(08-03-2022, 08:35 AM)Mikey Wrote:

(08-02-2022, 03:04 PM)NewJagsCity Wrote: Per the article...."While it found no evidence the Dolphins tried to tank in 2019, The investigation did find that Ross made comments to team president and CEO Tom Garfinkel, Grier, senior vice president Brandon Shore and Flores that the team's draft position should take priority over winning games."

Isn't this sort of the definition of tanking?  It would be interesting to see exactly what he said.

That implies while there was a wink and a nod, that there was no evidence of actual plan/reward structure or payout. Contrast that with bountygate, where greggggg actually had the system in place and got caught. Pointing out the recognition of Ross's statement to team leadership is a sign that the league aims to discourage that mindset from being voiced, even if it is implied.

A lot of teams probably acknowledge that there is little value in a late win in a lost season. You see vets heading to IR with minor injury, depth guys getting starts "to build experience for the next season" and other strategies that may make that win even more challenging, but usually it is not accompanied with a statement that the team is focused on maximizing their draft potential.

The team ended with 2 wins in the 2019 season, so "evidence" gets tarnished without successful results. Or maybe they were just so bad at tanking that they screwed that up, too?

All good points, I hear ya. Those are all tried and true mechanisms for tanking, even if the Fins did screw them up somehow. I'm guessing that Flores was so outraged by Ross that he made sure that the team played hard and didnt tank, just to screw up draft positioning, since he probably knew he was gone anyway. I'd still love to see the quoted statements that Ross made that were referred to in the article. You just can't verbalize implications like that as an owner.

It's kind of funny that tanking is almost a given in other sports, particularly basketball and baseball (through various mechanisms), but for football, it's regarded as the unpardonable sin.

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