Matt Mathias 

Sports Editor

mcm5909@psu.edu 

Last week, NFL coach Brian Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and some of its teams including the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants and Denver Broncos. The grounds of the lawsuit are that these teams are assumed to be racist in nature with their hiring practices. Each of the teams accused and the NFL itself have adamantly denied the allegations.

According to the NFL as quoted in a statement, the NFL claims that “diversity is core to everything that we do.” Furthermore, they claim that Flores’ remarks are “without merit.” The root of the issue comes from the state of diversity amongst head coaches in the NFL. At this current moment, the only team that has an African American head coach leading their team is the Pittsburgh Steelers with Mike Tomlin. There were many vacancies in head coaching positions heading into this offseason. However, none of these positions have included any other ethnicity beyond white men who some would say are less qualified for the role.

The NFL has something known as the Rooney Rule, which states that for head coaching and general management positions within an organization, teams are required to interview at least one minority for the job. Flores claims that teams simply set up sham interviews in order to satisfy this requirement and do not take seriously the interviews of these individuals.

Evidence that Flores presents includes his own testimony of interviews he has had in the past with the Broncos, the Giants recently, and a unique text message from New England head coach Bill Belichick, who texted the wrong Brian in his contacts list congratulating him for securing the job in New York before it was announced. Belichick seemed to be aware that Brian Daboll, former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator, would be hired. With the Giants, Flores claimed that the interview was simply to comply with the Rooney Rule with no true intention of hiring Flores.

Following the claims, former Browns head coach Hugh Jackson suggested that he was offered bonuses for extra losses during his time with Cleveland. Jackson came to Flores defense as another minority in a coaching position in the league.

Furthermore, Flores testifies that the owner of the Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross, told Flores to lose as many games as possible to improve their team’s draft stock. Flores says that Ross attempted to incentivize him with losses offering Flores $100,000 for every loss that the team would have during the course of the 2019 season. When Flores refused and coached his team to more wins than anticipated, Flores claimed that Ross was infuriated with the on-field success.

Ross continued to pressure Flores at the end of the 2019 season asking him to recruit a quarterback. Flores, again, refused as to not violate the tampering rules that the NFL puts into place. Due to this, Flores says that the organization labeled him as “noncompliant and difficult to work with.”

Regarding the Broncos, Flores claimed that the front office was disheveled and unruly in his interview with the team in 2019 saying that they had been out drinking the night before and also did not take his visit with the organization seriously.

The teams defended themselves immediately following accusations. In a statement from the Giants they say that, “we interviewed an impressive and diverse group of candidates . . . Ultimately, we hired the individual we felt was most qualified to be our next head coach.”

The Broncos defended themselves by showing that they did in fact take Flores with serious intentions. “Pages of detailed notes, analysis and evaluations from our interview demonstrate the depth of our conversation and sincere interest in Mr. Flores as a head coaching candidate,” Denver claimed. “Our process was thorough and fair to determine the most qualified candidate for our head coaching position.”

Lastly, the Miami Dolphins presented their statement in defense of the claims. “The implication that we acted in a manner inconsistent with the integrity of the game is incorrect.” They also say that they are “proud of the diversity and inclusion throughout our organization.”