Brian Flores was fired as head coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins in January 2022 after leading the team to back-to-back winning seasons, a feat the Dolphins haven’t accomplished since. Flores, now the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, interviewed for but didn’t receive another head coaching opportunity. In fact, thanks to a misdirected text message from then-Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, Flores, a Black man, has evidence that the New York Giants had picked its coach before it interviewed him.
That sham interview, he argued in a February 2022 lawsuit alleging racial discrimination, is an example of the way NFL teams have navigated around the “Rooney Rule,” which the league implemented to ensure minority candidates are interviewed for leadership positions.
The NFL appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the justices declined Tuesday to hear the appeal.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that Flores’ lawsuit alleging systemic racism in the NFL when it comes to hiring, promotion and termination practices can move forward. The appeals court rejected the NFL’s position that Flores should go through the NFL’s arbitration process. The NFL appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court but the justices declined Tuesday to hear the appeal.
More than four years later, Flores, and other Black coaches who have joined his lawsuit, will have their day in court. And when that day comes, their lawsuit threatens to unearth an ugliness the league and its owners would rather keep secret.
But that’s not the only lawsuit that should have the league worried. Former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is also suing the league in response to racist, misogynist and homophobic emails — to and from him — that were leaked in 2021. Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders in October 2021, and in a lawsuit filed the next month, attributed the leak to a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” by the NFL to destroy his career.
Given the league’s reputation for tightly controlling its narrative, it is surprising that it now finds itself at risk of losing that control in such a profound way. The NFL has proven itself to be largely impervious to scandal. Nothing ever seems to be bad enough to get between the league and its fans. Those fans have shrugged at news of players beating their partners, cheating scandals, shoddy officiating and being forced to subscribe to multiple streaming services to watch the games.
But Flores’ case presents different problems in terms of optics. Roughly 54% of the NFL’s players are Black. More than 9% are multiracial and 4% identify as Hispanic or Latino. Then there are the fans. The NFL has a significant Black fanbase, and if Flores can prove his case, then the NFL could lose a good deal of it. A finding that the league systematically discriminated against Black coaches would also likely lead to an erosion of trust when it comes to minority players and coaches. Few people will feel sympathy for Gruden, given the contents of the email messages that were leaked, unless he can prove that the league long knew about these communications and used them against him only when it was convenient.
Could there be settlements in these cases? Theoretically. But it takes two sides to settle and, at least in the Flores case, he has seemed dedicated to exposing what he says is the league’s discrimination against Black coaching candidates. Court records indicate that Flores has subpoenaed information from 25 NFL franchises. It’s doubtful these owners want their internal hiring practices scrutinized by the courts and the court of public opinion. Those owners could demand that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell make a deal with Flores in exchange for his silence, complete with an iron-clad nondisclosure agreement.
But it’s also doubtful that NFL owners want it to appear that they have given in to Flores. It seems likely the league will fight this lawsuit tooth and nail.
For years, the NFL has operated behind a billion-dollar shield of secrecy and power. Flores is as close as anybody has ever come to pulling that curtain back.
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