Miami Dolphins’ 10 biggest scandals and where Brian FloresStephen Ross bombshell ranks
The Miami Dolphins are moving toward their 57th season as a franchise, so, naturally, through the decades, South Florida’s flagship team has weathered its share of scandals, embarrassments and controversy.
In the immortal words of former coach Adam Gase — just after one of his assistants had been seen snorting cocaine from his desk before a practice in 2017: “That’s the NFL, man. It’s a league of distractions. Move on.”
But what’s happening right now, the bombshell that just detonated — across football but mostly in Miami — well, “distraction” doesn’t quite cover it. And if this is the NFL, man, then the NFL needs to change, fundamentally, systemically and now.
Is this a football league with inbred, ongoing racism in its hiring of head coaches and general managers?
Is this a league that has teams plotting to intentionally lose games to better their draft position?
Does the NFL have an integrity crisis?
These questions are all fairly on the table now, even as America’s biggest and most popular sport prepares to celebrate its crown jewel, the Super Bowl.
It’s all there in a 58-page class action suit filed this week by recently fired Dolphins coach Brian Flores against the NFL and three teams including Miami, with especially damning allegations against Dolphins owner Stephen Ross — all of this as the club shops for a new head coach.
Flores was unjustly fired after three seasons, the last two marking the club’s first consecutive winning records in almost 20 years. Now, details in the suit explain why the Ross/ Flores relationship became bitter and untenable.
The gist of the suit is Flores, who is Black of Honduran heritage, alleging racist hiring practices by the NFL and its teams, and the farcical ineffectiveness of the Rooney Rule, in place to (supposedly) encourage minority hires.
But it also contains the explosive allegation that Ross in 2019, Flores’ first season, instructed his rookie head coach to tank games, offering him a $100,000 bribe/bonus for every loss to secure the overall No. 1 draft pick and select quarterback Joe Burrow.
Flores would not, and Miami wound up with the fifth overall pick as Cincinnati — now in the Feb. 13 Super Bowl vs. the L.os Angeles Rams — drafted Burrow. (Since the lawsuit was filed, former Cleveland coach Hue Jackson, also Black, has said the Browns wanted him to lose games as well.)
Ross vehemently denies Flores’ allegations, calling them, “false, malicious and defamatory,” adding, “The truth must come out.” Flores’ legal team claims it has corroborating evidence, though.
Somebody is lying. The NFL is investigating the Dolphins. Involved parties may be called to testify under oath if the suit moves through the judicial system.
If Flores is right, Ross should be out in shame as Dolphins owner, his reputation forever stained.
If Ross is right, Flores might never coach again and face a defamation suit. As it is, he is burning bridges across the NFL.
As an aside, but also incendiary, Flores in his suit says Ross pressured him in 2019 to meet with a “prominent quarterback” under contract to another team, with reports since indicating the QB was Tom Brady. Flores refused, further portraying Flores — in Ross’ mind — as uncooperative. If true, that’s tampering.
As we await an outcome that might not come anytime soon, we put this in the context of the times in club history the Dolphins have made the biggest headlines for the most unfortunate reasons.
Disproportionate dysfunction and dirt have sullied the franchise since Ross became controlling owner in January 2009 — and that’s beyond the sub-mediocre product on the field under his aegis. The 96-113 overall record. The mere three winning seasons. The one playoff appearance, a quick exit. The four different head coaches (six counting interims) and four general managers.
There was plenty to choose from in researching the most dubious Top 10 in Dolphins history. Put it this way: Miami’s No. 1 pick Laremy Tunsil seen smoking from a bong on draft night 2016 didn’t even make it. Nor did the franchise-worst 1-15 season of 2007, the Cam Cameron nightmare after which Miami drafted a lineman No. 1 instead of future Hall of Fame quarterback Matt Ryan.
