reverberate throughout the NFL. It's Ben.
A strange 18 hours or so, you know, initially
the people who were targeted by the Brian Flores allegations
decided that their best course of action was to say nothing
late last night.
Stephen Ross, couldn't stay silent anymore. I think he
started to realize it's pretty serious. I can't just
keep my mouth shut about this kind of an accusation. If it's
not true. I need to be shouting it from the rooftops. So we got
a very strongly worded statement from Stephen Ross.
Last night calling.
The allegation that he offered a hundred thousand dollars per
loss to Brian Flores back in 2019 malicious and defamatory
in the kind of words that make
you think.
Maybe he's thinking about pursuing legal action.
Enter John Elway. He issued a statement today on his own, you
know, he's no longer technically.
I don't want to say an employee but he doesn't have a title.
He's an advisor now with the Denver Broncos. He is in
the process of easing out of the organization. He's helping GM
George pay but he was the GM back in 2019 when they hired
Vic fangio.
And there's always statement while I was not planning to
respond publicly of the false and defamatory claims are Brian
Flores. I cannot be silent any longer with my character,
integrity, and professionalism being attacked. I took coach
floors very seriously, as a candidate
for a head coaching position in 2019 and enjoyed
our three and a half hour.
Of you with him along with the rest of our group. I was
prepared ready and fully engaged during the entire
interview for Brian to make an assumption about my appearance
and state of mind.
That morning was subjective hurtful and just plain wrong.
I interviewed brining the good faith giving him the same
consideration and opportunity as every other candidate or
a head coaching position in 2019. Elway's separately said in that
statement that
they had flown in overnight after interviewing a candidate
in Denver because see at the time Flores working for
the Patriots
page. A tree. It's in the playoff chase that resulted in
the Super Bowl fifty three Championship. They had to go to
him.
So if he was disheveled and that was Flores conclusion,
that they were hung over the Broncos contingent was
hungover.
And I always said, if we look to shovel too because we were
to playing all night and didn't sleep basically. So
the battle has been joined now when he says false and
defamatory Mi makes me think he's thinking about
Pursuing his options as well against Brian Flores, but it's
changed since we did this last night. Two of the guys
implicated by Flores having some strong things to say in
opposition to his contentions.
Yeah, and you know, I don't necessarily think that that's
entirely unexpected. Right? I think that certainly once
somebody has
an accusation against you you do have the right to defend
yourself to that accusation. And at this point, it's kind of
a Said he said, sort of deal
when you're thinking about, you know, what these statements are
and the lawsuit, and the complaint versus what seemed
Ross had to say, and what John Elway had to say, but then you
also have reports like
that, one from the NFL media's Cameron wolf, where he said
that there is someone who can corroborate what Brian Flores
had to say about the 100,000 dollar payments for losses. Has
so
you know, that's one thing that's there. And obviously
there were other people in that Broncos contingent and that
would have interviewed Brian Flores. And so
that's where it's like, you know,
what are we ever going to know about what the truth is? It's
actually in that particular situation, when the Broncos,
it's like
they're two people can have very, very different
perceptions of the same exact thing
where something is going on. I mean, look Brian Flores.
Really perceive that he's not being taken seriously in
an interview, even though John Elway can think he's presenting
himself as somebody who's taking this seriously, but
I mean, I think we've all maybe been in situations
where you're in an interview, you're in a meeting and
a superior of yours just doesn't seem to be paying any attention
to what you're saying. And from that perspective. I'm like,
I understand why Brian Flores would be extremely annoyed by
that. So
I guess. So I say, let's say I'm not entirely surprised that
Elway and that Ross have come out as strongly as they have
against what Brian Flores leveraged against them.
I will say this, though,
if you're Brian Flores, and you are going to make strong
allegations like that and support of your claims. He
didn't have to join the Broncos. He didn't have to go
back to 2019 and accuse them of conducting a sham interview and
not having any real interest in hiring.
To be their head coach. He didn't have to make those
allegations. I am a firm believer that
you need to make your strong allegations with
Precision. It can't be closed. It can't be a matter of
interpretation.
You got to be able to prove it and I said yesterday,
when a guy is willing to risk his career when he comes to
the table with claims like this, that gives it an instant boost
of credibility for me, but the problem is Miles.
