The GM's, Coach's, Carousel

Few immediate thoughts on this:

1- Belichek is never replying to a Flores(and possibly Daboll just to be sure heh) text ever again.
2- Without making excuses, and looking objectively, league rules set this kind of thing up to happen. Teams have to interview 2 minority candidates i believe whether they meet criteria or not. There's no way around it. If they have a certain guy in mind this will happen. It sucks for Flores but its objectively inevitable.
3- Dont think its right, but if Flores gets another NFL HC job ever again i'll be shocked.

Of course, this isnt all. There's also an allegation by Flores that Ross offered a reward of 100k per loss to tank the team and get the #1 overall pick. Now im not 100% sure but isnt that illegal? With the amount of betting that goes on wouldn't this amount to fraud or something? Of course, this kinda thing is highly likely to have gone on plenty of times before but we've never had someone whistleblow before. When Pederson did it with the Eagles the last game of the season he denied it didnt he?

 

I imagine congress is eventually going to get involved. Ross will probably lose his job and all at the same time the NFL will run a full out assault on Flores and his allegations... they have no choice now since Flores decided to talk also.

Anytime racism is a card that is played it will get ugly and have the potential to turn things upside down. Im already sick of this potential shit-storm and its just in its infant stage.

Amen. This whole kinda thing had its foundation/potential in place to fail from the very beginning. Ive been waiting for something like this to take place for a while now. The Rooney Rule isnt the right answer. Something big is going to happen because of all this and at the moment we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg and its an ugly one.

 

Rich, white men problems.

 

Why wouldn’t a team hire Flores? Are they all into fixing games? If I was an owner I would want a coach who would play the game with integrity.

 

Broncos Plan To Hire Ejiro Evero As Their Defensive Coordinator


Bears Hire Alan Williams As Defensive Coordinator

 

Jim Harbaugh wants Vikings; do Vikings want Jim Harbaugh?



Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, by virtue of the fact that he’s interviewing for an NFL job on national signing day, clearly wants to coach the Minnesota Vikings. But do the Vikings want him?

Per a league source, Harbaugh has no yet been offered the job. He believes, we’re told, that he needs to win the job during Wednesday’s interview.


Harbaugh has new G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in his corner. Which should be enough. As we’ve said in connection with the Vikings, Bears, and Giants, these teams need to let their General Managers hire the coaches they want. The coach-G.M. relationship is critical to the functionality of a franchise. They need to be on the same page.

What better way to do it than to let the G.M. hire the coach he thinks he’d work well with?

There may indeed be others in the Minnesota organization who are leery about Harbaugh. With all due respect to any of those people, what has the team won while you’ve been there? It’s for ownership to understand the human factors that may cause some who feel threatened by change to get on board with it, if change is going to nudge the Vikings in the direction that ownership hopes they will go.

PFT

 

What the hell is going on is he or isn't he the HC make a decision on Jim Harbaugh

 

Jim Harbaugh tells Michigan he will return, sources say, after Minnesota Vikings interview

Jim Harbaugh called Michigan to inform the school that, despite interviewing with the Minnesota Vikings on Wednesday, he will be returning to school for the 2022 season, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Michigan was, in the words of one source, "elated" to get Harbaugh's decision.

Harbaugh interviewed with the Vikings in Eagan, Minnesota, on Wednesday, which coincided with college football's National Signing Day. Michigan has the No. 8-ranked recruiting class, featuring seven ESPN 300 commits, many of whom had already signed their national letters of intent with the Wolverines during December's early signing period.

Harbaugh was hired by his alma mater Michigan in 2015. In seven seasons, Harbaugh has led the Wolverines to a 61-24 record with a 42-17 mark in Big Ten play.

ESPN

 

This is a straight up mess do they have anybody mind to be the HC I'm so tired of this I shouldn't be all that surprised this is the Vikings after all it just goes on and on,and who the fu*k is Kevin O'Connell

 

Reports: Vikings expect to hire Kevin O’Connell after Super Bowl



Jim Harbaugh informed the Vikings he is staying at the University of Michigan. That forced the Vikings to look elsewhere.

They now are expected to hire Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, according to multiple reports. The Vikings cannot make the hire official until after the Super Bowl on Feb. 13.


Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham were the other two finalists.

O’Connell, 36, had a virtual interview with the Vikings on Jan. 21 and an in-person interview Jan. 31. He also interviewed with the Texans, and the Jaguars were interested in interviewing him but had to wait until after the Super Bowl.

O’Connell is in the second year with the Rams.

He was a member of the 49ers coaching staff in 2016 and overlapped that season with new Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. O’Connell also has worked for the Browns and Washington.

PFT

 

Stephen Ross fires back at “false, malicious and defamatory” allegations made by Brian Flores



As the contention that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered former Dolphins coach Brian Flores $100,000 for each game lost in 2019 continues to gather momentum — and as their potential implications continue to become more clear — Ross has fired back.

In a statement issued late Wednesday night, Ross attacks the allegations as “false, malicious and defamatory.”


“I am a man or honor and integrity and cannot let [the allegations] stand without responding,” Ross said. “I take great personal exception to these malicious attacks, and the truth must be known. His allegations are false, malicious and defamatory. We understand there are media reports stating that the NFL intends to investigate his claims, and we will cooperate fully. 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.”

The statement from Ross does not address the fact that NFL Network — a media outlet Ross partially owned — reported on Wednesday that an unnamed witness corroborated Flores’s claim of money-for-losing. If Ross believes Flores’s allegations are false, malicious, and defamatory, he necessarily believes that NFL Network published the false, malicious, and defamatory account from an unnamed person who contends to have heard Ross make the offer to Flores.

The strong language of the statement suggests that Ross could also take legal action against Flores, alleging defamation of character. Because Ross is a public figure, the standard for proving defamation necessarily will be higher, requiring proof of actual malice. More immediately, the statements made by Flores possibly will prompt Ross to stop making ongoing salary payments to Flores under the terms of his contract, given that coaching agreements typically contain language prohibiting the coach from making disparaging statements about the team, its owner, etc. For this reason, coaches who have an axe to grind routinely wait until their buyout has been fully paid before saying anything at all, publicly or privately, about their former employers.

Regardless, the statement underscores the fact that the NFL and the Dolphins intend to fight back aggressively against the man who, as of 24 days ago, had finished the 2021 season by winning eight of nine games. It will be contentious, it will be protracted, and it will involve not only allegations of racial bias but also an incredibly high-stakes (for Ross) question of whether he indeed made that offer.

PFT

 

Browns refute tanking claims by former coach Hue Jackson



CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Browns say suggestions by former coach Hue Jackson and an associate that he was paid by the team to lose games are “completely fabricated.”

Jackson, who is now coaching at Grambling, made several posts on Twitter inferring that he received bonus payments from Browns owner Jimmy Haslam during his two-plus seasons with the team.

The Browns strongly refuted Jackson’s claims.

“The recent comments by Hue Jackson and his representatives relating to his tenure as our head coach are completely fabricated,” team spokesperson Peter Jean-Baptiste said in a statement. “Any accusation that any member of our organization was incentivized to deliberately lose games is categorically false.”

Jackson was fired eight games into the 2018 season. He went 3-36-1 with Cleveland, losing all 16 games in 2017.

In offering support to former Miami coach Brian Flores — who filed a discrimination lawsuit Tuesday against the NFL and three teams on allegations of racial discrimination and unethical practices — Jackson made statements implying the Browns paid him to lose.

In response to a tweet suggesting Haslam wasn’t offering him $100,000 per loss — the amount Flores claims the Dolphins wanted to pay him — Jackson wrote that Haslam “was happy while we kept losing” and “Trust me it was a good number.”

Also, Kimberly Diemert, executive director of the Hue Jackson Foundation, which works to combat human trafficking, made several posts claiming the Browns made the offer to Jackson and that they have records that will help Flores.

Jackson did not immediately respond to messages left by the AP.

Not long after the Browns released their statement, Jackson appeared on ESPN and said the team did offer bonus money if he met certain criteria.

“Teams that win are just not the youngest team, not that the youngest teams can’t win, so I didn’t understand the process,” Jackson said. ”I didn’t understand what the plan was, I asked for clarity because it did not talk about winning and losing until Year 3 and 4.

