When the Dolphins announced their blockbuster trade for Tyreek Hill, the first person I thought of was Brian Flores.
Flores is Miami’s former head coach who was shockingly fired this past January despite cleaning the team up and leading it to two consecutive winning seasons.
After his firing, Flores filed a massive class-action lawsuit in federal court accusing the NFL, Dolphins, Giants and Broncos of racial discrimination in their hiring practices.
Prior to his lawsuit, Flores was deemed the “hot candidate” when nine head coaching vacancies opened up at the start of this year.
But one by one, those positions were filled by white coaches and it was obvious that Black coaches, including Brian Flores, would be excluded once again (the Texans eventually hired Lovie Smith a week after Flores filed his lawsuit).
Only Flores didn’t go quietly. Instead, he took a stand for all Black coaches and Black head coaching candidates.
It was a brave position, one that probably obliterated his chances of becoming an NFL head coach again.
Yet this is about much more than just him.
It’s about David Culley, who played the role of clean-up man for the Texans and was fired despite doing a good job with what he had.
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