Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has filed a class action lawsuit against the New York Giants and NFL on the grounds he and other coaches of color have been discriminated against throughout the league’s hiring processes.
The centerpiece of the complaint is a string of text messages between Flores and former boss Bill Belichick in which the latter appears to confirm the Giants had already settled on hiring Bills’ offensive coordinator Brian Daboll days before a scheduled, Rooney Rule-fulfilling interview with Flores.
However, the Giants weren’t the only franchise that look bad in Flores’ initial complaint. The former New England assistant revealed his turn in New York wasn’t the only “sham interview” he’d endured in his long road toward becoming an NFL head coach. He’d interviewed for the Broncos’ vacant position in 2019, only for general manager John Elway to allegedly show up an hour late to the process, looking “disheveled” after a night of “drinking heavily.”
From the text of the complaint:
Incredibly, this was not Mr. Flores’ first sham interview that was held only in an effort to comply with the Rooney Rule. Indeed, in 2019 Mr. Flores was scheduled to interview with the Denver Broncos. However, the Broncos’ then-General Manager, John Elway, President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Ellis and others, showed up an hour late to the interview. They looked completely disheveled, and it was obvious that they had drinking heavily [sic] the night before.
It was clear from the substance of the interview that Mr. Flores was interviewed only because of the Rooney Rule, and that the Broncos never had any intention to consider him as a legitimate candidate for the job. Shortly thereafter, Vic Fangio, a white man, was hired to be the Head Coach of the Broncos.
Fangio went 19-30 in three seasons in Denver and was fired one day before Flores was axed in Miami. Neither Elway nor the Broncos have yet to make an official statement regarding the matter.
