Dan Abrams and Mike Florio Believe Dolphins Owner Could Face Legal Trouble: ‘This is a Massive Deal that Could Lead to Criminal Charges’
Not to be overlooked in Brian Flores’s lawsuit against the NFL was the bombshell report alleging he was offered $100,000 from Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to lose on purpose.
According to Mediate founder Dan Abrams and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, not only will Ross have to answer to the NFL regarding the allegation, but the Dolphins owner could be in serious legal trouble as well.
“When you have two prominent former NFL head coaches, who are both saying publicly that they were being paid to lose games…I would expect that a federal investigation is going to ensue here,” Abrams said on his SiriusXM Radio show.
In addition to Flores alleging Ross attempted to bribe him to lose, former NFL head coach Hue Jackson recently implied Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam did the same.
“I agree,” said Florio, a former full-time attorney. “And it’s not just Congress that they need to worry about…all it takes is one prosecutor and they’ve got wide discretion and you convene a grand jury and nobody knows about it until they start issuing indictments.”
“I’m not even talking about Congress,” Abrams added. “I’m talking about the possibility of a grand jury, or federal prosecutors looking into this because bribing someone in a sport can be a crime where you’re talking about up to five years in prison.”
Since filing the lawsuit, Flores has said he declined the bribery offers from Ross, choosing instead to uphold the integrity of the game. But according to Florio, The Sports Bribery Act doesn’t require an offer to be accepted for liability to arise for Ross. After Florio’s appearance on The Dan Abrams Show, he wrote the following for Pro Football Talk:
Liability arises if the person “carries into effect” the scheme or “attempts to carry into effect” the bribe. The mere offer of $100,000 to Flores, without more, would constitute a violation by Ross.
According to the lawsuit against the NFL, Ross made the $100,000 bribery attempt to Flores during the 2019 season. The same year that Ross allegedly attempted to manipulate the outcome of NFL games with a payout, the Dolphins owner also reportedly invested in a sports gambling startup.
“If they’re paying to lose games, this is going to be just a massive deal in the NFL,” Abrams said. And I think it could lead to criminal charges.”
Listen above via SiriusXM
