In a discrimination lawsuit filed earlier this week, Brian Flores shared screencaps of a text message exchange with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, congratulating him on becoming the Giants’ new head coach. Through that mix-up, Flores learned the Giants were hiring Brian Daboll, rendering his upcoming interview meaningless.
In an effort to bring more diversity to the NFL’s workforce, the league enacted the Rooney Rule in 2003, requiring teams to interview at least one minority candidate in a given coaching search. However, many feel it’s actually had the opposite effect, with teams granting “token” interviews to minority candidates with no intention of actually hiring them. Flores alleges the Broncos employed this tactic in 2019, laughing off his interview by showing up late and hungover, only to hire Vic Fangio days later.
Appearing Wednesday on First Take, former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis described a similar experience with the Panthers in 2002, reluctantly interviewing for their vacant head-coaching position despite knowing the job had already been promised to John Fox.
“We had lost to the Steelers in the second round of the playoffs. I remember sitting home on Monday and I think it was Chris Mortensen or someone else reported Foxy would be named the head coach of the Panthers on Friday,” said Lewis, who, at that time, was a defensive coordinator for the Ravens. “When I went to work Tuesday, Brian [Billick] came in and said, ‘Hey, I just got off the phone with Ozzie [Newsome] and the Panthers want you to come down and interview for the job.’ I said, ‘Coach, I just heard last night on TV that they’re going to name Foxy the coach on Friday.’”
After talking it over, Billick and Newsome eventually convinced Lewis to take the interview, traveling to Charlotte later that week to meet with owner Jerry Richardson, who assured him the reports about Fox were untrue. “They named John the head coach on Friday,” said Lewis. “That’s the situation I was in.”
Lewis did eventually become a head coach, presiding over the Bengals from 2003-18. The 63-year-old has since left the NFL, now serving as a special advisor to head coach Herm Edwards at Arizona State.
This feels like only the beginning as the NFL’s long overdue day of reckoning has come with Flores and others exposing the league’s systemic racism. Whether that changes anything remains to be seen—some would argue the NFL, for all its moral ambiguity and corruption, is simply too big to fail, immune to the bad press and public outcry that would sink smaller businesses. But the courage displayed by Flores, leading a movement that will assuredly end any chance of him ever getting another head coaching job, is a strong first step toward change.
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