The NFL's coaching carousel officially stopped on Monday afternoon, as the Houston Texans announced that team defensive coordinator Lovie Smith will take over as their next head coach. Smith is replacing David Culley, who was fired in mid-January, less than one year after he was hired.
Following the announcement, lawyers for former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores released a statement, saying that Houston passed on their client solely due to his recently filed racial discrimination lawsuit against the league. According to a report from NFL Media, Flores had remained a final candidate for the Texans' position, despite his lawsuit. The question is, could they have actually taken him on?
"[Flores lawsuit] is obviously very charged, because it includes allegations of racism. But I think, more than anything, most owners would just like this to go away," former Texans defensive tackle and current radio host Seth Payne told The Zach Gelb Show on Monday night. "I don't think they look at it quite like the Colin Kaepernick situation, because I don't think that they expect this to affect their bottom line, like they feared Kaepernick would.
"If the Texans had handled it appropriately, perhaps in coordination with the league, somehow, I might be crazy, I think they could've [hired Flores]. I think that they could've found a way. And maybe they would've had to sign a whole harmless with Flores and the Texans, specifically. But I don't think it would've been the barrier that a lot of other people think it is... Philosophically, I think more owners would've been cool with it than you might expect."
The bombshell lawsuit claims that the New York Giants recently interviewed Flores for their head coaching job under disingenuous conditions, as they simply wanted to fulfill the NFL's "Rooney Rule" policy, which requires teams to interview external minority candidates for top-level openings. The lawsuit also alleges that, back in 2019, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered Flores $100,000 for every loss, in an effort to tank for better draft picks.
The Giants and Dolphins have refuted Flores' serious allegations, as have the Denver Broncos, which are also accused of conducting what the lawsuit says was a "sham" head coaching interview with Flores back in 2019. Although 70-percent of the NFL's players are Black, none of the 32 team owners are. And at the moment, there are only four minority head coaches.
The entire Texans conversation between Payne and Gelb can be accessed in the audio player above. Further information about Flores' lawsuit against the NFL can be found here.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.