NFL News

[Futureshock]

Brian Flores did indeed document his tanking concerns in a December 2019 memo

Posted by Mike Florio on April 7, 2022, 2:05 PM EDT

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In an amended complaint filed today, former Dolphins coach Brian Flores contends that he documented his concerns regarding pressure from owner Stephen Ross to lose games in a December 4, 2019 memo. The Dolphins privately acknowledge that the memo was indeed created and submitted to the team.

“This letter was proactively provided to the NFL and their investigators by the Dolphins weeks ago,” a person involved on behalf of the Dolphins in the investigation regarding the claim that Ross offered Flores $100,000 for each game the team lost in 2019 tells PFT. “For Flores to bring it up now seems pretty bizarre given that the letter actually contradicts his complaint in that he has no evidence of any conversations with Steve, and the letter also makes no mention of money. This just shows how desperate he is to bring up a letter that actually goes against his own position.”

Frankly, it’s not clear from the allegations made that Flores has actually “contradicted” himself. He alleges that he had conversations with Ross. He separately alleges that he documented his concerns about the pressure he was experiencing. Those can be viewed as two different things.

One major factual question is whether the memo mentions an offer of $100,000 for each loss. The person involved in the investigation contends it does not.

Even if it doesn’t, the letter constitutes evidence that Flores raised his concerns internally. That he blew the whistle. This seems to be its biggest significance to the amended complaint.

[Futureshock]

Mike Mularkey revealed Titans did sham Rooney Rule interviews after hiring him as coach

Posted by Michael David Smith on April 7, 2022, 1:21 PM EDT

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Former Titans head coach Mike Mularkey admitted that when he was hired in 2016, the team delayed an official announcement of his hiring solely so they could conduct interviews with minority coaches to satisfy the Rooney Rule.

In a 2020 podcast interview that got little attention at the time but has now come up in Ray Horton’s lawsuit, Mularkey confessed that he has always regretted agreeing to go along with the Titans’ sham.

“I allowed myself, at one point, when I was in Tennessee, to get caught up in something that I regret,” Mularkey said on the Steelers Realm Podcast. “I still regret it. The ownership there, Amy Adams Strunk and her family, came in and told me I was going to be the head coach in 2016 before they went through the Rooney Rule. And so I sat there knowing I was the head coach in ’16, as they went through this fake hiring process knowing a lot of the coaches that they were interviewing, knowing how much they prepared to go through those interviews, knowing that everything they could do and they had no chance to go that job. And actually, the GM Jon Robinson, he was in an interview with me. He had no idea why he is interviewing me, that I have a job already. I regret it. . . . and I’ve regretted that since then. It was the wrong thing to do and I’m sorry I did that, but it was not the way to do that. Should have been interviewed like everybody else and got hired because of the interview, not early on. So that’s probably my biggest regret. . . . It’s not hard to do the right thing. It’s really not. But you can get caught up in this business.”

Horton, who is Black, was interviewed after Mularkey had already been told he was getting the job, and Horton has now joined the lawsuit filed by Brian Flores accusing the NFL and its teams of racial discrimination in hiring.

The audio of Mularkey describing what went down in Tennessee is incredibly damning to the Titans and to the NFL.

[froot loops]

This is shocking! Who would have thought?

[Mainevent]

What a bunch of . . . . mularkey.

[Futureshock]

What a bunch of . . . . mularkey.

That's definitely a Dad joke.

[Iron Lion]

Hold on guys I'm getting something... *presses hand to temple*...

Future headline: Aaron Rodgers wins Super Bowl MVP, refuses to go to "woke" Disneyland.

[chemiclord]

Hold on guys I'm getting something... *presses hand to temple*...

Future headline: Aaron Rodgers wins Super Bowl MVP, refuses to go to "woke" Disneyland.

Like the Packers are gonna win the Super Bowl. Hell, they aren't even going to get to the Super Bowl to begin with.

FYI: Stafford already has a better playoff winning percentage than Rodgers.

