Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross chats with Coach Brian Flores before a game in November 2019. Fired by the team in January, Flores alleges that ownership offered to pay him to intentionally lose games in order to improve the Dolphins’ draft position. Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press
“Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don’t win, it’s a shame …”
— “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, 1908
What if the home team isn’t trying to win?
That’s the question raised in two of the four major professional sports leagues in North America over the past week. We were reminded that pro sports are a business, and sometimes the business of team building can be ugly.
The football world was rocked by the allegations of racism levied in the lawsuit filed by Brian Flores, who was fired by the Miami Dolphins. Included in his lawsuit were allegations that team ownership offered to pay him to intentionally lose games in order to improve the Dolphins’ draft position.
In the NFL, if you’re not going to finish first you might as well finish last. The Cincinnati Bengals went 2-14 in 2019, picked quarterback Joe Burrow that summer and are getting ready for a Super Bowl appearance just two years later.
Did the Bengals tank in 2019? No one has suggested that, at least not on the record. But Flores said the Dolphins wanted to lose games. Then former Browns coach Hue Jackson told CNN about a similar situation in Cleveland, saying there was a system “incentivizing a four-year plan that led to the team not being able to play as well.”
From 2016-17 the Browns lost 31 of the 32 games they played. They were rewarded with back-to-back first-round picks.
There’s a simple fix here. The NBA and NHL have a draft lottery, where the team with the worst record in a season has an increased — but not guaranteed — shot at the first overall pick. The NBA went to a weighted lottery in 1990, giving the league’s worst teams the best chance at picking first. Yet that has happened just seven times since 1990. The second-worst team has picked first four times.
Teams not picking first overall still get a strong pick. Yet the competition to lose the most games isn’t as strong.
That’s why the Major League Players Association is asking for a robust lottery to be added to the Major League Baseball draft in the new collective bargaining agreement with owners. Players are tired of watching teams (hello, Baltimore) lose for several seasons in a row as they stockpile high draft picks before opening up a window of opportunity.
Last week, after the MLBPA rejected the owners’ offer of a mediator to jump-start negotiations, superstar pitcher Max Scherzer took to Twitter and laid out the players’ demands. “Eliminate tanking as a winning strategy” was the last thing he tweeted.
In baseball, losing isn’t just about improving draft position. It’s about small-market teams pocketing more of the revenue-sharing dollars they take in from bigger market teams. That’s why players are opposed to revenue sharing in general.
Players — and fans — are united in wanting every team to try to win every game it can. Regardless of that team’s position in the standings. With sport wagering now legal in much of the country, the integrity of competition on the field has never been more important.
A draft lottery is an easy first step toward making that happen. There’s no reason football and baseball shouldn’t adopt one.
Tom Caron is a studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN.
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