A significant portion of Brian Flores' racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL details his recent head-coaching interview process with the New York Giants. The lawsuit claims that, last month, the franchise interviewed Flores for its job under disingenuous conditions, as they simply wanted to fulfill the league's "Rooney Rule," which requires teams to interview external minority candidates for top-level positions.
The lawsuit also alleges that, back in 2019, when Flores interviewed with the Denver Broncos, top executives showed up an hour late, looking "completely disheveled." Flores accused the franchise of conducting a "sham" interview. The NFL's process in hiring minority coaching candidates is broken, and it's grabbed the attention of New England Patriots assistant coach Jerod Mayo, who's been a candidate for recent head-coaching openings.
"When you look at the funnel and the hiring process, the Rooney Rule, it had great intentions, just poor implementation," Mayo explained to The DA Show on Wednesday. "At the bottom of the funnel, where they have these minority coaching hires, I think that's fantastic. Guys are really coming into the league, showing they're hard workers, they have the ability to get everything done... Where the ceiling is for guys coming up from the bottom, it's pretty low.
"I want to help these guys continue to grow outside of a position coach, if they want to do something like that. That's where it gets kind of tough for me... You've got to listen to what [Flores] is saying. If it's true, it's definitely a detriment to everything we've been trying to do... You don't want to be in an echo chamber... You want to have diversity of thought, color, generational diversity... Now, I feel a little more comfortable about the GM pipeline, and I think that'll start to matriculate its way down to the coaching ranks."
In response to Flores' lawsuit, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a memo on Saturday, saying that the league's lack of progress in diversifying the head coaching ranks has been "unacceptable." Goodell also noted that they will begin reevaluating all "policies, guidelines and initiatives relating to diversity, equity and inclusion." Four days before this statement was issued, the NFL said Flores' accusations were "without merit." New York and Denver have also denied the lawsuit's allegations.
During an appearance on "CBS Mornings" last week, Flores discussed his claims against the NFL, saying in part, "I'm not the only one with a story to tell. People have come before me, and I know there are others who have similar stories and it's hard to speak out. You're making some sacrifices but this is bigger than football, and this is bigger than coaching." Although 70-percent of the league's players are Black, none of the 32 team owners are. And, at the moment, there are only four minority head coaches.
The entire football conversation between Mayo and DA can be accessed in the audio player above. Additional information and details about Flores' suit can be found here.
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