The Carolina Panthers and the NFL may be hearing from an attorney.
Shortly after the team announced they’d hired Frank Reich as their new head coach, Wigdor Law—the legal representation for Steve Wilks—made an announcement of their own. The firm was none too pleased with the decision from the franchise and owner David Tepper, especially given what their client had done this past season.
(2/2) There is a legitimate race problem in the NFL, and we can assure you that we will have more to say in the coming days. –@WigdorLaw & @JElefterakis
— WigdorLaw (@WigdorLaw) January 26, 2023
Wilks was named the Panthers’ interim coach on Oct. 10, following the dismissal of Matt Rhule. From there, the 53-year-old Charlotte native revived the team and its fan base—dragging a once 1-4 squad to the doorstep of an improbable NFC South title.
Nonetheless, Tepper and his braintrust set out—very early on—to find an offensive-minded coach to eventually fill the position on a full-time level. That coach, of course, eventually ended up being Reich.
In early April of 2022, Wilks joined fellow African-American coach Brian Flores in his discrimination lawsuit against the NFL. His one-year tenure as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 raised many questions about the organization’s true intentions of hiring Wilks.
His complaint in the lawsuit reads as follows:
“Mr. Wilks was replaced by a white coach, Kliff Kingsbury, who had no prior NFL coaching experience and was coming off of multiple losing seasons as a Head Coach at Texas Tech. Mr. Kingsbury, armed with quarterback Kyler Murray, has been given a much longer leash than Mr. Wilks and, to his credit, has succeeded. That said, Mr. Wilks, given the same opportunity afforded to Mr. Kingsbury, surely would have succeeded as well.”
Wilks, per NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, plans on coaching elsewhere after losing out to Reich in Carolina.
