Brian Flores’ firing shocked everyone, especially since the team had been winning under his tenure.
After cleaning house in year one, the Dolphins went 10-6 and 9-8 in his next two seasons. Even more importantly, they had acquired significant draft capital, drafted a future star in Jaylen Waddle and were poised to make a playoff run in 2022.
But then Flores was fired and in stepped Mike McDaniel, the hot name offensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers.
Despite Flores being alleged to be the hot name in the head coaching hiring process in January, Black coaches, including Flores, were shut out of the process.
They went an embarrassing 0-8, with only the Houston Texans still remaining.
In response, he filed a scathing lawsuit in federal court on the first day of Black History Month, in which he blasted the NFL hiring practices, calling out the NFL, Dolphins, Broncos and Giants in particular. Only then was Lovie Smith hired by the Texans.
The filing of his lawsuit, most agree, severely hampered, and most likely ended, his chances of being hired as a head coach again in the NFL.
But then Mike Tomlin and the Steelers stepped in.
Tomlin, the longest tenured and winningest Black coach in NFL history, recognized Flores was in football purgatory.
Flores was talented and qualified, but NFL ownership didn’t want someone who could potentially force the disclosure of the NFL’s dark secrets as the face of their franchise.
And those secrets are definitely there, the Jon Gruden email incident is proof positive.
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