Six instances in our top 10 unfortunate franchise episodes, including the top three, have come during Ross’ ownership: ❖❖❖
1. Flores takes on Ross, NFL: [Under Ross] This is it. We are in the midst of the biggest scandal in club history — and it isn’t close. It has the potential to bring down a franchise owner and general manager, and to penalize the club with an enormous fine and/or forfeiture of draft picks. No NFL team has ever seen repercussions like this from the sudden and thoroughly unexpected firing of a head coach, and the sinister reasons behind it. Nor has the league itself. It is a massive stink around the Super Bowl and, between the NFL probe and the court system, one that will likely play out for months. ❖❖❖ 2. Bullygate: [Under Ross] The 2013 bullying scandal that seeped into 2014, verified by NFL investigator Ted Wells in a 144-page report, found Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito the instigator and lineman Jonathan Martin the victim in ongoing bullying that exposed a rancid team culture. It led to Martin leaving football at a time before mental health in sports became so talked about. It was a beyondsports scandal that found “The Today Show” and national news outlets out at camp. ❖❖❖ 3. Line coach does cocaine: [Under Ross] Offensive line coach Chris Foerster was forced to resign in scandal in 2017 after being seen in a video snorting cocaine from his desk at Dolphins camp. (It was a “powdery white substance” until Foerster admitted it was coke and checked into rehab.) The coach took the video himself and sent it to a self-described “model” he had met, Kijuana Nige Sherrod, who then put it out on Facebook. ❖❖❖ 4. Saban and Brees: [Before Ross] Nick Saban’s tenure as Fins coach in 2005-06 is remembered for his saying, “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach” — right before leaving for Tuscaloosa. It should be remembered most for his chance to sign free agent quarterback Drew Brees in ‘06 but settling for Daunte Culpepper after following faulty team medical advice (he says) on Brees. Saban in 2015: “If we had Drew Brees, I might still be in Miami.” ❖❖❖ 5. Shula’s awkward exit: [Before Ross] All-time winningest coach Don Shula retired after the 1995 season. Except he didn’t, really. The exit was not on his terms. Then-owner Wayne Huizenga was enamored of available coach Jimmy Johnson, who Shula believed to his dying day lobbied for his job. Shula told me in one of his last interviews in 2015, “No, I wasn’t very happy about that. Jimmy Who wasn’t a big favorite of mine.” ❖❖❖
6. The Watson pursuit: [Under Ross] The Dolphins were widely reported throughout the 2020 season to be the most ardent pursuer of estranged Texans QB Deshaun Watson, who sat out the year under the cloud of 22 women accusing him of sexual impropriety related to massage sessions. The drama undermined second-year QB Tua Tagovailoa, who, when asked in late October if he felt wanted, paused and said, “I don’t not feel wanted.” ❖❖❖ 7. Ross woos Harbaugh:
[Under Ross] With coach Tony Sparano under contract, Ross flew west on his private jet in January 2011 in a full-court press to sign Jim Harbaugh, who had just left Stanford with an eye on the NFL. Ross managed to A). fail to hire Harbaugh and, B). publicly embarrass his sitting coach. Ross apologized with a contract extension for Sparano — whom he then fired during the next season. ❖❖❖ 8. The Crowder/Reese arrests: [Before Ross] In 1977 Miami police arrested Dolphins defensive tackles Randy Crowder and Don Reese for trying to sell a pound of cocaine to undercover officers. The club suspended both players. Each was given a one-year jail sentence and afterward resumed his NFL career elsewhere. ❖❖❖ 9. Ross called out for hypocrisy: [Under Ross] In August 2019 Ross held a fundraiser for then-President Donald Trump, soon after Ross had founded his R.I.S.E. initiative, whose mission statement is to “eliminate racial discrimination and champion social justice.” Many players, especially Black players, were upset. “You can’t have a nonprofit with this mission statement then open your doors to Trump.” Receiver Kenny Stills tweeted that. He was traded three weeks later. ❖❖❖ 10. It paid off, but it was tampering: [Before Ross] It’s lost in time, because this was 1970, and it worked out pretty well for Miami. But the NFL found the Dolphins guilty of tampering and penalized them a No. 1 draft pick over the signing of Shula from Baltimore. The conduit who put then-owner Joe Robbie and the coach in touch: Miami Herald writer Bill Braucher, who knew Shula from their days at John Carroll University.
Greg Cote: 305-376-3492, @gregcote