“So that told you right there that something wasn’t correct but I still couldn’t understand it until I had the team that I had.”

Jackson said he told Haslam his only objectives were to improve the Browns and win.

“I remember very candidly saying to Jimmy, ‘I’m not interested in bonus money,’ because I’ve never known that to be a bonus,” he said. “I was interested in taking whatever that money was and putting it toward getting more players on our football team because I didn’t think we were very talented at all.

“I know what good football teams look like, play like, what they act like and we didn’t have a lot of talented players on the team at that time.”

On Wednesday, Diemert again went on Twitter to say she has proof of Jackson’s claims, and said he and Flores are acting to benefit others.

“Fighting for what is right for everybody is what matters most,” she wrote. “Both of these men have been fighting the right fight. People who know the facts know the fight. To win the war you must be strategic.”

Jackson was hired by the Browns in 2016 after serving as Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator. The team was in a full rebuilding mode and general manager Sashi Browns was aggressive in trying to acquire draft picks.

The Browns went 1-15 in Jackson’s first season, got the No. 1 overall pick and selected defensive end Myles Garrett, who has become one of the league’s best players. Cleveland went 0-16 in 2017 before taking quarterback Baker Mayfield with the top pick.

Jackson was fired after the Browns started 2-5-1 in 2018.

 

That’s something that wouldn’t happen in Pittsburgh. We haven’t placed last in our division since 1988. You play to win no matter how bad your team is. If any of the accusations are true those owners should be immediately stripped of their team.

 

Hue thinking he’s helping by admitting he took the money. So on brand.

 

As the NFL TURNS laughing

 

The NFL is on the offensive, when it comes to the claims made by Brian Flores.

Former Broncos G.M. and current Broncos personnel advisor John Elway has issued a statement in response to the allegations made about the team in the Flores lawsuit.


“While I was not planning to respond publicly to the false and defamatory claims by Brian Flores, I could not be silent any longer with my character, integrity and professionalism being attacked,” Elway said in a statement issued on Thursday. “I took Coach Flores very seriously as a candidate for our head coaching position in 2019 and enjoyed our three-and-a-half hour interview with him. Along with the rest of our group, I was prepared, ready and fully engaged during the entire interview as Brian shared his experience and vision for our team. . . . It’s unfortunate and shocking to learn for the first time this week that Brian felt differently about our interview with him.

“For Brian to make an assumption about my appearance and state of mind early that morning was subjective, hurtful and just plain wrong. If I appeared ‘disheveled,’ as he claimed, it was because we had flown in during the middle of the night — immediately following another interview in Denver — and were going on a few hours of sleep to meet the only window provided to us. . . . I interviewed Brian in good faith, giving him the same consideration and opportunity as every other candidate for our head coaching position in 2019.”

At paragraph 21 of the complaint, Flores made this allegation about his 2019 interview with the Broncos: “John Elway, President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Ellis and others, showed up an hour late to the interview. They looked completely disheveled, and it was obvious that they had [been] drinking heavily the night before. It was clear from the substance of the interview that Mr. Flores was interviewed only because of the Rooney Rule, and that the Broncos never had any intention to consider him as a legitimate candidate for the job. Shortly thereafter, Vic Fangio, a white man, was hired to be the Head Coach of the Broncos.”

The presence of the word “defamatory” in Elway’s statement raises the question of whether Elway is considering suing Flores for defamation. The strong Wednesday night statement from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross created a similar perception.

PFT

 

The Giants have found a new offensive coordinator.

According to multiple reports, New York is expected to hire Chiefs quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Mike Kafka as its first offensive coordinator under head coach Brian Daboll.


A former Eagles fourth-round pick under then-Philadelphia head coach Andy Reid in 2010, Kafka has been with the Chiefs since 2017. He started as an offensive quality control coach before being promoted to QBs coach in 2018. Kansas City added passing game coordinator to his title in 2020.

Kafka spent time with several organizations as a player, crossing paths with Daboll in 2013 when both were with the Patriots. Daboll was New England’s tight ends coach that year.

Texans quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Pep Hamilton and Browns receivers coach/passing game coordinator Chad O’Shea were Giants’ other two finalists for offensive coordinator.

