flores $100K per loss to tank for top pick in 2020

Which became Joe Burrow.

Miami Dolphins Introduce Brian Flores Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images

Remember how badly the Miami Dolphins wanted Joe Burrow?

Apparently, it was more than we realized.

Last week, a story came out on how Miami offered the Cincinnati Bengals three first-round picks for the rights to Joe Burrow in the 2020 NFL Draft.

If you followed the Dolphins in 2019, it was painfully clear that owner Stephen Ross was attempting to have his team tank for the top pick. They entered the season projected to be one of, if not the NFL’s worst team that season after he thoroughly gutted the roster, though Brian Flores had other plans.

Flores was in his first year as head coach of the Dolphins after being hired from the New England Patriots. Though Flores was handed arguably the worst roster in the entire NFL, his players eventually bought in, as they overcame an 0-7 start to go 5-4 the rest of the season, while the Bengals got the top pick, and the rest is history.

Fast-forward to now, and Flores is suing the NFL, Dolphins, Broncos and Giants while alleging discrimination regarding his interview processes with Denver and New York and his firing last month by Miami.

Included in this suit is Flores alleging that Ross offered to pay him $100,000 for every loss during 2019 season to help the team get a better draft spot, and that Ross was upset when they kept winning.

Flores claims Dolphins owner Stephen Ross attempted to incentivize him to “tank” or purposely lose games shortly after he was hired in 2019, with Ross allegedly offering Flores $100,000 for every game the team lost that season. Flores says that as the team won games late in the season, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier told him Ross was “mad” that Flores’ on-field success was “compromising [the team’s] draft position.”

What a disaster.

Here’s to hoping that, if these allegations are true, Ross won’t be an NFL owner much longer.