By Vihaan Majumdar
NFL coach Brian Flores filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL, alleging racism in the hiring processes, after he was passed up for the head coaching job for the Giants in favor of former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.
Flores was previously the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, and his firing was considered surprising, as the Dolphins had consecutive winning seasons in 2020 and 2021.
In his lawsuit, Flores included text messages from Patriots coach Bill Belichick, whose staff Flores was on before his move to Miami. The texts appeared to show Belichick congratulating Flores for landing the Giants head
coaching job (before there was an official announcement). There was just one problem: Flores had not interviewed for the job yet. The texts were actually meant for Daboll, also an ex-staff member of Belichick. Flores alleges that his interview with the Giants was a sham, and only took place to satisfy the “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview a diverse list of candidates for coaching and managerial positions.
The Broncos were the second team implicated in the lawsuit, with Flores alleging that Broncos executives showed up to his interview in 2019 an hour late, with seemingly no intention of actually hiring him. The Broncos later hired Vic Fangio, who is white, as their head coach. He was fired after three seasons.
The lawsuit also implicated Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, alleging that he offered Flores $100,000 for each loss in the 2019 season. In a statement, Ross denied the allegations, saying he takes “great personal exception to these malicious attacks” and vowed to fully cooperate with any investigation.
The NFL has acknowledged the lack of diversity in coaches in recent years, with there currently only being two black head coaches (Mike Tomlin of the Steelers and Lovie Smith of the Texans) and five minority head coaches (Tomlin, Smith, Robert Saleh of the Jets, Mike McDaniel of the Dolphins, and Ron Rivera of the Commanders), despite the league being almost 70% black.
In a recent statement, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the NFL would review all policies regarding the hiring of minority coaches and managers. In a recent memo to all 32 teams, he declared the league’s efforts to promote diversity “unacceptable” and said that “we understand the concerns expressed by Coach Flores and others this week.”
