Life is just not that simple.
Brian Flores, fired from the Miami Dolphins from his head coaching position, has filed a class action lawsuit naming the Dolphins and other NFL teams, alleging racial discrimination.
Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL, New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and Dolphins organizations, alleging racial discrimination. The suit claims that text messages he received from New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and media reports show that the New York Giants decided to hire Brian Daboll as head coach before interviewing any minority candidates.
The Dolphins make me cry, winter has arrived, Miami Dolphins fire Brian Flores after three seasons
The Giants, who scheduled an interview with Flores for January 27, had allegedly decided on Daboll by January 23. Flores also accused John Elway and Broncos management of conducting another sham head coach interview with him in 2019, arriving an hour late and appearing hungover.
Elway responded by stating that five Broncos officials flew overnight from Colorado to Rhode Island to work around the only interview time that worked for Flores. Adding they had interviewed him for 3.5 hours and that they took and still retain detailed notes proving their genuine interest in hiring him.
The lawsuit additionally alleges that during Flores’ tenure with the Dolphins, team owner Stephen Ross pressured him to deliberately lose games, offering him $100,000 for each game he lost for the Dolphins to get better draft picks for the following season, and to tamper with a quarterback before free agency.
Flores alleges that he was fired by Ross in retaliation for his refusals to tank (in the process, achieving two consecutive winning seasons) and to tamper. The Palm Beach Post reported that the quarterback was Tom Brady. The lawsuit seeks damages and injunctive relief in the form of changes to hiring, retention, termination, and pay transparency practices for coaching and executive positions in the NFL.
Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks and long-time NFL assistant Ray Horton joined the lawsuit against the league.
This lawsuit is just the beginning, the beat will go on, and the findings will be eye-opening if actual.