Brian Flores, who was fired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins last month, filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the NFL and three of its teams on Tuesday, alleging racial discrimination in regard to his interview process with the New York Giants and Denver Broncos, and three-year tenure in Miami.
The bombshell lawsuit claims that the Giants recently interviewed Flores for their head coaching job under disingenuous conditions, as the organization 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 the top-overall draft pick.
"The [NFL] hiring process is clearly messed up. He did an interview knowing that the other coach was already hired," NFL veteran linebacker K.J. Wright told The Zach Gelb Show on Tuesday. "The system is clearly messed up and there needs to be something resolved. I believe he should've filed a lawsuit. And what's more embarrassing about this whole situation was the memo that the NFL put out, just disregarding what Brian Flores has to say.
"Something will get done. I'm glad he put himself out there to do that, and to cause change... The man is risking his job, his career. I can appreciate him for doing that... If a player offers another teammate money to tank a game, what happens to that player? You'd be thrown out of the league forever... This is some serious stuff. If that's the case, [Ross] has no business being the owner of that team. That's reckless... For him to do that is a disgrace to the game."
Flores claims that, three days before his interview with the Giants, he learned that the franchise already settled on hiring candidate Brian Daboll. The lawsuit includes a text message exchange between Flores and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, in which Flores received a congratulatory message from Belichick that was sent in error. The message was actually meant for Daboll.
The Giants released a statement in response to Flores' lawsuit, claiming that, "We are pleased and confident with the process that resulted in the hiring of Brian Daboll... Flores was in the conversation to be our head coach until the eleventh hour." The league also issued a statement, saying in part, "We will defend against these claims, which are without merit." A statement from the Dolphins said, "We vehemently deny any allegations of racial discrimination and are proud of the diversity and inclusion throughout our organization."
The complex lawsuit also claims that, in 2019, when Flores interviewed with the Broncos, then-general manager John Elway and team owner Joe Ellis showed up an hour late, looking "completely disheveled." Flores accused them of also satisfying the Rooney Rule, and called it a "sham" interview. Denver strongly denied the allegations, calling them "blatantly false."
Although 70-percent of the league's players are Black, none of the 32 team owners are. And at the moment, only one NFL head coach -- Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers -- is African American. The other two -- Flores and David Culley of the Houston Texans -- were fired after the regular season.
The entire NFL conversation between Wright and Gelb can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.