On the first day of Black History Month, when most in the media celebrate traditional figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson, Brian Flores became a new name in the annals of civil rights, history and social justice.
Tuesday afternoon the former Miami Dolphins head coach filed a blistering class action lawsuit in federal court accusing the NFL, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and NY Giants of racial discrimination in their hiring practices.
The accusations are scathing and begin its assault on the powerful NFL at the very start of the filing.
“While racial barriers have been eroded in many areas,” states the suit in the second paragraph of its preliminary statement. “Defendant the National Football League (‘NFL’ or the ‘League’) lives in a time of the past. As described throughout the Class Action Complaint, the NFL remains rife with racism, particulalry when it comes to the hiring and retention of Black Head Coaches, Coordinators and General Managers. Over the years, the NFL and its 32-member organization (the ‘Teams’) have been given every chance to do the right thing. Rules have been implements, promises made- but nothing has changed. In fact, the racial discrimination has only been made worse by the NFL’s disingenous commitment to social equity.”
And that’s just the second paragraph.
Flores exposes something NFL fans have known for years, that the owners’ hiring bias favors white coaches, both first-time and recycled candidates. The last two years alone exemplify this fact.
2022 Is The New 2021
In January of 2021, there were seven head coaching vacancies, and only one went to a Black coach, David Culley of the Houston Texans. Another went to Robert Saleh of the NY Jets, who became the first Muslim-American head coach in NFL history.
Heading into this past season, there were three Black head coaches; Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Houston’s David Culley and the Dolphins’ Brian Flores. That’s a far cry from 10 years prior when the league had 10 Black head coaches. That included the Bears’ Lovie Smith, the Bengals’ Marvin Lewis, the Colts’ Jim Caldwell, Jacksonville’s Mel Tucker, the Chiefs’ Romeo Crennell, the Dolphins Todd Bowles, Minnesota’s Leslie Frazier, Oakland’s Hue Jackson, Mike Tomlin, and Tampa Bay’s Raheem Morris.
Out of that impressive list, only four (Caldwell, Crennell, Bowles and Jackson) were given a second chance at full-time NFL head coaching jobs; Raheem Morris became an interim head coach with the Falcons for part of the 2020 season after they fired Dan Quinn.
At the end of 2021, Culley was unfairly fired and Flores was shockingly fired. Shocking because after the three years, Flores was the Dolphins’ first coach since Dave Wannstedt to have two winning seasons (Flores went 5-11, 10-6, 9-8).
As a result, Mike Tomlin stands as the NFL’s sole Black head coach.
The only one.
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