Illegal and unethical conversations shouldn’t be sacred. But, yeah, I’m guessing Flores knows he’ll never have another job. He must believe he has something.
We had a local radio host that was literally calling on the Chiefs to lose on purpose to get Andrew Luck.
I would not doubt that it has happened before, but it would be late in the season.
In the 2014-15 NHL season my favorite hockey team, the Buffalo Sabres, tanked in order to get the best odds for the number one pick. That following draft generational talent Connor McDavid was the consensus number one and Jack Eichel, who would have been number one just about any other year without McDavid, was the consensus number two. Under the rules of the NHL lottery the team which finished with the worst record was guaranteed no worse than the number two pick, which the Sabres got.
The Sabres denied that they were tanking. Their coach, Ted Nolan, was one of the proudest coaches who was known for getting the most out of undermanned teams and hated the idea. Nobody thought the team on the ice was trying to lose. However, the front office put the worst possible team on the ice, and its intentions were obvious.
It was so bad that late in the season the Sabres had a home game against the Arizona Coyotes, the team that was second to them in the race to the bottom. The crowd was openly rooting for the Coyotes, since a Sabres win would have lessened their chances of securing the worst record. As much as I hate to admit it, I felt the same way and did not want to see the Sabres win that game for that reason.
The tank ended up doing no good, as the Sabres are now starting their third re-build since then. Eichel was also traded after a long saga over an injury that is a story unto itself.
For another good story, back when O.J. Simpson was a senior in college and was going to be the number one pick, the Pittsburgh Steelers were on track to finish with the worst record in the NFL and thus receive the number one pick. However, late in the season they kicked a late-game field goal that gave them a win which prevented them from finishing in last place. Even when they won they lost.
Just one observation. SI.com has a number of football writers and when a big story like this breaks at least one opinion piece usually follows within a few hours. As of now there is no such piece, only the news story.
The league is coming out big in defense of Ross. Not sure if Flores has any documentation.
There is now only one black coach in the league and Flores likely thought he wasn’t getting a shot this year or he wouldn’t have thrown his career away with this effort. Not a good look.
I am not really against the “tanking”.
Basically they don’t spend a lot of money for a few years and then go all in for a few years.
It is about the only way small market teams can compete.