Former coach of the Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores, filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and three of its teams, the Dolphins, New York Giants, and the Denver Broncos, accusing them of sham interviews, incentives to lose games, and press to improperly recruit players. Naturally, the NFL and the teams denied all of the accusations. Sure, they’re not racist. Meanwhile, how long has Colin Kaepernick been out of the league since protesting systemic racism?
Currently, there is only one black head coach in the NFL, Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers. There have been nine openings this season with four of them being filled so far with…wait for it…white guys. If a team doesn’t hire another black coach this season, Mike Tomlin is in danger of becoming the NFL’s Venus Flytrap. We already lost Dr. Johnny Fever so we can’t allow this to happen.
There is a rule in the league, called the Rooney rule, requiring each team to interview two minority candidates for head-coaching jobs. Since this doesn’t require a team to actually hire a black head coach, they can just go through the motions, interview non-white candidates and then go ahead and hire their white guy. Everyone knows there are teams that do this, but they’ve become so relaxed about it, that according to Flores, some teams conduct the interview with the black candidates AFTER they hire their white guy.
Black coaches have been saying in private for years that most of their interviews were shams. But Flores is saying he has proof of these sham interviews. He has screenshots of text messages from Patriot’s coach Bill Belichick that shows he was aware of the Giants hiring a white head coach three days before they interviewed Flores.
Flores was previously an assistant coach under Belichick, who texted him congratulating him on being hired as head coach of the Giants. But, he hadn’t been hired by the Giants. After Flores told Belichick he hadn’t even been interviewed yet, the Patriot’s coach found out it was another guy who was hired, a white dude, and apologized to Flores. Three days later, Flores went to the sham interview…reportedly.
He’s also accusing the Denver Broncos of using him to get around the Rooney rule in 2019, saying they were drunk when he came in for his interview and didn’t take it seriously. If there are mojitos at your job interview, that means you either got the job or the interviewer doesn’t even know you’re there.
The accusation that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay Flores to lose games is serious. It undermines the entire league if teams are intentionally losing games in order to move up in the draft. Also, how do you fire a guy for not winning when you offered him bonuses to lose? Since Flores has a winning record the past two seasons, maybe he was fired for winning.
Hue Jackson, former coach of the Cleveland Browns may join the class-action suit as he’s claimed the owner of that team also offered him bonuses to lose.
Also, if owners are paying coaches to lose, it would explain a lot about the New York Jets.
The accusation of improperly recruiting players relates to the owner of the Dolphins setting up a “chance” encounter between Flores and a quarterback who was still under contract to another team. Teams are not supposed to recruit players under contracts to other teams. It’s a big no-no.
Brian Flores is only 40-years-old. He’s younger than Tom Brady, but Tom Brady will probably get a head coaching job in the NFL before Flores is ever offered another one. Hue Jackson may be on the outs too. Look what happened to Colin Kaepernick.
Since the 49s released Kaepernick in 2016, he’s only had one official tryout in the league. He’s so toxic to the league for his anti-racism protests, they won’t even talk to him. He also sued the league and reached a settlement.
That’s probably where this lawsuit will go. There will be a settlement along with a bunch of promises to do better…and a few years later, Flores can sue them again for blackballing him out of the league.
The only thing left here is for Ted Cruz and Roger Wicker to come out screaming there aren’t enough white coaches in the NFL….or with the death of Dr. Johnny Fever, not enough white DJs at WKRP in Cincinnati.
See more award-winning editorial cartoons from Clay Jones at Claytoonz.com.
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