Armando Salguero
Videos by OutKick
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, still awaiting a head coach interview with the Houston Texans, on Tuesday filed a suit in Manhattan Federal Court seeking unspecified damages over the “racism in hiring” practices of the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and, indeed, all 32 NFL teams and the league.
In an action that’s akin to pressing the nuclear button, Flores alleged in his suit that his experience with multiple NFL teams displayed behavior against him because he’s a black man.
Flores in his suit against the Giants contends they hired new coach Brian Daboll and disclosed that decision to third parties during a time Flores was still scheduled to interview for the job.
The 58-page suit document includes text messages Flores got from former New England Patriots employer Bill Belichick, for whom Flores worked as an assistant for 14 years, outlining how he (Belichick) had been informed of Daboll’s hiring before Flores interviewed.
“Sorry — I f—– this up. I double checked and misread the text. I think they are naming Brian Daboll. I’m sorry about that. BB.”
That is a text message exchange with Patriots coach Bill Belichick that Flores includes in the suit. That text came to Flores three days before his interview with the Giants.
The NFL released a statement minutes after news of the lawsuit got out.
“The NFL and our clubs are deeply committed to ensuring equitable employment practices and continue to make progress in providing equitable opportunities throughout our organizations. Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time. We will defend against these claims, which are without merit.”
Flores, in his suit, draws back the curtain on the Dolphins’ 2019 tank season.
He alleges in 2019 “he refused his owner’s directive to tank for the first pick in the draft.”
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told him (Flores) he’d pay $100,000 for every loss and when the Dolphins rallied late in the year to win 5 of the final 9 games, general manager Chris Grier passed along that “Steve” was “mad” because Flores was winning and that was “compromising [the team’s] draft position.”
Flores was fired by Ross the day after the 2021 season and the club’s owner cited poor collaboration within his organization as a reason for the firing.
Well, Flores says things got sideways as early as the winter of 2019 because the suit alleges Ross began to pressure Flores to recruit a prominent QB in violation of league tampering rules. Flores, the suit claims, refused to comply.
Flores recounts that after that season, early in 2020, Ross invited his coach for lunch aboard his yacht. And suddenly the coach learned the prominent QB in question was arriving at the marina, too as a “set up” by Ross.
Flores said he left. Flores contends in his suit that after he left that meeting, he was “treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with.”
It should be noted that Tom Brady became a free agent in the spring of 2020 and Flores worked with and around Brady at New England. Ross, who is friendly with Brady from their ties to the University of Michigan, said in January of 2020 he didn’t think Brady would be a fit because of the quarterback’s desires to win immediately compared to Miami’s young roster.
That’s not all.
Flores contends he was “defamed throughout the media and the League as he was labeled by the Dolphins brass as someone who was difficult to work with.” And, he contends, “This is reflective of an all too familiar angry black man stigma that is often casted upon black men who are strong in their morals and convictions while white men are coined as passionate for those very same attributes.”
Flores also contends his 2019 interview with the #Broncos was also a “sham interview.” He said then-GM John Elway and President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Ellis showed up to interview an hour late and “they looked completely disheveled, and it was obvious they had been drinking the night before.”
Yeah they proved how racist they are by giving him a head coaching job.
My exact reply. Thank for doing it for me.
The problem is that white coaches are told they suck and fired each and every week. Nobody cares. Nobody has the balls to tell a black coach they suck so they think when they get the axe it’s racism. Good news is he can chop his tallywhacker off and be right in the running for Joe’s Supreme Court pick!
Zzzzzzz. Attention whore. That will show them you will certainly get a job now. Good work. Is it racist that the white Dolphins owner kept the black GM? Loser.
I’ll tell you… that text exchange between Flores and Belichick is pretty damning. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
I just read a couple of stories detailing the things in the lawsuit. I may be on Flores side on this one. Much of the issues are a result of the “Rooney Rule”. Going thru the motions to just get a checkmark for interviewing a black coach, especially knowing they really are not interested, is what happens. I believe the story about Elway and the Broncos exec. How disrespectful and rude. The whole Giants thing is disrespectful as well.
