It has been more than a year since Brian Flores dropped a bombshell lawsuit on the NFL claiming widespread racially discriminatory practices in the hiring, retention and treatment of Black coaches in league circles.
The ex-coach of the Miami Dolphins, within a month of being fired by the organization, filed the lawsuit Feb. 1, 2022 detailing a number of his experiences — including “sham” interviews for top coaching positions only meant to comply with the league’s Rooney Rule, which is intended to promote diversity, and what he allegedly went through in three seasons leading the Dolphins.
Specifically against Miami, Flores said he was offered financial incentive by owner Steve Ross to tank and lose games intentionally in the 2019 season, his first at the helm for the Dolphins, and that he was pressured to tamper with quarterback Tom Brady while he was still a member of the New England Patriots. The tanking allegations were deemed inconclusive based on an investigation led by former U.S. Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White, but the tampering claims were found by the NFL to be true.
Flores said his intentions were to inspire change in the NFL. In doing so, he sacrificed his standing as a candidate for NFL head coach openings in the 2022 hiring cycle. Ultimately left out for head roles despite back-to-back winning seasons to conclude his Dolphins tenure, he spent the 2022 season as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers and, within the past week, took the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator job.
At the time Flores filed suit, the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin was the one active Black head coach in the NFL. Since, some others have been hired, been given interim jobs or have come and gone. But what is the level of progress Flores will ultimately quantify as a victory?
The lawsuit, which has had other coaches like Steve Wilks and Ray Horton join as co-plaintiffs and gone through motions for arbitration by the NFL and to avoid arbitration by Flores and his lawyers, remains unresolved.
As far as the impact on the Dolphins a year later, at the top of the list is that they will be without a first-round pick in the late April draft.
The Dolphins previously held two 2023 first-rounders, but they were docked their own top pick by the NFL due to findings that the organization tampered with Brady and coach Sean Payton. Once forfeiting that selection — and with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on a midseason roll around last season’s trade deadline — it inclined the franchise to trade the other, tied to the San Francisco 49ers’ finish, to the Denver Broncos for Pro Bowl edge rusher Bradley Chubb.
The Dolphins have taken a win-now approach since the rebuild to start Flores’ three-year tenure in Miami. Part of the reason for stocking two first-rounders in 2023 was to possess valuable draft capital that could be turned into a missing piece for a deep playoff run.
Entering the 2022 season, there were questions surrounding Tagovailoa and if he could be the Dolphins’ long-term answer at quarterback. Through November, despite missing two and a half games at that point due to concussion, Tagovailoa appeared to be the guy. Erratic play in December, along with a second, lengthier stint in concussion protocol has brought back questions at quarterback in the offseason. Although Tagovailoa led the NFL in passer rating, whether he can remain available for a full season becomes a concern following two diagnosed concussions and possibly a third in 2022.
Miami has said it remains committed to having Tagovailoa as its starter for the 2023 season, the final year on his rookie contract if the team does not exercise a fifth-year option, which would be worth $23.17 million for the 2024 season.
Aside from the draft pick loss, which also included forfeiture of a 2024 third-round pick, Ross was suspended for the first six games last season and fined $1.5 million.
As the Payton pursuit never panned out, the Dolphins replaced Flores with coach Mike McDaniel. Under McDaniel, Miami finished 2022 with the same regular-season record as the final year of Flores — with a more talented roster — but it was enough to reach a playoff berth for the first time since 2016.
What about the lawsuit’s impact on progress against racial discrimination when it comes to coaching hiring and retention practices?
It’s something that really takes time and can’t be measured just one year later. But in the immediate aftermath of the lawsuit, the Houston Texans, who had a 2022 opening and interviewed Flores for it, promoted then-defensive coordinator Lovie Smith to be head coach last season. The Dolphins hired McDaniel, who is biracial with a Black father. In late March, Bruce Arians retired with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and they promoted Todd Bowles to the helm. Both Smith and Bowles are Black.
The Texans parted ways with Smith after the one season, just like they did with fellow Black head coach David Culley after 2021. This coaching cycle, Houston again hired a Black coach, bringing former player DeMeco Ryans in after a successful run as 49ers defensive coordinator. The Carolina Panthers had Wilks as interim coach after firing Matt Rhule during the 2022 season, but they did not retain him and hired Frank Reich, who is white, as their next coach.
Other minority NFL head coaches, although not Black, include the Washington Commanders’ Ron Rivera, who is Hispanic, and the New York Jets’ Robert Saleh, who is Arab-American. As of Thursday, six of the 30 NFL head coaches are minorities. Two jobs — the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts — are vacant.
The league is surprisingly having more diversity success at the general manager position. When the Tennessee Titans hired Ran Carthon as GM, he became the eighth Black general manager in the NFL. The Dolphins’ Chris Grier is one of them.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters he is “pleased to see progress” at his Wednesday press conference ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, but added “we always look to see how can we do better.”
The league’s Rooney Rule requiring a minority to be interviewed has been expanded several times since its inception in 2003 — to include GM and coordinator positions and from one to two minority interviews for head coaches. Most recently, the quarterbacks coach position has been added under the rule’s umbrella. This is because of the frequency in which quarterbacks coaches become offensive coordinators and, in turn, offensive coordinators become head coaches, potentially leading more minority candidates to enter the pools that most often feed to head roles.
When Flores made the interview rounds in February 2022 following the bombshell lawsuit, a repeated point of his was that his motivation was to affect real change.
It came at his own expense in the short term. Teams stayed away from hiring Flores in 2022, even as he was a candidate for multiple head coaching jobs before filing suit. Tomlin, the only active Black head coach at the time of Flores’ lawsuit, hired Flores as senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach for last season.
Flores was back in the interview rounds for head coaching jobs before accepting one of the defensive coordinator positions he interviewed for, with the Vikings. He took the job in Minnesota despite reportedly being one of three finalists for the Cardinals’ head coach position.
