Brian Flores reject an alleged request from his former boss with the Dolphins, and he believes that paved the way for his exit in Miami.
In a multi-faceted lawsuit filed Tuesday, Flores claimed he was pressured by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to "tank", or purposely lose football games, during the 2019 NFL season. Ross allegedly offered to pay Flores $100,000 for every game Miami dropped in that campaign.
Flores opened up about the situation with Ross on Wednesday during an appearance on ESPN's "Get Up."
"That was a conversation about not doing as much as we needed to do to win football games," Flores said. "'Take a flight, go on vacation, I'll give you $100,000 per loss.' Like, those are exact words. Look, I deal in truth. I've said that to the players as well. I'm gonna give you good news, bad news, but it's gonna be the truth. It's gonna be honest. This game's done a lot for me -- a lot for me personally, my family. My parents are immigrants. I'm first-generation. I grew up in a tough neighborhood here in Brooklyn, Brownsville, where there's crime and poverty and violence. It was hard to make it out of there and the game of football is a big reason why, along with a lot of the great people and mentors I've had in my life, I've had the success that I've had. So, to disrespect the game that way was something that -- trust was lost, certainty some strained relationships and ultimately I think that was to my demise in Miami."
For the sake of clarity, "Get Up" host Mike Greenberg asked Flores if Ross tried to incentivize him to lose games. Flores stood by his claim and explained why he didn't take the Dolphins owner up on his offer.
"That's just not in my DNA," Flores said. "That was never gonna happen. Look, I'm always going to try to win. That's who I am. I owe that to the players in the locker room, but also the support staff that's in the building who work extremely hard. If you've been in an NFL building, everyone in that building's job is important and everyone works hard to try to get on the same page and move in the same direction. I felt like we were building that type of culture. So, I would never do that to them. At the end of the day, I think it was the reason why I'm no longer there."
Flores was expected to be a prominent figure in the head coaching interview cycle after he was fired by the Dolphins. The Denver Broncos and the New York Giants both interviewed Flores but ultimately went with Nathaniel Hackett and Brian Daboll for their respective openings. Flores in the lawsuit claimed he was a victim of racial discrimination by both organizations.
