The saga of Brian Flores vs. the NFL and the Miami Dolphins has continued early this week with the former Dolphins coach, who is now employed by the Pittsburgh Steelers, giving multiple interviews.
On both the I Am Athlete podcast and HBO’s “Real Sports,” Flores stated that he was asked to sign a non-disparagement agreement when he was fired. Flores said he refused to sign the NDA even though signing the agreement would guarantee the money he was owed over the final two seasons that were left on his contract.
The Dolphins fired back at this claim Tuesday night in a statement.
“This latest assertion by Brian Flores that Steve Ross mentioned an NDA to him is categorically false,” the team’s statement read. “This just did not happen and we simply cannot understand why Brian continues this pattern of making unfounded statements that he knows are untrue. We are fully cooperating with the NFL investigation and look forward to all of the facts coming out which we are confident will prove that his claims are false and defamatory.”
Flores’ representative, Doug Wigdor, responded on social media with screenshots from the agreement that the coach was asked to sign.
In response to the #Dolphins calling Brian Flores’ assertion of an NDA “categorically false,” below are screenshots from the draft agreement & payment termination notice.
If #BrianFlores had signed this, he would have been gagged and unable to talk about his experience.#NFL pic.twitter.com/rlEgTXsd4I
— WigdorLaw (@WigdorLaw) February 23, 2022
Technically, the Dolphins could say that they are distancing Ross from this and pinning knowledge of this on senior vice president Brandon Shore, whose signature is seen in the document. Ross’ name doesn’t appear in those images, so there is some wiggle room.
This battle continues to be Flores making claims and the team denying every part. Until this goes to court, we probably won’t know the truth.