What a surprise. The league that put “END RACISM” in every end zone, but failed to actually address any inequality issues within its hiring processes is facing a massive lawsuit about its hiring processes. A league that touts ZERO Black owners and one Black head coach at the time of the filing despite over 57 percent of the players being Black has found itself facing serious legal and public relations issues. Let’s be honest the National Football League only truly cares about the second issue; remember when Jerry Jones took a knee?
With all eyes on the National Football League with the Super Bowl just days away, an ugly cloud looms large over the events in the bright city of Los Angeles. Brian Flores filed the 58-page lawsuit in Manhattan federal court. The former Dolphins head coach accuses the NFL of sham interviews, incentivizing losses and pressure to improperly recruit players. He directly names the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos in the suit. He alleges that Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross offered to pay him $100,000 for every game the team lost.
Under Flores, the Dolphins posted their first back-to-back winning seasons since 2003. Despite that, he was still let go at the end of the regular season. In the suit, the former head coach alleges Ross was willing to pay him for every game the Dolphins lost to improve their draft position in 2019 to secure a superstar quarterback. When Flores refused to tank nor violate the NFL’s tampering rules to recruit a QB, he was allegedly treated as some who “was difficult to work with”.
The New York Giants brought Flores in for an interview for their head coaching vacancy. Thanks to Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s text messages, we know the team allegedly had already decided to hire Buffalo OC Brian Daboll before Flores even interviewed with the team. When he interviewed for the Broncos head coaching vacancy in 2019, he alleges team executives showed up hungover to the meeting after a long night of drinking indicating a lack of seriousness about the interview. Denver ended up hiring Vic Fangio for the position.
What is the Rooney Rule?
The Rooney Rule was established in 2003, named after the late Steelers owner and former Workplace Diversity Committee chairman Dan Rooney, requiring teams to interview at least one outside minority candidate for open head coaching positions. The rule was expanded in 2009 to include general manager and other front-office vacancies as well as requiring teams to conduct at least two interviews with external minority candidates. After seeing the rule have almost no impact in producing more diversity within teams the rule was amended once again in 2020. Teams were given incentives including teams receiving a third-round compensatory pick for two years if they have a minority coach move on to another job with another team. Still not seeing an impact, the rule was revised once again in 2021. Teams are required to interview two external minority candidates for head coaching positions and at least one external minority candidate for coordinator positions. In addition, at least one minority and/or female candidate must be interviewed for any senior level position.
“Sham Interviews”
In the lawsuit, Flores accuses teams of holding “sham interviews” to satisfy the Rooney Rule requirement. He wants other former and current coaches to join the lawsuit to show a clear pattern of systemic racism that exists within the league for Black and minority coaches. Former player and former Washington defensive backs coach Ray Horton told The Washington Post, “You still have to prepare just as hard and knock it out of the park with zero chance of getting the job. That’s the reality for most Black coaches.”This is an offense-led league. Yet Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and Kansas City’s offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy both continue to be passed on by teams with head coaching vacancies. Many head coaches are offensive coordinators first, but for some reason despite these two teams being two of the top offenses in the league they have not been selected as head coaches.
The League’s Response
This is just the beginning of what will likely be a very long legal process. Roger Goodell and the National Football League have decided to separate Flores’ claims. The league has vowed to investigate the claims that Ross paid Flores to throw games to improve draft position. However, the league has already dismissed Flores’ claims of racial discrimination in hiring practices as “without merit”. Goodell sent out a memo to teams over the weekend affirming the league’s commitment to policies that encourage the hiring of minorities. Now if that was true, why not bring Flores in and hear what he has to say on what teams are still getting wrong? If he truly believed the league’s record on hiring minority coaches was “unacceptable” then why not make that a real priority? Because it’s all about a public relations campaign to make the league look like it cares. It doesn’t matter if an actual change occurs because the 32 white billionaire owners don’t want change. They just don’t want to ruin their profit margins.
Since the filing of Flores’ lawsuit, the Texans did hire Lovie Smith. While it is a step in the correct direction, Flores was also a finalist for the position. His lawyers released the following statement about Smith’s hiring,
“Mr. Flores is happy to hear that the Texans have hired a Black head coach, Lovie Smith, as Mr. Flores’ goal in bringing his case is to provide real opportunities for Black and minority candidates to be considered for coaching and executive positions within the NFL. However, we would be remiss not to mention that Mr. Flores was one of three finalists for the Texans’ head coach position and, after a great interview and mutual interest it is obvious that the only reason Mr. Flores was not selected was his decision to stand up against racial inequality across the NFL.”
As a Giants fan, it pains me to see this team continue to make fools out of themselves season after season. A team that still has yet to hire a Black head coach thinks there is nothing wrong with how they handled the situation. It pains me more to see the team pass on a coach that would’ve lit a fire and made fans buy in again. Flores grew up in Brooklyn as a Giants fan, he represents so many current fans who just want to be excited about their team once again. That’s not to say Brian Daboll will not succeed, but if New York’s owners were serious about courting fans after years of embarrassing seasons, they would have hired Flores.
