DL Open Thread: Thurs., Feb. 3, 2022

Did NFL Owners Try To Bribe Coaches To Throw Games?  Perhaps I should have written Black coaches.  We now have two credible allegations, and the NFL has immediately denied it–as if the Commissioner would know.    Before I get into the allegations, first check out exactly who the NFL owners are.  16 of the 32 owners inherited the teams from family.  The youngest owner is 56.  They run the league.  They decide who gets to coach their teams.  They make the rules. They divvy up the spoils. The Commissioner is merely a figurehead.  Oh, and keep in mind, Colin Kaepernick never made it back to the NFL.

Let’s now check out the bribery allegations.  Brian Flores was fired as coach of the Miami Dolphins despite leading a weak team into becoming a playoff contender.  He had two head coaching interviews.  Oh, keep in mind that there’s a ‘Rooney Rule’ requiring teams to interview minority candidates.  With that background, here’s what Flores alleged happened:

Brian Flores has sued the NFL and three teams — the Dolphins, Broncos and Giants — alleging discrimination regarding his interview processes with Denver and New York and his firing last month by Miami.

Flores alleges that 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 loss 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 the on-field success was “compromising [the team’s] draft position.”

Additionally, Flores alleges that Ross pressured him into recruiting a “prominent quarterback” at the end of the 2019 season, which the coach refused so as not to violate the NFL’s tampering rules. Ross then allegedly invited Flores onto a yacht for lunch in the winter of 2020, where he informed him that the quarterback (reported to be Tom Brady) was “conveniently” arriving at the marina for an impromptu meeting.

Flores refused the meeting and left the yacht. Afterward, Flores alleges he was “treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with.”

He was fired Jan. 10 despite recording the Dolphins’ first back-to-back winning seasons since 2003 (10-6 in 2020, 9-8 in 2021).

He also alleges, with supporting evidence ironically and unintentionally from Bill Belichick, that his interview with the NY Giants was a ‘sham’ scheduled merely to comply with the Rooney Rule:

Flores alleged he spoke with the Giants via Zoom on Jan. 18, prior to the team hiring former Buffalo Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen as its GM on Jan. 23. He said that the next day Schoen finalized his interview date for Jan. 27, and Giants co-director of player personnel Tim McDonnell texted Flores, saying he hoped he would “come in and win the f-ing job.”

However, hours later, Flores’ lawsuit alleges, he received a series of text messages from Patriots coach Bill Belichick, under whom Flores worked for 10 years in New England. In those texts, Belichick told Flores he had heard from “Buffalo and NYG that you are their guy.”

Flores asked Belichick to clarify whether he meant to talk to him or Brian Daboll, who was also in the running for the Giants’ job. Belichick acknowledged his error and informed him that the Giants wanted Daboll.

“Sorry — I f—ed this up. I double checked and misread the text. I think they are naming Brian Daboll. I’m sorry about that,” Belichick allegedly texted.

Flores alleges that his Jan. 27 interview with the Giants — which satisfied the Rooney Rule, because he was the first minority candidate to interview in-person — was a “sham.” New York hired Daboll, the former Bills offensive coordinator, a day later.

It must be pointed out that Flores had little to gain by going public as he was scheduled to interview with two other teams:

“God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goals,” Flores said in a statement put out by the Wigdor firm. “In making the decision to file the class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.”

Enter former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson:

Two sources close to former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson said Wednesday that Jackson has made arrangements to speak with Flores’ attorneys about the suit as early as Wednesday. The sources also said Jackson has expressed a willingness to provide testimony and materials to Flores’ lawsuit, alleging that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam financially incentivized “tanking” for better draft position through the use of a bonus structure during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, when Cleveland went 1-31.

Perhaps Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post put it best: ‘NFL owners are committed to diversity–until it’s their turn to make a hire’.

I know, I know, skeptics, including me, may assume that this lawsuit will go nowhere.  However, in a league in which 57.5% of the players are Black,  the lawsuit may be the least of the NFL’s worries. One can only hope.

Dog Bites Man: Delaware Rethugs Oppose Del-Tech Vaccine Mandate:

Members of the Republican Causes in both the Delaware House and Senate are speaking out against a vaccine mandate that will go into effect at Delaware Tech later this year.

DelTech announced last month that all prospective Summer and Fall 2022 students will have to prove they are fully COVID-19 vaccinated, including boosters in order to register for classes, with reasonable accommodations being granted for those with a medical condition or a “sincerely held religious belief.”

State Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) told WDEL he strongly opposes the mandate.

“I’ve read it numerous times, and can’t believe a college president would stop so far out of his own line to protect his own students, when it’s dictatorial to say the very least.”

Uh, Senator?  He’s not just protecting his own students (which he is), he’s protecting everyone those students would come into contact with.  That’s pretty much everybody in the state when you consider how big Del-Tech is.  Including you.

ARAMARK vs. Wesley vs. DelState.  Who will be left holding the (lunch) bag?

What do you want to talk about?