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Free agent NFL head coaching candidate Brian Flores is suing the league and three teams, the Dolphins, Giants and Broncos, over its hiring practices.
According to the class action complaint, Flores is alleging race discrimination when it comes to coach hiring in the NFL. Among many complaints, the lawsuit chides the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” which requires NFL teams to conduct at least one in-person interview with a minority candidate for head coaching vacancies.
“However, well intentioned or not, what is clear is that the Rooney Rule is not working,” the complaint reads. Currently there is only one black coach in the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
Flores, who is black, last coached the Miami Dolphins in 2021.
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The lawsuit gives a recent example of the New York Giants hiring process for their head coaching position.
The lawsuit contains screenshots of text messages sent from Patriots coach Bill Belichick to Flores, mistakenly congratulating him for getting the Giants coaching job. The problem was that Flores had not even interviewed for the Giants job yet, and was expected to meet with them in the coming days.
More texts show that Belichick meant to send these texts to Brian Daboll, not Brian Flores.
Assuming the text screenshots are accurate, that could indicate that the Giants had already made a decision to make Brian Daboll, who is white, their next head coach, before interviewing Flores.
Flores’s attorneys called this a “humiliating act of alleged racism.”
“God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goals,” Flores said in a release put out by the law firm representing him in the case. “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. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.”
The NFL did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story.
Flores is represented by Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis.
