This is the kind of news that could potentially rock the NFL and change the way the head-coaching decisions are made for years to come. Brian Flores, the former Miami Dolphins coach, has filed a class-action suit against the NFL and three particular teams: the Dolphins, the Broncos, and the Giants. The suit alleges discrimination by the Broncos and Giants in their hiring process and makes even bigger accusations against the Miami Dolphins, who fired Flores just last month.
According to Flores, both the Broncos – 3 years ago – and the Giants this year, staged “fake” interviews with him only to comply with the Rooney Rule. This rule requires teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for open head coaching positions.
The allegations against the Dolphins, however, go even farther. The team fired Flores three weeks ago, despite recording the franchise’s first back-to-back winning seasons since 2003. Flores alleges Dolphins GM Chris Grier informed him late in the season that the team’s success was “compromising the team’s draft position.”
He also alleges team owner Stephen Ross offered to pay him an extra $100,000 per loss during the 2019 season and tried to get him to violate the NFL’s tampering rules by recruiting a quarterback who was under contract to another team.
“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 news release. “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 responded to the lawsuit with a statement that claimed: “there’s no merit” to the allegations, and the three teams named defended their hiring practices in separate statements.