In February, the NFL swiftly defended itself against Brian Flores’s lawsuit alleging racist and discriminatory hiring practices by calling the coach’s claims “without merit.”
For a corporation armed with enough lawyers to out-business-card Patrick Bateman, it was an incredibly poor choice of words, because beneath Flores’s headline-grabbing claims about cash payments offered for losing (which the Dolphins have denied) and clumsy Bill Belichick text messages, Flores was simply speaking a truth head coaches of color face each and every day—a truth that represents the rotting core of the league’s diversity efforts. Many minority coaching candidates go into interviews knowing they won’t receive fair consideration. One source in the industry said candidates sometimes find themselves suspicious of requests and wonder whether they are simply made to satisfy the Rooney Rule requirements.
Many coaches of color exit that process too afraid of losing future employment to say anything about it; too scared to tousle the hair of the old boys’ club.
Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports (Mike Mularkey); BILL INGRAM/The Palm Beach Post/USA TODAY Network (Brian Flores); Michael Chow/The Republic/USA TODAY Network LLC (Steve Wilks)
On Thursday, some new additions to the Flores lawsuit changed that dynamic forever. There is no longer fear of speaking out, as evidenced by claims and accusations made from former Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks, who is still an active position coach and coordinator in the NFL with the Panthers. There are no longer grounds to call these scenarios without merit, thanks to Ray Horton’s surfacing an interview with a head coach who knowingly took a job Horton was set to interview for, before the Rooney Rule was satisfied.
Horton, who last coached with the Commanders back in 2019, and Wilks, who coached the Cardinals for one season, in ’18, both joined onto Flores’s suit, further rattling an NFL hierarchy that hoped this would wash away just like many of the other societal problems related to diversity, equity and inclusion that have lapped onto the league’s shores. Here’s why that won’t happen:
For one, Horton’s claim came attached with a little-heard interview from former Titans coach Mike Mularkey in 2020. Mularkey told the Steelers Realm podcast, unprompted:
“I’ll tell you guys this, I’ve always prided myself in doing the right thing in this business. And I can’t say that’s true about everybody in this business. It’s a very cut-throat business, and a lot of guys will tell you that. But I allowed myself, at one point when I was in Tennessee, to get caught up in something I regret, and I still regret it,” Mularkey said. “But the ownership there, Amy Adams Strunk and her family, came in and told me I was going to be the head coach in 2016 before they went through the Rooney Rule. So I sat there knowing I was the head coach in ’16 as they went through this fake hiring process, knowing a lot of the coaches that they were interviewing, knowing how much they prepared to go through those interviews. Knowing that they did everything they could do, and they had no chance of getting that job.
“Actually, the GM, Jon Robinson, he was in on that interview with me; he had no idea why he was interviewing me, that I had the job already. I pride myself and my kids that they do the right thing, and I always said that to the players. And here I am, the head guy, not doing it. And I’ve regretted that since then. It was the wrong thing to do. I’m sorry I did that.”
Wilks, while lacking the same kind of receipts, signed his name to a suit against current Cardinals general manager Steve Keim. In the suit, Flores’s attorneys say Wilks “was unfairly and discriminatorily fired after just one season. His white GM (Keim), who made poor personnel decisions and was convicted for a DUI during the offseason, was given a contract extension.”
The suit also alleges that Keim, while serving the suspension, still actively engaged in contract talks with running back David Johnson, a violation of said suspension, though he was suspiciously hands off during the roster cutdown that year.
Mularkey’s interview is something that can’t simply be removed from the zeitgeist now. Here is a white head coach saying the owner congratulated him on getting the job before Horton ever walked into the building. Here is some pain in his voice as he confesses the matter like some cardinal sin. Maybe it does not meet the legal burden of proof in the courtroom, but it will be branded on the Titans and the NFL indefinitely.
Here is Wilks, the current defensive passing-game coordinator of the Panthers, lending his name to a suit with the following accusation: “In Week 13, Mr. Wilks helped lead the team to an upset victory playing on the road against the Green Bay Packers. After the game, a colleague told Mr. Wilks that he shared an elevator ride with Mr. Bidwill and Mr. Keim and that they were ‘pissed’ that the Cardinals won the game; i.e., they were upset because the win might have compromised the Cardinals’ ability to obtain the first pick in the NFL draft.”
The Cardinals, in a statement provided to Sports Illustrated, said: “The decisions we made after the 2018 season were very difficult ones. But as we said at the time, they were entirely driven by what was in the best interests of our organization and necessary for team improvement. We are confident that the facts reflect that and demonstrate that these allegations are untrue.”
True or not, with or without merit (the Titans did not immediately respond to a request for comment), the NFL has lost its luxury of silence. Active coaches employed by current NFL teams are speaking out. They are slinging mud. They are punching back at a system they feel has mistreated them for so long.
When Flores’s lawsuit first came to light, he said in a televised interview that his profession was at a fork in the road. Days like Thursday ensure a hard right turn toward a place there is no coming back from.
Update: The Titans responded to a request for comment, with a written statement: “Our 2016 head coach search was a thoughtful and competitive process fully in keeping with NFL guidelines and our own organizational values. We conducted detailed, in-person interviews with four talented individuals, two of whom were diverse candidates. No decision was made, and no decision was communicated, prior to the completion of all interviews. While we are proud of Our Commitment to Diversity, we are dedicated to continued growth as an organization to foster diversity and inclusion in our workplace and community.”
