The $100k Smoke Around Dolphins' Stephen Ross
For Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, being viewed as racist is the least of his concerns. And he knows it.
At this point, the best thing for Stephen Ross is for people to think he’s a racist, and he knows it. Because the alternative — that he disrespected The Shield and attempted to lose games on purpose — well, there’s just no place for that in his particular perch of rich, white America.
Brian Flores’s broad lawsuit against the NFL alleges many things, including that he was wrongfully terminated by the Miami Dolphins and passed up for head coaching jobs with the New York Giants and Denver Broncos because he is Black.
You think that bothers a 100% white ownership group that managed to pay Colin Kaepernick to go away? Puh-lease.
However, within the 58-page lawsuit, past the accidental “wrong Brian” text is the real smoking gun: That Ross in 2019 attempted to bribe Flores to intentionally tank, offering $100,000 per loss. Late Wednesday night, Ross finally released his own statement in response to Flores’s lawsuit.
"With regards to the allegations being made by Brian Flores, I am a man of honor and integrity and cannot let them stand without responding," he said. "I take great personal exception to these malicious attacks, and the truth must be known. His allegations are false, malicious and defamatory. We understand there are media reports stating that the NFL intends to investigate his claims, and we will cooperate fully. I welcome that investigation and I am eager to defend my personal integrity, and the integrity and values of the entire Miami Dolphins organization, from these baseless, unfair and disparaging claims."
The word “integrity” is used three times. This is blatant use of the illusory truth effect — the phenomenon used to explain that people are more likely to believe repeated statements are true. It’s at the core of advertising (“Open Happiness”), Donald Trump’s fact-bending rhetoric and, here, in Ross’s attempt to refute claims that he would ever do anything that violates the integrity of the Dolphins and the NFL.
But “integrity” is code for gambling. And given the NFL’s recent embrace of legalized sports betting, this is touchy territory. It’s clear the NFL cares about that much more than the racial stuff. Here’s the statement first released by the NFL hours after Flores and his team of lawyers filed their suit.
"The NFL and our clubs are deeply committed to ensuring equitable employment practices and continue to make progress in providing equitable opportunities throughout our organizations," the statement read. "Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time. We will defend against these claims, which are without merit."
This statement is dotted with words such as “equitable” and “diversity.” No mention of bribery or the allegations of tampering for an unnamed quarterback (later identified by reports to be Tom Brady). The NFL wasn’t defending itself from being accused of racism, it was hoping to be accused of racism. And so it was in that direction it attempted to steer the conversation.
But people have come to identify the real smoking gun. Not Bill Belichick’s text messages, but the hundred G’s.
The morning after the suit was filed Stephen A. Smith, the loudest character in sports media, on ESPN said, “The most damning thing that was said that I peeled from this lawsuit is Stephen Ross … is being accused in the lawsuit of going up to Brian Flores and encouraging him to throw games, to lose games on purpose and even offering him $100,000 for every game that he lost. If that is found to be true, Stephen Ross can no longer be an owner for an NFL franchise. He’s got to go.”
It’s unclear if Ross could truly be stripped of his franchise. There’s no precedent for it in the NFL, unless you consider former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who sold his franchise in 2018 amid allegations of workplace misconduct, but he wrote at the time that the decision was his own. Outside football, there’s the case of Donald Sterling, who was stripped by the NBA of his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014 after phone conversations in which he was overtly racist were leaked. There was also Marge Schott who in the 90s was banned from managing the Cincinnati Reds by MLB because of racist remarks and collecting of Nazi paraphernalia.
Even in those cases, their peers pushed back, fearing they could be next. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban called forcing Sterling to sell the Clippers “a slippery slope.”
Stripping Ross of the Dolphins won’t be the preferred route by other NFL owners and commissioner Roger Goodell. Unlike Pete Rose, Ross is not alleged to have actually fixed games, but only to have attempted to do so.
Should there be a difference? A reasonable person wouldn’t think so, but we’re not talking about reasonable people, we’re talking about NFL owners.
Odds are the NFL will merely fine Ross for conduct detrimental to the league or some other vague elucidation and confiscate some draft picks.
So what’s next for the Dolphins? For starters, they still don’t have a head coach. Jim Harbaugh, who interviewed with the Minnesota Vikings, announced Wednesday that he is remaining at Michigan. Coincidence? Come on. Ross’s admiration for Harbaugh is well-documented and, for someone who allegedly tried to woo Brady on a yacht, it wouldn’t be shocking if his goal all along was to lure Harbaugh from his alma mater (even if he said he wouldn't). But Harbaugh’s no dope, he ain’t taking the Dolphins job now.
The Dolphins on Thursday were set to interview 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. He seems talented, but does McDaniel want to walk into this mess? And does a Black coach, after all that went down, want to work for Ross? It’s difficult to see where the Dolphins the football team go from here.
As for Flores, this isn’t ideal. His aim is to affect positive change for Black people in NFL, not to get Ross removed from the league oligarchy. Legally speaking, Flores’s team may not have a lot of stand on. As Jay Weaver wrote for the Miami Herald:
“But the case also faces high legal hurdles — and certain challenges from teams and the league — before Flores’ lawyers ever get the opportunity to take depositions from Belichick and other key witnesses, including owners and senior executives with the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, NFL brass and other Black coaches. Legal experts say the teams and NFL are all likely to file motions to dismiss his case, saying he has failed to make sufficient allegations that, if proven, would violate his civil rights as a Black coach.”
Flores will find it hard to meet the burden of proof of a class action. As the Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins pointed out, a victory is unlikely because of a 2011 Supreme Court decision, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes.
In that instance, female employees argued persuasively that they held two-thirds of the lowest-level hourly jobs at Walmart but only one one-third of management jobs. The court nevertheless found against them, ruling that they would have to demonstrate a discriminatory policy affected all of them to be considered a class.
Flores has, however, already accomplished something truly powerful: embarrassing the NFL. There’s Ross and all his buffoonery. There’s John Mara of the New York Giants who allegedly conducted a sham interview of a Black job candidate he had no intention of hiring. There’s John Elway and Joe Ellis of the Denver Broncos, who were described as to have showed up hours late to their own sham interview “disheveled” after a night out drinking.
It was already obvious that the Rooney Rule wasn’t working. Of the 32 NFL head coach positions, only one is currently held by a Black man (Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin). But if these allegations are true, it proves that whatever intent the Rooney Rule was supposed to have has been diminished to a check of a box.
Still, there are three other teams — the New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars — in the market for a coach. At least thanks to Flores, eyes will be on them as they conduct their search. As for Ross, filling the Dolphins’ opening is the least of his concerns.