On February 1, Brian Flores, the recently-fired head coach of the Miami Dolphins, filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL alleging discrimination in hiring practices despite rules in place to alleviate discrimination. Flores now alleges that at least one team has retaliated against him for filing the lawsuit.
Flores claims that he was a finalist for the head coaching gig in Houston until he filed the lawsuit. The Texans announced February 7 that they had promoted defensive coordinator Lovie Smith to head coach. Both Smith and Flores are Black.
“Mr. Flores is happy to hear that the Texans have hired a Black head coach, Lovie Smith, as Mr. Flores’ goal in bringing his case is to provide real opportunities for Black and minority candidates to be considered for coaching and executive positions within the NFL,” a statement from his attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis said.
“However,” the statement continued, “we would be remiss not to mention that Mr. Flores was one of three finalists for the Texans’ head coach position and, after a great interview and mutual interest, it is obvious that the only reason Mr. Flores was not selected was his decision to stand up against racial inequality across the NFL.”
Flores initially filed a lawsuit after learning that the New York Giants intended to hire Brian Daboll as the new head coach. Both Daboll and Flores were scheduled to interview, but neither had yet done so when New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Bilichick sent a text to Flores apparently congratulating him for getting the job.
The text from Bilichick was actually meant for Daboll, not Flores, an error Bilichick stated in a further text.
Flores claims that the job interview he endured three days later was a sham meant to satisfy the terms of the Rooney Rule without satisfying the merit of the rule. According to the lawsuit, Flores believes that he was subjected to the same type of discrimination in 2019 when interviewing for the open head coaching job with the Denver Broncos.
On February 8, NFL League Commissioner Roger Goodell met virtually with a group of civil rights leaders to discuss meaningful ways the NFL can alter its hiring practices to be more inclusive of minorities.
“However well-intentioned, the effect of the Rooney Rule has been for team decision-makers to regard interviews with candidates of color as an extraneous step, rather than an integral part of the hiring process,” said President and CEO of the National Urban League, Marc Morial according to the Associated Press. “The gravity of the situation is long past the crisis point.”
Dallas Cowboys Owner and President Jerry Jones was the first owner to back Flores and validate the coach’s grievances.
“I can see it’s an area, one of many, that we can do better,” Jones told Jori Epstein of USA Today Sports. “As long as this league is continuing to be the influence that we are, by the interest in the game, by continuing to try to improve over time, the list of boxes we’ll need to address will get bigger. And we’ll have to spend more time checking more boxes. But I welcome that. How would you like for nobody to be interested and nobody to even look at it or have boxes to check.”
Experts worry that Flores’ suit will not survive as a class action. Because the suit accuses the NFL of widespread discriminatory practices, Flores’ lawyers would have to prove the existence of a number of potential plaintiffs large enough to constitute a “class,” usually so many that it would be difficult to list them all, Miami attorney Robert Zarco, J.D., told Mercury News.
“When you have a class, you have to have commonality of the facts and commonality of the law,” explained Zarco, whose law firm represents business clients. He said the lawsuit does not illustrate how multiple NFL teams may have systematically discriminated against Black candidates in their hiring practices.
“Unless you can establish a clear pattern where [employers] are playing from the same playbook on how to discriminate, you are never going to get this class certified,” Zarco continued. “There could be so many factors that affect employment decisions.”
Matthew Sarelson, also a Miami employment lawyer, noted to the Miami Herald, “What I’m not seeing in this lawsuit is any specific allegation that he was fired because of his race or that he was not hired because of his race.” In summation, Sarelson said, “It’s evidence of mismanagement. It’s not evidence of discrimination.”
Flores’ lawsuit was announced on the first day of Black History Month.