6 February 12-18, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | way he treats people. I think he treats people the right way.” Hafley and Sullivan enter the offseason with big questions, chief among them who will be the starting quarterback in 2026. QB1 Tua Tagovailoa was benched and served as the team’s emergency third quarterback for the final three games of the 2025 season after throwing a career-high 15 interceptions in just 14 games. He has since suggested that he is open to a fresh start somewhere else. But Tagovailoa’s injury history, recent perfor- mance, and hefty contract could make a breakup difficult. “I want a winner,” Hafley told NFL Net- work reporter Cameron Wolfe when asked about the quarterback position. “I want a guy who just he’s got it mentally. He’s got to have it physically, but I want a guy who’s got it up here. I want a guy who’s got it in his heart, and I want a guy who is going to be able to walk into a room, and everyone’s going to say, ‘That’s our quarterback.’” Starting quarterback aside, the Dolphins must determine whether they’re parting ways with wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who suffered a season-ending dislocated knee in Week 4 last season. Many have speculated that Hill’s release could be on the horizon, given his age and $51 million salary cap hit in 2026. The NFL is investigating domestic vio- lence allegations made against conflict-rid- den Tyreek by his estranged wife, Lakeeta Vaccaro, which Hill has denied. At his introductory press conference in January, Hafley vowed to instill trust, ac- countability, and toughness into his players to build a winning football team. “To the city, to the fans — this is a storied organization, one of the best in all sports, and you deserve a winner,” Hafley said. “You guys deserve a winner, and I am going to do every- thing in my power to bring you guys that.” JAMES FISHBACK BY NATASHA YEE To call James Fishback a polarizing political figure would be a massive understatement. The Florida gubernatorial hopeful has used racial slurs against opponent and GOP frontrunner Byron Donalds, embarked on a right-wing podcast tour, and suggested a fifty percent “hoe tax” on OnlyFans creators. For 31-year- old Fishback, the founder and CEO of investment firm Azoria Capital, the rage bait might actually be the point. Fishback, who seems keen on courting Gen Z to the polls in November, currently has 205,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter), 209,000 on Instagram, and 59,000 on Tik- Tok, and counting. His message doesn’t neatly fall on either side of the political spec- trum: remove undocumented children from Florida public schools, eliminate property taxes for primary residences (echoing one of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ causes de jour), remove fi- nancial ties to Israel, offer paid maternity leave to new moms, eliminate H-1B visas for foreign professionals in specialty occupa- tions, and reduce the cost of living, partially by cracking down on online homestay mar- ketplaces like Airbnb. The self-proclaimed fourth-generation Floridian (and Georgetown University drop- out) vascillates between edgelord and con- servative good boy, often referencing his Catholic faith to defend his views while pointing out that young women in the United States could use Saudi Arabia as a proper moral example. “Say what you want about Saudi Arabia,” he quipped during a podcast interview with right-wing influencers Sneako and Clavicular. “There are no women hoeing out on the in- ternet in Saudi Arabia.” Fishback’s advice to young women comes amid a controversial history. A Flor- ida school district severed ties with him over sexual misconduct allegations involv- ing a 17-year-old student from a debate club he ran; he was 27 at the time of the alleged relationship. After she turned 18, the two lived together and were briefly engaged in 2024, according to Florida Politics. The re- lationship ended with an unsuccessful peti- tion for protection against Fishback. A judge denied the request but described Fishback as “perhaps a little obsessive- compulsive” and of an “odd nature.” During a phone call with New Times, Fish- back vehemently denied having any romantic relationship with the young woman, either while she was a minor or after she turned 18, pointing to the judge’s denial of the order of protection. “I’m not saying trust me, bro. I’m saying trust the court, and I think your readers de- serve to have that context,” Fishback says. “I never dated an 18-year-old, ever. And I never lived with an 18-year-old. And I never, definitely never, dated a 17-year-old. So what you’re saying is, like, these are allegations. Anybody can make allegations,” he continued. Whatever the court made of Fishback’s behavior in his personal life, echoes of what the judge called his “odd nature” appear throughout his campaign, from his Tucker Carlson podcast appearance to his racist re- marks against Black opponent Donalds (who Fishback refers to as “By’rone” and a “slave”), to ending a speech at the University of Cen- tral Florida by proclaiming the cringe-induc- ing, “And that is on Gentile (a term for non-Jews often associated with paganism in the Bible), ok?” Fishback repeatedly referred to Donalds as “By’rone” in his interview with New Times, claiming it was Donalds’ real name and de- manding to see his birth certificate — a move echoing Trump’s false claims about former President Barack Obama’s birthplace. “If he releases his birth certificate and shows that his name is actually Byron at birth, I’m happy to revert to that, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for him to adopt nicknames and then be offended if I call him by his birth name,” Fishback says. He also didn’t shy away from the racial slurs. “The Merriam-Webster Dictionary de- fines ‘slave’ as someone who is controlled by someone else. Why else would he get $45 million? He has 45 million reasons to betray the people of Florida, from the corporate do- nors and AIPAC, who are funding his cam- paign,” Fishback says. “If he wants me to stop calling him a slave, he can give the money back to his corporate donors, to his hedge fund billionaires, and to AIPAC, and he won’t be a slave anymore.” When pressed on the inherent racism of the word, given that Donalds is a Black man, Fishback responded that he’s “not Black,” in- stead describing his opponent as Haitian and Panamanian, and with “no direct descendant of slavery in his family.” Fishback is a smooth talker, with well- honed messaging and a quick, convincing pace, even when uttering the most offensive or outlandish statements. But whether his ploys for notoriety are of any substance what- soever, or just methods with which to main- tain a constant IV drip of attention, is yet unclear. He has until the Republican primary on August 18 to build a case for himself as the next ultimate Florida Man. Money Talks Despite his bold ideas and attention-grab- bing social media stunts, including a recent attempt to “meet young female voters where they are” by joining Tinder, only to be banned after matching with over 4,000 women, he says, Fishback has little to show for his campaign. A recent Florida Department of State Divi- sion of Elections inquiry showed just $22,096 in contributions to Fishback’s campaign, comprised primarily of individual donations less than $1,000 each. Florida Election Com- mission finance data shows $19,866 in contri- butions through Fishback’s Florida First Political Action Committee (PAC). That’s a whopping $41,962 in campaign funds. Trump-endorsed Donalds, by contrast, had raised $45 million in 2025. And Fishback’s financial woes don’t ex- actly end there. A federal court filing alleges that Fishback, while working at billionaire in- vestor David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital be- tween 2021 and 2023, emailed fund strategies to his personal account, traded similar finan- cial assets personally, and repeatedly shared the fund’s full portfolio with others. In mid- January, a judge ordered him to turn over his Azoria stock and “luxury personal property” James Fishback wants to outrage farm his way to Florida governor. Photo by Carmen Mandato / Getty Images Jeff Hafley Screenshot via James Fishback on YouTube People to Watch from p4 P E O P L E TO W ATC H 2026