[CGVT]

That's "Future Hall of Famer Matthew Stafford"

[dpatnod]

Fucking Stafford!

[Iron Lion]

1st round bust QB Dwayne Haskins has died. Mike Tomlin gave a copy/paste statement.

[JGSpartan]

Much too young, Hit by a dump truck while walking along the side of a highway. Not sure what I'd expect from Tomlin. I don't have any issue with his statement even it has a safe cookie cutter feel. Its always hard to find the right words in these situations.

[Iron Lion]

Oh damn... is it manslaughter or did Haskins suddenly jump into traffic?

Edit - answering my own question:

"He was attempting to cross the westbound lanes of Interstate 595 when there was oncoming traffic," Miranda said in an emailed statement.

She didn't say why Haskins was on the highway near Fort Lauderdale at the time. The accident caused the highway to be shut down for several hours, and Miranda said it's "an open traffic homicide investigation."

-ESPN

[Futureshock]

He was jogging. 24 is too young. RIP young fella.

[Futureshock]

USFL to eliminate chains, measure first downs with chip in ball and yellow line on TV

Posted by Michael David Smith on April 9, 2022, 4:09 PM EDT

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When it’s time to measure for a first down in the USFL, the officials will call for a high-tech solution in place of the decidedly low-tech 10-yard chains that have been used in football for a century.

The USFL played a preseason game on Friday night that included the debut of its new first down measuring system, which combines a chip in every football and the yellow first-down line that fans are accustomed to seeing on TV. Video of its use during the preseason game was accompanied by a claim from the USFL that the upstart league has “First down measurements that are more accurate than ever.”

That, however, may not be accurate. Although it undeniably looks cool on TV to see an image of the football and an image of the line to gain — reminiscent of the way replay is used in tennis — the reality is that this kind of ball tracking technology isn’t precise enough to guarantee that first down calls will be correct.

The NFL already has a chip in every football, but it uses those chips only for its Next Gen Stats tracking data, and not for officiating. That’s because the chips in the middle of every ball just aren’t accurate enough to locate where a football is to the inch. The data works fine as a good approximation of where the ball is, give or take the length of one football. But it doesn’t tell you whether a third down play just barely picked up the first down, or whether the offense should be facing fourth-and-inches.

Replay technology works so well in tennis because tennis is a sport fundamentally conducive to it: The smaller size of the ball, the spherical shape of the ball, and the ability to always have camera angles with unobstructed views of the ball and the lines on the court make tennis well suited to its replay system. Football just doesn’t work that way. It’s not always possible to tell precisely where the ball was when the ball carrier’s knee touched the ground, especially when huge men are surrounding the ball carrier and blocking any view of his knee or the ball.

So TV viewers will probably enjoy watching the USFL’s solution to first downs, but no one should expect the actual spotting of the ball to be any more accurate than it is in the NFL.

[Futureshock]

CARSON WENTZQB, WASHINGTON COMMANDERS
The Athletic's Mike Sando reports an NFL executive said "nobody" competed against Washington in acquiring Carson Wentz.


The Commanders in March acquired Wentz and a second rounder from the Colts in exchange for a second-round pick and two third rounders. Washington agreed to pay Wentz's $28 million guaranteed compensation, a perplexing concession if no other team wanted Wentz after the disastrous end to his one season in Indianapolis. “If you polled the entire league and said you can have Taylor Heinicke for $2 million and you have $26 million to spend plus two third-round picks, or you can have Carson Wentz, I’m pretty sure the majority would prefer Heinicke,” an executive told Sando. “I’d rather have Baker Mayfield and $8 million.” Washington's pursuit of Wentz speaks to the organization's desperation for a viable starting quarterback after Heinicke was exposed in 2021. Wentz's best case scenario is a few years as the team's QB before they can draft and develop a long-term option.

RELATED:

• Taylor Heinicke

SOURCE: The Athletic
Apr 11, 2022, 10:01 AM