BRIAN FLORES: ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE NFL’S QUESTIONABLE MINORITY TREATMENT
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Over recent years, the NFL has put forth efforts to challenge the ongoing problem of racism in America. However, yet again, the NFL is being called out for mistreating minorities.
Black Coach Brian Flores, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, wants to take the NFL to court, making allegations against the league and these three teams: Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos, and New York Giants, per Kevin Seifert’s ESPN article. Seifert adds that in his lawsuit, Flores is looking for the NFL to implement some serious changes. Out of the 32 NFL teams, with there only being 3 minority head coaches (Mike Tomlin, Ron Rivera, and Robert Saleh), per the NFL, these changes warrant action.
Miami Allegations
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Surprisingly, despite turning their team around while only being there for a few years, the Dolphins let go of Flores, said Marcel Louis-Jacques’ ESPN article. Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross claimed Flores was fired due to Flores having problems with other organizational members. However, Flores feels there’s another reason.
“Take a flight, go on vacation, I’ll give you $100,000 per loss,” Louis Jacques quoted Flores in which Flores claims Ross said this.
Flores claims that back in 2019, Ross wanted him to lose on purpose for better draft positioning. Flores did not go along with this idea. Jason Owens said in his Yahoo Sports article that Ross denied ever doing this.
Denver Allegations
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From Colleen Flynn’s FOX 31 article, Flynn sums up what Flores is accusing the Broncos of. In an interview for the Broncos head coaching job in 2019, John Elway, now Broncos team president who also won Super Bowls with the team as their quarterback in the 90s, and Chief Executive Officer Joe Louis, president at the time, looked unready for the interview. Flores said they looked like they were hung over from a night of drinking. He also said the only reason why the Broncos gave him a chance was because of the Rooney Rule.
As of 2021, this rule states that all NFL teams have to bring in two unknown minorities for a head coaching job and one unknown minority for a coordinating job, per Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy’s USA TODAY article. They must give women chances for jobs as well.
Flynn said Elway has also denied Flores’ allegations.
New York Allegations
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Flores claims that the Giants also were faulty in their interview process with him. He believes they were already set on hiring Brian Daboll as their new head coach before they even had their interview with Flores, stated in Bryan DeArdo’s CBS Sports article.
One reason why this may be true is because of alleged texts sent to Flores by Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots head coach that Flores used to coach under, listed in Ben Morse’s CNN article. These were claimed to be sent days before Flores’ Giants interview.
Like the Dolphins and Broncos, the Giants stated that the accusations made by Flores are not true, added DeArdo.
Changes Flores Seeks
Going back to Louis-Jacques’ article, he lists what improvements Flores wants the NFL to make. Flores wants more of a push for Black hires, more Black coordinators, more fairness in giving jobs to and firing general managers, head coaches and coordinators, motivation to give jobs to and keep Black general managers, head coaches and coordinators, and for general managers, head coaches, and coordinators to receive fair wages.
My Thoughts
These allegations have yet to be proven true, albeit I view the allegations against the Giants as holding more ground than the others right now. Whether or not any of these allegations are true or false, as a Black man, I believe in the better treatment of minorities that Flores is fighting for.
The NFL is a league where now the percentage of players that are minorities is higher than those that are White players. However, in positions of leadership such as being a head coach, the amount of White head coaches over minority head coaches is startling. Meaning NFL teams are very willing to use the services of minorities, but only in certain ways which, to me, seems to be when they’re in the position to control them.
If Flores can win this fight, then perhaps the NFL can take an even bigger step towards ending racism, which is a goal it claims it wants to help society accomplish. The shift of control in the NFL may be more equal as well.
As Flores remains strong with his allegations, we now wait to see how the NFL will respond.