On the first day of Black History Month, when most in the media celebrate traditional figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson, Brian Flores became a new name in the annals of civil rights, history and social justice.
Tuesday afternoon the former Miami Dolphins head coach filed a blistering class action lawsuit in federal court accusing the NFL, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and NY Giants of racial discrimination in their hiring practices.
The accusations are scathing and begin its assault on the powerful NFL at the very start of the filing.
“While racial barriers have been eroded in many areas,” states the suit in the second paragraph of its preliminary statement. “Defendant the National Football League (‘NFL’ or the ‘League’) lives in a time of the past. As described throughout the Class Action Complaint, the NFL remains rife with racism, particulalry when it comes to the hiring and retention of Black Head Coaches, Coordinators and General Managers. Over the years, the NFL and its 32-member organization (the ‘Teams’) have been given every chance to do the right thing. Rules have been implements, promises made- but nothing has changed. In fact, the racial discrimination has only been made worse by the NFL’s disingenous commitment to social equity.”
And that’s just the second paragraph.
Flores exposes something NFL fans have known for years, that the owners’ hiring bias favors white coaches, both first-time and recycled candidates. The last two years alone exemplify this fact.
2022 Is The New 2021
In January of 2021, there were seven head coaching vacancies, and only one went to a Black coach, David Culley of the Houston Texans. Another went to Robert Saleh of the NY Jets, who became the first Muslim-American head coach in NFL history.
Heading into this past season, there were three Black head coaches; Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Houston’s David Culley and the Dolphins’ Brian Flores. That’s a far cry from 10 years prior when the league had 10 Black head coaches. That included the Bears’ Lovie Smith, the Bengals’ Marvin Lewis, the Colts’ Jim Caldwell, Jacksonville’s Mel Tucker, the Chiefs’ Romeo Crennell, the Dolphins Todd Bowles, Minnesota’s Leslie Frazier, Oakland’s Hue Jackson, Mike Tomlin, and Tampa Bay’s Raheem Morris.
Out of that impressive list, only five (Caldwell, Crennell, Bowles, Jackson and Smith) were given a second chance at full-time NFL head coaching jobs; Raheem Morris became an interim head coach with the Falcons for part of the 2020 season after they fired Dan Quinn.
At the end of 2021, Culley was unfairly fired and Flores was shockingly fired. Shocking because after the three years, Flores was the Dolphins’ first coach since Dave Wannstedt to have two winning seasons (Flores went 5-11, 10-6, 9-8).
As a result, Mike Tomlin stands as the NFL’s sole Black head coach.
The only one.
Last month, there were nine head coaching vacancies and Brian Flores was said to be the hot candidate.
Yet so far, four teams have hired white head coaches and outside of Jacksonville, no other team has been reported to have a serious interest in hiring one of the 15 qualified Black head coaches, 11 of which were vetted by the NFL back in November.
To add insult to injury, the Vikings are reportedly hot on Michigan Wolverines head coach, Jim Harbaugh.
This is why Brian Flores stood up on the first day of Black History Month.
To fight for all of the Black coaches who were denied a sincere chance at a head coaching position, something that has transpired so many times that it’s essentially conditioned people to assume a Black coach will be passed over every time a head coaching position opens up.
This is why he was willing to potentially sacrifice his NFL head coaching career and challenge the mighty NFL, something no one has been able to successfully do to date.
Even Colin Kaepernick, whose brave stance revolved around social justice and police reform, could not challenge the NFL in the way Brian Flores and his class action lawsuit can.
Why?
Because it exposes the truth, brings receipts to the table, rallies the masses and potentially forces one thing the NFL fears.
Disclosure.
“You know what the NFL really doesn’t want in this circumstance, as much as any it has come up against? Discovery,” exclaimed Michael Wilbon on PTI. “Because when you start examining emails, and letters and texts and conversations that might have been deemed private conversations that are no longer that, discovery is going to bring about a whole lot of information people might not want to hear.”
He’s absolutely right.
Systematic Disenfranchisement
While the Jon Gruden email scandal gave fans a look inside of the sexist, racist and ugly world of sports executive’s private communications, the story ended as quickly as it stared. Even interest from Congress did little to pull the door completely open.
