Brian Flores exposed the NFL tanking problem

Brian Flores made headlines on Tuesday when it became public he’s suing the NFL and the New York Giants for using him as a decoy to comply with the Rooney Rule regarding the hire and opportunities for minority coaches around the league. 

There’s a lot to be discussed about Flores’ lawsuit, and it’s a brave statement from him as he’s risking his own NFL career by exposing something that’s not much of a secret for anyone who knows how the NFL works – black and minority coaches have a different way to be judged and the process is unfair. However, there was much more troubling stuff in the lawsuit as it relates to the league, and one that should make fans really mad.

In the lawsuit, Flores says Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, his former boss, asked him to lose games in 2019 in order to get a better draft pick to secure a franchise quarterback in the 2020 NFL Draft. The former Dolphins head coach says that the owner offered him $100k for every game Miami lost in his first season with the team.

The first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft ultimately belonged to the Cincinnati Bengals, who selected quarterback Joe Burrow out of LSU.

According to the lawsuit, when the Dolphins started to win games back in that season, Flores learned from Dolphins general manager Chris Grier that the owner was mad that Miami was winning games and compromising their draft position – the team finished 5-11 that season, which was a much better record than expected when the year started, especially considering how the roster was torn down in order to start the rebuild process.

https://twitter.com/hbryant42/status/1488654093258219523

The Dolphins had back-to-back winning seasons with Flores the following years. Even so, he was dismissed from the franchise following the 2021 season because of ‘poor collaboration’, according to the lawsuit.

Flores exposed the tanking problem

The NFL has a lot to answer regarding Flores’ accusations. The Rooney Rule was changed to include two interviews with minority candidates in 2022 but clearly most of the teams are still using it as a farce – Bill Belichick sent a text to Flores talking about the Giants job thinking it was Brian Daboll and that’s when Flores learned the whole interview was a circus.

But how can the league close their eyes to the fact that one of the owners purposely tried to lose games in order to get better draft picks? How can you tell the fans that the team is aiming for the Super Bowl (not that they had much of a chance, but every team starts 0-0) and then tell your coaches that you prefer to lose?

The NFL has a lot to answer regarding this scandal and it’s only going to get worse from here. Tanking goes against the competitive integrity of the game and this shouldn’t be allowed.