Brian Flores suing NFL, New York Giants over racism
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has filed a lawsuit against the NFL and the New York Giants, claiming they demonstrated racist practices in choosing their next head coach. The document contains personal text messages with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and includes a description of a dinner with the Giants front office.
In a series of text messages with Belichick, who Flores formerly worked under, it was revealed that the Giants would hire Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as head coach three days before a scheduled interview.
“Sounds like you have landed – congrats!!” read the first message from Belichick.
Flores then asked if his former boss heard something around the league he had not, but it was later revealed that Belichick thought he was talking to Daboll and not Flores.
“Sorry – I f*cked this up,” Belichick wrote in a later text. “I double checked & I misread the text. I think they are naming Daboll. I’m sorry about that.”
According to the lawsuit, Brian Flores claims that the New York Giants proceeded with his interview in an attempt to satisfy the NFL’s Rooney Rule before officially naming the coach they already agreed to a deal with previously.
The legal document read, in part: “Mr. Flores was forced to sit through a dinner with Joe Schoen, the Giants’ new general manager, knowing that the Giants had already selected Mr. Daboll. Much worse… Mr. Flores had to give an extensive interview for a job that he already knew he would not get – an interview that was held for no reason other than for the Fiants to demonstrate falsely to the League Commissioner Roger Goodell and the public at large that it was in compliance with the Rooney Rule.”
The NFL’s Rooney Rule
The Rooney Rule is a policy enacted by the NFL in 2003, requiring league teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head coaching positions and senior football operation jobs. The rule is named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who served as chairman of the league’s diversity committee.
After noticing a severe lack of diversity in the NFL’s highest-ranking positions, the league decided to create a rule which required teams to interview a more diverse set of candidates. Although there is no quota for minority hires, each team must consider candidates through the interview process.
The latest resolution to this rule, created in 2020, rewards organizations which develop minority candidates in different positions through compensation. This places an emphasis not only on hiring minority candidates but also seeking out and developing young talent from a diverse background.