But Flores’ suit now brings a crowbar and bolt cutters to that heavily guarded door.
His lawsuit charges that “the NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation.”
It mentions the race normed tests used by the NFL to determine financial award for players suffering from CTE. It placed Black players at a lower cognitive level than white players, thus making it harder for them to prove cognitive loss and ultimately qualify for financial compensation for treatment.
It states the percentages of Black owners (0), Black head coaches (1) and offensive and defensive coordinators (4 and 11, respectively).
And it also provides examples and a timeline of racism in the NFL including when the NFL first signed a Black player, the length of time it took to hire its first Black GM (54 years and Ozzie Newsome, respectfully), Colin Kaepernick and the Jon Gruden email scandal.
It provides a detailed description of the treatment of Black coaches such as Jim Caldwell, Steve Wilks and David Culley. It also mentioned the lack of opportunities for coaches such as Eric Bieniemy, Kris Richard and Teryl Austin, the last two being names that most have probably never even heard of (which is infuriating as well).
It even included pictures of NFL coaches and owners to visually demonstrate the dearth of Black people.
But the two most damaging pieces of evidence are the texts from Bill Belichick and the accusations against Miami Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross.
Belichick texted Flores congratulations on getting the Giants job on January 24th but Flores’ interview wasn’t for another three days. Turns out he meant to text Brian Daboll, proving that the Giants had already hired Daboll and that Flores’ interview was a “sham.” He also took the Giants to task for never having a Black coach, listing the numerous candidates that were passed over in favor of white coaches.
He also exposed his former boss, Stephen Ross.
In 2019, Flores alleges that Ross offered him $100,000 for each loss he orchestrated in order to improve their draft position. But Flores refused and ended up cleaning house and leading the team to winning records in the next two seasons. He also alleges that at the end of the 2019 season, Ross wanted him to meet with “a prominent quarterback” (said to be Tom Brady) about coming to Miami, but Flores knew it would be tampering as that QB was still under contract, so he declined.
The texts are damaging, but if Ross is found to have violated the ethics of the game and wanted to pay to tank the season, that’s serious.
There is no question that Flores’ claim of racism is appropriate. The evidence is apparent for all to see.
And he is not attacking the new head coaches who are white. The NFL is a private organization and owners can hire who they desire.
But the issue is that every time they claim they are hiring “the most qualified candidate”, that coach is almost always white. That establishes a systematic disenfranchisement which blatantly excludes Black coaches from these jobs, jobs that they are equally qualified for.
And yes, there are always exceptions, but they are so far and few in between that the lack of Black head coaching hires is even more glaring.
The hiring process for head coaches is an intricate, almost incestuous, web of favoritism.
Look at the Raiders. They hired David Ziegler as their GM and then hired Josh McDaniels, both from the Patriots. In his time as the Broncos’ head coach, McDaniels went 11-17 and was fired after week 13 in his second season. But he now gets a second chance that Black coaches like Anthony Lynn, Vance Joseph, Bowles and Leslie Frazier have yet to receive.
Ironically, Bill O’Brien, another former Patriot, is a rumored replacement for McDaniels with the Patriots. Aside from the New England connection, what else do Ziegler, McDaniels and O’Brien all have in common?
Rally To The Flores Banner
Brian Flores spoke with CBS This Morning earlier today and you could feel his anger, frustration and anguish.
Coaching, which is his life, is being taken away from him so he decided to take a stand. Not just for himself, but for all of the Black coaches before him, with him now and that come after him.
He’s jeopardizing his career to stand for something bigger.
“It’s hard to speak out,” said Flores to CBS. “But this is bigger than football. This is bigger than coaching.”
He’s following the path started by Muhammad Ali and Curt Flood. He’s taking action like the women of the WNBA who helped get Kelly Loeffler out of the US Senate and the Atlanta Dream.
Flores isn’t doing this for a check. He wants to expose the biased practice to bring about change. He’s selflessly doing it for more than himself because he understands what’s at stake for himself and other Black coaches.
“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 statement. “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.”
While Flores might never get a second chance as a NFL head coach, which would be a travesty, his stand holds more significance outside of the game for he’s challenging a systemic issue plaguing so many off of the gridiron.
For that, everyone should rally to his banner and close ranks around him in support.
