Brian Flores, who was fired last month as head coach of the Miami Dolphins and has been unable to land a new NFL gig, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the league and its 32 teams, alleging that their hiring practices discriminate against Black candidates.
Flores’ dismissal from Miami surprised many league observers. He led the team to consecutive winning seasons, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished by the franchise since 2002-2003.
In his lawsuit, filed Tuesday, Flores alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross incentivized him to intentionally lose games in order to improve the team’s draft position. That practice is called “tanking” and is widely considered a cardinal sin in competitive sports. Flores said Ross promised him $100,000 for every loss.
Flores also claims that Ross encouraged him to recruit a star quarterback to the Dolphins who was under contract with another team. Flores says Ross invited him and the quarterback to a meeting on Ross’ yacht. Flores had no advanced knowledge of the meeting and felt blindsided. He refused to muster a recruitment pitch since that would violate NFL rules against contract tampering.
Subsequently, Flores said the Dolphins defamed him in the media and portrayed him as difficult. “This is reflective of an all too familiar ‘angry black man’ stigma that is often casted upon Black men who are strong in their morals and convictions while white men are coined as passionate for those very same attributes,” reads the lawsuit.
Flores also contends that his failure to comply with Ross’ schemes cost him his job. Ross is a billionaire real-estate developer and owner of luxury gym chain Equinox. ProPublica recently reported that despite his massive fortune, Ross paid no federal income taxes in 12 years between 1996 and 2017. Ross has been a major contributor to Donald Trump’s political campaigns and has hosted at least one fundraiser for him.
The Dolphins said they “vehemently deny any allegations of racial discrimination and are proud of the diversity and inclusion throughout our organization. The implication that we acted in a manner inconsistent with the integrity of the game is incorrect.”
But Flores accusations extend beyond Ross and the Dolphins. The 40-year-old son of Honduran immigrants – who grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn and played football at Boston College – says the New York Giants conducted a sham courtship of him for the sole purpose of complying with the NFL’s requirement to interview Black candidates for any head coaching vacancies, a provision known as the Rooney Rule.
The Giants ultimately hired Brian Daboll as their head coach. Daboll was considered the clear frontrunner for the position because he worked on the same Buffalo Bills’ staff as New York’s new general manager, Joe Schoen.
But Flores was still asked to sit for multiple interviews with the team, which Flores suspected were dead-ends.
In an odd turn of events, Flores received a text message from Patriots head coach Bill Belicheck, who has close ties to the Giants, informing him that he would be named the Giants coach.
Flores was suspicious of that claim – he hadn’t even conducted an in-person interview – and wondered if Belicheck had confused two Brians.
Indeed, Bellicheck had made a mistake.
“Sorry–I [messed] this up. I double checked and misread the text. I think they are naming Brian Daboll. I’m sorry about that,” Belicheck texted Flores, according to the lawsuit.
Yet, even though Belicheck knew that the Giants had settled on their man, the organization still asked Flores to come in for an in-person interview.
In a statement, the Giants said: “The fact of the matter is, Brian Flores was in the conversation to be our head coach until the eleventh hour. Ultimately, we hired the individual we felt was most qualified to be our next head coach.”
Flores also contends that the Broncos put him through a similar sham process for the sole purpose of complying with the Rooney Rule in 2019.
“Flores says that then-Denver general manager John Elway, among others, arrived to the interview an hour late and hungover — alleging they had been ‘drinking heavily the night before,'” according to ESPN.
Flores, who is still in contention for open head coaching positions around the league, said in a statement that he “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 N.F.L., others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.”
Flores and his attorneys are reportedly in the process of vetting other discrimination claims against the league and they plan to include more coaches in their class action lawsuit.
“On the first day of Black History Month, it is our great privilege to represent Brian Flores in his class action complaint against the NFL,” Flores’s attorneys, Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis, said in a statement. “This case seeks to level the playing field in the hope that future owners and coaches will be representative of the athletes who are playing this great game. We fully expect coaches and players of all races to support Brian as he embarks on his journey to create positive change.”