With that, I do not know how the NFL can fix things in this area. I’m not saying Flores is an angel to work with or if he deserved to get fired or not in Miami, however, no job candidate (in any field) deserves the type of disrespect mentioned.
They can fix it by axing the Rooney Rule. Stupid rule. Let people pick who they want. Stop looking at everything thru a racial lens. The unintended consequence here are sham interviews. I’d be pissed to. But I also get how the teams have to go thru it, even if they know who they want.
Was it racist for the all black front office of the Dolphins to hire a black coach in the first place?
Isn’t this the down side of the Rooney rule? You HAVE to interview a black coach candidate even if one isn’t qualified or a good fit. So no wonder Elway and team showed up hungover, he probably wouldn’t have gotten the interview otherwise. Waste of time for both owners/GMs and potential coaches. If the team doesn’t want you, why waste anyone’s time.
Yep. Lets see if the NFL does anything. They didn’t do shit when teams said Eugene Chung was “the wrong kind of minority” and “not the right color” to comply with this rule.
Why, he doesn’t sound difficult to work with al all.
The last time I looked, blacks are 13% of the population, yet 90% of RB’s are black & 85% of WR’s are black. If anyone has a beef, it’s Asian and Hispanics, who are <1% of players. Yeah, the league IS racist…but not against blacks. The country is tired of listening to the race hustle, especially other non-white groups.
Flores only qualification is to head up a local BLM chapter, along with Ball Don't Lie.
He will get paid by NFL, but never work in NFL again. His choice.
If this results in Roger Goodell being exposed as the butt-kissing jackass that he is … then I’m all for it.
.
Goodell grabbed his ankles for BLM, giving them bazillions of $$$$ to keep his black players from bolting the plantation. … Howsa THAT working for you now Roger?
.
Amen to that! Good take. Goodell is a very expensive NFL owner puppet. He’s really good at grabbing his ankles on the owners behalf. And paid accordingly.
Exactly. These fuckers will go after the ass kissing Goodell until they get a majority of black owners, black executives, black staff, and then the NFL will be no longer. This guy Flores is insane IMO. But you’ll see every black talking head and journalist side with him.
Good luck. None of this sounds like racism. Does sound like Ross is a jackass and a nightmare to work for.
As for the Broncos, wouldn’t this interview be after they fired Vance Joseph? Who is also black.
I thought the same thing about Ross. I don’t hear anything remotely associated to racism being the reason he wasn’t hired. I’m sure teams have “their guy” they want before the process starts, so if they have him they are still forced to go through the motions to check boxes. That’s a stupidly ridiculous process, not racism. It may be unprofessional or rude to waste a candidate’s time, but that’s about it.
In part of the press release he went on to say”
“”In making the decision to file the class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me.”
I guess “doing so much for me and my family” just ain’t good enough anymore. I WANT IT ALL!
The countdown is on, Tick, tick, tick…the NFL is on life support…being PC and woke are irrelevant
A millionaire suing 30 billionaires…good luck Brian.
Only card they have weak mfers
Flores was fired by a black GM in Miami, and the Broncos had Vance Joseph for a few years. Grasping at straws, it seems.
Not sure what`s true here and what isn`t, but it doesn`t matter: This is what you get with affirmative action (which is what the Rooney Rule is). Just let people hire who they think is the best fit. If you`re that good, someone will hire you regardless of what you look like. Flores just nuked the rest of his NFL career. His is suing ALL OF HIS FUTURE EMPLOYERS! I can`t imagine how any of them would hire him. Hope it was worth it………
Sounds like the Dolphins owner is a douche bag and is spreading lies about him, because he wouldn’t break league rules. Sounds to me like he does have a a lawsuit. But it’s not because he’s black.
WASN’T HE THE SAME COLOR WHEN HE WAS HIRED? AND PAID MILLIONS OF F DOLLARS?
One thing is fairly certain… He’ll be the Colin Kaepernick of NFL coaches; that’s the last you’ll see from him insofar as coaching is concerned. On the other hand, like Kaepernick, he’ll probably be martyred and just as wealthy. Good work if you can get it. TP