The NFL has long had a problem with diversity among its head coaches. The Rooney Rule, established in 2003, was supposed to help remedy that by ensuring teams interview at least one minority candidate before making any head coach hirings.
But Brian Flores, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, alleges that rule can be easily sidestepped with sham interviews that go nowhere. On Thursday, his lawsuit was joined by a pair of longtime NFL coaches when Ray Horton and Steve Wilks were added to the complaint. Horton, former defensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, alleged he was given a meaningless interview for the team’s top coaching position in 2016. He claims Mike Mularkey, the team’s eventual hire, had been promised the job before the process even began.
It’s a story Mularkey confirmed in 2020 on the Steelers Realm podcast, a clip that was brought up on social media Thursday afternoon:
This is big: Ray Horton alleges the #Titans conducted a sham interview with him in 2016. They hired Mike Mularkey.
Horton's proof: Mularkey did a podcast and said he was told the job is his before anyone else got an interview.
Here's the audio of Mularkey… and it's damning: pic.twitter.com/tRQsxjZVq3
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) April 7, 2022
I allowed myself, at one point, to get caught up in something I regret. I still regret it. 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 coaches they were interviewing, knowing how much they prepared to go through those interviews, knowing everything they could do — and they had no chance of getting that job.
Actually the GM, Jon Robinson, he was in on the interview with me he has no idea why he’s interviewing me. That I had the job already …
I’ve regretted that since then. It was the wrong thing to do. I’m sorry I did that. It was not the way to go about it. I should have interviewed like everyone else and been hired because of the interview.
It’s evidence that backs up Flores’ claim that some teams only follow the letter of the law when it comes to the Rooney Rule and not its spirit. Flores was scheduled to interview for the New York Giants’ open head coaching vacancy this winter when he allegedly got a text from former boss Bill Belichick that was supposed to go to Giants’ eventual hire Brian Daboll, congratulating him on getting the job. Per Flores’ suit, this served as confirmation New York had no actual interest in him and that Daboll’s hiring, before any minority candidate had been interviewed, was an open secret around the league.
Flores is currently a defensive assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Horton last worked in the NFL as Washington’s defensive backs coach in 2019. Wilks, who was fired after one 3-13 season as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, returned to the league after spending 2021 as defensive coordinator at the University of Missouri. He’s currently the Carolina Panthers’ defensive pass game coordinator.