 

Giants issue lengthy, detailed statement addressing Brian Flores’s claims



At first, the parties and persons accused of wrongdoing by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores opted to say as little as possible. Now, more and more of them are issuing aggressive and detailed statements challenging his claims.

The Giants have issued a statement regarding Flores’s claim that his interview from last week was a sham, and that the team already intended to hire Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.


“Brian Flores has raised serious issues in the filing of his complaint,” the statement begins. “The specific claims against the Giants and Mr. Flores’ allegations about the legitimacy of his candidacy for our head coach position are disturbing and simply false.”

The Giants insist that the decision to hire Daboll was not made before Flores interviewed for a second time on Thursday, January 27.

“After we interviewed six exceptional and diverse candidates, the decision on who we would hire as head coach was made on the evening of January 28, one day after Mr. Flores spent an entire day in our offices going through his second interview for the position, meeting with ownership and other staff members, and receiving a tour of our facility,” the statement continues. “There is additional concrete and objective evidence to substantiate we did not make our decision until the evening of the 28th.”

Flores contends that decision was made before then, and that he was made aware of it by a text message accidentally sent by Patriots coach Bill Belichick to Flores, when Belichick meant to text Daboll.

“The allegation that the Giants’ decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false,” the statement contends. “And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he ‘thinks’ Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible. The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll’s in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute Zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point. . . . In addition, Mr. Belichick does not speak for and has no affiliation with the Giants. Mr. Belichick’s text exchange provides no insight into what actually transpired during our head coaching search.”

The Giants insist that Flores was a legitimate candidate for the job.

“It has been well documented how much research and due diligence we did on Mr. Flores as it related to his candidacy,” the statement claims. “John Mara called Mr. Flores two days after he was dismissed in Miami. Mr. Mara expressed to Mr. Flores in that January 12 call that once we had our new general manager in place, we would begin the process of hiring our head coach and we wanted to meet with Mr. Flores because we considered him a serious candidate for the position. Mr. Mara and Mr. Flores then had their first formal conversation in a 25-30 minute Zoom call on January 18 (at Mr. Flores’ request) to further discuss his candidacy. . . . In between those initial conversations and Mr. Flores’ in-person interview on January 27, there were several other communications between Mr. Flores and members of our organization. This included a dinner with our newly hired general manager, Joe Schoen, the night before Mr. Flores’s in-person interview. The consensus from within the Giants organization after this dinner remained that Mr. Flores was an outstanding candidate, and we looked forward to sitting down with him in person the next day.

“Our hiring process and, most certainly, our consideration of Mr. Flores was serious and genuine. We are disappointed to learn that Mr. Flores was under the mistaken impression the job had already been awarded,” the statement says. “In his CBS interview yesterday, Mr. Flores was asked if ‘clubs have the right to hire the person they think is the best qualified for the job or the person they feel is right for them?’ Mr. Flores responded, ‘They do. That’s very reasonable to me . . .’ That is exactly what we did. . . . We hired Brian Daboll as our head coach at the conclusion of an open and thorough interview process. No decision was made, and no job offer was extended, until the evening of January 28, a full day after Mr. Flores’ in-person interview and day-long visit to the Giants.”

The statement includes the itinerary from Flores’s in-person interview, which began at 8:45 a.m. ET and continued through his initial meeting with Joe Schoen at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Coupled with statements issued by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and former Broncos G.M. John Elway, it’s clear that the teams that find themselves accused of wrongdoing by Flores plan to fight him aggressively, both in court and out of court.

PFT

 

Report: Saints want to interview Eric Bieniemy this week



The Saints want to interview Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy for their head coach opening, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports. The interview could happen Saturday, Fowler adds.

Bieniemy also interviewed for the Broncos’ job. He was expected to have more interest in this hiring cycle after several interviews over the past few years.


The Saints also have Doug Pederson, Brian Flores, Byron Leftwich, Aaron Glenn, Darren Rizzi and Dennis Allen as candidates.

“I think we are a desirable place, and we are desirable for a lot of reasons,” Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis said Wednesday.

Bieniemy has 14 years of NFL coaching experience. He has spent the past four seasons as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator.

PFT