Out of 32 NFL teams, there is only one black coach left. Fired by the Miami Dolphins in early January, Brian Flores decided to put his feet in the dish: he filed a class action lawsuit against the Professional American Football League (NFL), and three clubs, Miami, Denver and the New York Giants, whom he accuses of racial discrimination during job interviews. According to him, the NFL runs its operations “like a plantation” of slaves.
In his 58-page complaint file, Flores accuses the Giants of giving him a job interview last month simply to do some extra work, because the franchise had already chosen another coach, Brian Daboll, who is White. Flores learned the news through text messages from Bill Belichick, the iconic Patriots coach, who congratulated him on landing the job. Except that these text messages were actually intended for Brian Daboll. According to his attorney, the Giants are simply looking to comply with the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates.
incentive to lose
The coach claims to have been “treated with disdain and presented as someone non-compliant, with whom it was difficult to work” by the Miami club which dismissed him on January 10, after a season which saw the Dolphins miss the playoffs for the third straight year under Brian Flores.
Flores accuses Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of deliberately tricking him into losing games soon after he was hired in 2019, going so far as to offer him $100,000 for each recorded loss. And this so that the team is in the best possible position for the next Draft. Because the principle of this lottery is that the worst ranked clubs at the end of a season are among the first to be able to choose one of the most highly rated academics presenting themselves there.
“Systemic Racism”
Since its inception, the NFL has had a representation problem. One in 32 African-American coaches is 3%, in a league where two-thirds of the players are black. And for 100 years, all but two owners have been white. An imbalance at the heart of the action of rebel Colin Kaepernick, who defied the NFL and Donald Trump by kneeling during the anthem, a gesture of defiance that cost him his place but spread to many other sports .
In his lawsuit, Flores says the NFL discriminated against him and other black technicians by denying them head coach, assistant and general manager positions. “In some ways, the League is racially segregated and run like a plantation. Its 32 owners – none of whom are black – make a substantial profit from the labor of the players, 70% of whom are black,” Flores lashed out.
Attacked, the body said it wanted to defend itself “against these allegations, which are baseless”, ensuring: “diversity is at the heart of everything we do, and there are few questions on which our clubs and our management spend more time”.
“God gave me a special talent for coaching, but the need for change is more important than my personal goals,” Flores said nonetheless. And to conclude: “In making the decision to file a class action lawsuit today, my sincere hope is that by speaking out against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me in ensuring positive change. for generations to come”.