Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Mike Tomlin added former Miami Dolphins' head coach Brian Flores to his staff as the new senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach last weekend.
First and foremost, Flores landed the position because he has a pretty impressive resume at developing and leading defenses in both Miami and New England. Frankly, the 40-year-old is overqualified for his new gig.
Flores, of course, filed a lawsuit earlier this month against both the NFL as a whole, and the Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants organizations for racial discrimination in how Black coaches are treated both as candidates for head coaching jobs, and once they land hand coaching positions.
Even as perhaps the most successful Black head coach in NFL history, Tomlin is likely sympathetic to the arguments being made by Flores, specifically the ones pertaining to how the Dolphins have historically acted as an organization.
Flores appeared on the latest I Am Athlete Podcast, and in a conversation that lasted for nearly an hour, former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall and Dolphins beat reporter Omar Kelly detailed some of the hurdles -- and frankly, racism -- that Tomlin dealt with as he attempted to become a head coach:
Marshall: "Let's go to Mike Tomlin, [you need to] know the history of Mike Tomlin. When he went on his interview [with the Steelers], he wasn't the front-runner. He wowed them in the interview."
Kelly: "And he interviewed with the Dolphins, and they came out of the interview thoroughly impressed. But they said 'You know what, we can't go with him because he's a little bit too hip-hop.' And Cam Cameron got the job, and he was a colossal failure. But Cam Cameron had a bad first interview, they interviewed him a second time and said 'OK, this is the one that we wanted to give the job.' But they couldn't give the job to Mike Tomlin -- who, at that time, hadn't [yet] landed the Pittsburgh job -- because he was 'too hip-hop.'"
As Kelly noted, Cam Cameron -- who had previously been Marty Schottenheimer's offensive coordinator with the San Diego Chargers -- ultimately became the Dolphins' head coach in 2007. Cameron ended up being one-and-done as the team's head coach, as Miami went just 1-15 two years after Nick Saban had guided them to nine wins.
It should be noted that while the Dolphins are a team in question both in the Flores case and with Tomlin, Stephen Ross wasn't yet the owner of the franchise at the time that the organization used racism as a reason not to hire Tomlin. The late Wayne Huizenga still owned the team at the time.
Organizations may not be as overtly racist as they were back then, but when there's less than five Black head coaches in the NFL currently -- and both Flores and David Culley were dismissed under questionable circumstances this offseason -- it's clear that racism continues to be prevalent in the sport.
While Tomlin didn't land the Dolphins' gig, he was ultimately hired that same offseason as the successor to Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh. Tomlin -- who had just completed his first season as the defensive coordinator in Minnesota -- was so impressive in the interview process that he beat out "perceived front-runners" Russ Grim and Ken Whisenhunt.
Some have pointed to his hire as the clearest example of the Rooney Rule working, though we don't know that the Steelers wouldn't have interviewed Tomlin even if the rule wasn't in place.
What we do know is that a qualified Black candidate got a chance to interview with the Rooney family, and was so impressive that the organization perhaps changed course on their plan of who to hire as a head coach. That's what the rule was designed to do, make sure qualified Black candidates get a chance to interview with teams, because if they do, many will be hired. What the rule has turned into in many cases since is teams just going through the motions to say they interviewed candidates of color, even though they've already picked out their head coach before the interview takes place. That's precisely what Flores' lawsuit accuses, among other things.
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