The legal team for Brian Flores, the former Dolphins coach who filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and three teams alleging discrimination earlier this week, responded to a statement from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Saturday, calling the statement more of a “public relations ploy than real commitment to change.”
On Saturday morning, Goodell sent a memo to the league's teams, saying that the NFL's efforts toward increasing diversity in its coaching ranks are “unacceptable” and vowing to “reevaluate” current diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Flores's lawyers, Doug Wigdor and John Elefterakis, responded to the statement, saying that, “Unfortunately, immediately after Coach Flores filed the class action lawsuit, the NFL and various teams reflexively, and without any investigation, denied the detailed allegations set forth in the 60-page complaint. As a result, when we spoke to the national media the following day we made clear that the NFL should view this class action lawsuit as an opportunity to engage in real change and confront the obvious reality.
“We would be pleased to talk to the Commissioner about real change, but unfortunately he has not reached out to us to engage in such discussion. In fact, nobody from the NFL has reached out to us. Absent such a discussion followed by unbiased and concrete change, we believe that a court or governmental agency must order a federal monitor to oversee the NFL as the NFL cannot continue to police itself.”
On Feb. 1, shortly after news broke of Flores's class-action lawsuit, he league released a statement asserting its commitment to diversity and called the former Dolphins coach's claims "without merit."
In the lawsuit, Flores alleges Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him a $100,000 bonus for each loss during the 2019 season, in which Ross apparently wanted to secure the league’s worst record and the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft. Flores says he didn’t comply with the request. He also alleged that the Giants had already decided to hire then-Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll three days before their scheduled interview with Flores—which was revealed to Flores only after text messages mistakenly sent to him by Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Additionally, the lawsuit includes allegations of a "sham" interview with the Broncos.
All three teams subsequently released statements disputing Flores's claims.
Flores said earlier this week that he believes the NFL is at a “fork in the road” moment when it comes to the hiring of Black coaches. The lawsuit says that 70% of the NFL's players are Black but there is only one Black head coach, Mike Tomlin of the Steelers.
“Racism and any form of discrimination is contrary to the NFL's values,” Goodell said in his statement Saturday. “We have made significant efforts to promote diversity and adopted numerous policies and programs which have produced positive change in many areas, however we must acknowledge that particularly with respect to head coach the results have been unacceptable.
"We will reevaluate and examine all policies, guidelines and initiatives relating to diversity, equity and inclusion, including as they relate to gender. We are retaining outside experts to assist in this review and will also solicit input from current and former players and coaches, advocates and other authorities in this area.”
Flores was was fired Jan. 10 after going 24–25 in three seasons as Miami’s coach. He is currently in the interview process for openings with the Saints and Texans, saying on CNN on Wednesday he would not drop the lawsuit if he was offered either of the two positions.
