Brian Flores sues NFL, Dolphins, Giants and Broncos for alleged racism
Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores sued the NFL and his former team, plus the New York Giants and Denver Broncos on issues related to his time with the South Florida team and interviews for vacancies with the other two teams mentioned here.
Money for losing games in Miami?
The Dolphins hired Flores for the 2019 season and after a poor start to the season, according to allegations in the 58-page lawsuit released by the head coach, owner Stephen Ross reportedly offered him $100,000 for each game lost during that season in order to have a better spot in the following year's Draft.
When Miami improved at the end of that campaign and started winning games, General Manager Chris Grier reportedly told Flores that the owner was angry with him for not following his instructions and even pressured him to draft a prominent quarterback, which the strategist refused in order not to break the tampering rules since they were still in business.
The pressure was such that in 2020 he forced him to go to a yacht where said quarterback would be, after also refusing, Ross accused him of treating him with disdain, he was finally fired last January 10, despite a great closing of the season.
Simulated interview with the Giants?
In the Giants' case, the allegation is that the Giants had a head coaching vacancy and made him attend an interview simply to comply with the famous "Rooney Rule" when they had already decided on Brian Daboll to fill the position.
According to Flores' lawsuit, he spoke with Big Blue officials in an interview on January 18, then the team hired General Manager Joe Schoen and scheduled a second interview for January 27.
A few days later, Flores received text messages from head coach Bill Belichick, a former Giants assistant, who congratulated him on getting the job in New York before the second interview and that the Buffalo Bills also knew about it.
Flores then asked Belichick to clarify if he was talking to the correct Brian, as his namesake surnamed Daboll worked as the Bills defensive coordinator, Belichick apologized and said he had confused his conversation with Brian Daboll.
John Elway didn't take him seriously?
In the Broncos case, Flores said he endured a similar process in an interview for their 2019 head coaching vacancy, in the lawsuit he says General Manager John Elway arrived hung over from a binge drinking binge and an hour later than agreed.
In the cases of the Giants and Broncos, Flores refers to the fictitious compliance with the "Rooney Rule" that obliges teams to interview a minority candidate for their vacancies in order to be inclusive in the hiring of their personnel, however, according to the former defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, both teams conducted interviews with him using him to comply with the paperwork and without being a real candidate to fill the position.
The NFL's response
Through a statement, the NFL already responded to these allegations by mentioning the following:
"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," the NFL wrote in a statement. "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."
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