Roger Goodell Says the Dolphins 'Clearly Did Not' Tank in 2019, While Conveniently Leaving Out the Part Where Ownership TRIED to Tank
Mark Brown. Getty Images.For a corrupt oligarchy that freaks the fuck out over minor, victimless non-troversies like uniform violations, grown men "taunting" each other, and the sacrosanct 11.5-to-13.5 psi rule, the authoritarian regime Roger Goodell rules with an iron fist has a genius for ignoring actual, real, felonious crimes. The kind that should get people kicked out of the league, if not put in prison. And the way Ginger Satan was able to casually deflect one of his owners actively trying to lose games like he was swatting a bug away from his pasty, thin-lipped goonish face might be the greatest achievement in his sinister career.
After previously saying that Stephen Ross telling Brian Flores he'd pay him $100,000 for every loss was said "in jest," look at how Der Kommisar dismisses it with just a few words, instead of treating it like the scandal of major proportions that it is.
The rule I've been going by for a decade now still applies: When Goodell starts using the phrase "integrity of the game," he's hiding something. So far that hypothesis is batting 1.000. And in this case, he's hiding the fact that whether he was successful or not, Ross actively promoted and encouraged intentional losing in 2019. And it's only because Brian Flores actually has "integrity" and doesn't just use it as a punchline, that the Dolphins won anything that year.
Consider that Ross was getting his wish for the first half of the season. Miami started out 0-7. And in the first month lost by scores of 59-10, 43-0, 31-6, and 30-10. For a combined 163-26. Prior to his team breaking through with back-to-back wins over the Jets and Colts, costing him a chance at Joe Burrow, Ross was no doubt walking around the offices with a bottlenose porpoise under his pleated pants and getting ready to make out a personal check to Flores in the amount of $1.6 million. And the words "For definitely not tanking" on the memo line.
Despite Goodell's obvious, clumsy, hamfisted coverup, issues remain.
Source - The end result has caused some in the media to naively assume that Ross was exonerated. It also has allowed the NFL to declare that there was no tanking — while glossing over the fact that Ross definitely tried to tank. …
Tanking didn’t happen only because Flores refused to go through with it. Ross clearly wanted Flores to do it. Flores felt sufficiently pressured to do it to sound the alarm internally. The NFL has not disclosed the communication Flores distributed to key team executives. That document would go a long way toward showing how aggressive the tanking effort was.
Don’t count on the league ever doing it. Tanking can never be acknowledged by the league. Even when it happens.
Exactly. If this was really about "integrity of the game," the internet would be lousy with texts and emails between Flores and ownership that prove one way or the other who is lying. But the Messiah will come before any of those see the light of day. Even though Red Headed Fuhrer's other favorite word is "transparency," we never get to look through the glass if it means seeing something that makes his league look bad. So Ross' team pays the price for the lesser charge of tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton. To distract from the fact he walked on the major indictment of defrauding the public by losing like a masked wrestler from Parts Unknown.
Not enough bad things can happen to the Dolphins as long as this conniving weasel is allowed to own the franchise. And until Flores gets another head coaching job, there is no justice in the world.