If you overreach
with one.
It makes it harder to make the others stick. Because if one
can be proven to be not credible, then credibility
questions arise
about the ones that may be 100% accurate. So don't dilute
your strongest points.
Don't dilute the things, you can prove with a corroborating
witness, like the hundred thousand dollar offer. Don't do
that
and then have some other claim that,
you know, because what's going to happen is they're going to
parade in one after another of the Broncos people who were
there. They're all going to say the same thing. John Elway said
and you reach a critical mass, and I've been there and I've
done that and I've learned it the hard way,
you reach a critical mass of witnesses who will tell
the same story where you just get a visceral sense.
They can't all be lying. They can't all be lying.
It's just like the DeShaun Watson thing like somewhere
between those three and three and 22 somewhere. You hit
a number where you say, they can't all be lying,
right? And that's why I don't. Really love playing like
what's both sides of this and like that's kind of what I feel
like I just I did with the first thing I said, but I agree
with you that
when you have somebody who is literally risking his career
in order to make these claims
then that definitely boost The credibility of it in my mind
because it's like,
why would he lie?
Why would he just bring this up out of nowhere
when you have something that's a little bit
more. Concrete if you want to call it that from what he
experienced with the Giants, a few weeks ago.
And also what he
assumed is
experienced with Stephen Ross and being his employee over
the course of three years, right? So,
this is going back
to something where you're saying. All right. Well,
if this really happened
then why or if this did not happen, then why would Brian
Flores bring it up in this? Context where
we already have heard. Now that there is somebody who can
corroborate. What happened with? Stephen Ross. All right,
eye and a but it's also true
that if this one is not proved to be deemed to be credible
then yeah that's going to hurt everything else that he's
saying. And
I don't know. I mean, I guess as somebody who would like to
see change in the hiring practices. I don't really want
that to be the case,
right? But Mom's, here's the thing. There's two different
realities and what you said earlier.
Hundred percent accurate. This is the way human beings process
information. And you can have
multiple different interpretations of the same
event that plays out in front of people. They see it with
their Naked Eyes, unblinking Clockwork Orange style and they
still,
they still have a different interpretation between
the time. The information goes through their eyes, to their
brains stays in their brains mixes in with all sorts of
other crap. And then later comes out their mouths. It
could be completely different.
My point is this
The world changes when you go to court, the world changes,
when you're trying to convince a jury, a judge who ever that.
You're right, because
it's impossible to engineer the benefit of the doubt because
everything you do everything you say they are throwing mud
back at you.
Any way? They can
every way they can't. If you watched any of the hearing today,
not a hearing, a
hybrid Round Table, whatever. That means
regarding the Washington football team investigation.
You would see the questions, how different they were based
upon, whether or not the person asking was
democrat or republican.
But you see how the mud gets thrown
when it's time to discredit people
and it's so reckless
and at times it seems so weird,
but you have to stand up in that storm and tell your story.
So you better be. Damn sure. You can tell a story that holds
up under questioning Goodfellas Henry Henry. I'm concerned you
may not hold up under questioning.
You got to be able to hold up.
Questioning. So you got to pick
a horse that, you know, will ride.
That's my point and great. If you're not 100% sure you can sell
this notion that a bunch of drunken stumblebums walked into
the
room, unless you got pictures
on your phone or something like that.
You're running the risk
that you are going to step on a rake.
When the time comes to prove it. That's all I'm saying.
I would like to think that Flores lawyers
would have told him that,
right? What you just said,
you know, I'd like to think it too,
but it doesn't always happen that way.
Well, I guess not everybody was as good a lawyer as you used to
be. Maybe you should know they don't trust
know, it's easy for me to say it now because I have the scars
on my ass. Okay, that's why they call it practice of law.
You need to practice in order to get better.
And most of the things I learned. And
were from my f UPS. Not from
the days that things went. Well, trust me.
I learned a lot of things the hard way.
So, I believe that's my effort humility, but it's also 100%
accurate, and that's my point. Whatever you're going to accuse
someone of
you better be able to back it up because they're going to do
everything they can to make it look like you're not
telling the truth and if they can undermine your credibility
in one area, it necessarily undermines your credibility in
the