Even before the New York Giants finished conducting their head coaching search, they were slapped with a class-action lawsuit courtesy of Brian Flores.
In the legal filings, Flores, who is also suing the NFL and several of its teams, claims that he was “humiliated” by the Giants, believing they ran him through a “sham interview” process to give the impression a minority coach was a serious candidate.
The Giants emphatically denied Flores’ allegations of racial discrimination.
“The allegation that the Giants’ decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false. And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he “thinks” Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible. The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll’s in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point,” the Giants said in part.
After his filing, Flores continued to receive head coaching interest from the Houston Texans. However, after they passed on Flores and instead hired Lovie Smith, they, too, found themselves added to Flores’ lawsuit.
Even after being hired as a defensive assistant and linebackers coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Flores and his representatives maintain that the lawsuit will move forward.
“We congratulate Coach Flores on his new position with the Steelers and thank Coach Tomlin and the organization for giving him this great opportunity,” Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis said in a statement. “While Coach Flores is now focused on his new position, he will continue with his race discrimination class action so that real change can be made in the NFL.”
The Giants already have legal representation in place, but the NFL is reportedly set to hire the firm of former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to provide their defense.
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