Steve Stephen Ross photo source Miami Dolphins
Stephen Ross, the owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, was accused the other day in a new federal law suit by his team’s recently former coach Brian Flores of offering big payments to get his team to deliberately lose games. The accusation caused a flood of speculation as to what the NFL might do in response. If true, in even the smallest way, the league would need to take harsh action.
Well, now Stephen Ross, who made his fortune as the owner of The Related Companies, a global real estate development firm he founded in 1972, is striking back. He released a statement categorically denying the charges saying, “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. I take great personal exception to these malicious attacks, and the truth must be known. His allegations are false, malicious and defamatory.”
“We understand that there are media reports stating that the NFL intends to investigate his claims, and we will cooperate fully,” Stephen Ross said on behalf of the Miami Dolphins organization. “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.”
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So, what were the charges made anyway? Well, Flores maintains that Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 for every football game that he would lose on purpose. Ross fired Flores at the end of the past season when the Dolphins failed to make the playoffs yet again. And now Flores is mad because he says that when interviewing for other jobs his civil rights were discriminated against. Flores is black and says that teams only pretended to interview him for another job because they have to interview a minimum number of minority candidates to fill a quota.
Some people, however, are now saying that the attacks on Stephen Ross are just sour grapes. They say that maybe Flores just has a bad reputation now and the other teams just don’t want him. And it’s not like there are that many head coaching job opening available each year. And if the NFL did not have a policy requiring teams to at least give minority candidates a chance at interviewing then people like Flores would probably be suing the league over that as well.
