Fired Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, suing the NFL and three teams Tuesday over alleged racist hiring practices for aspiring coaches, is alleging the Dolphins offered him $100,000 a game his first season to “tank” so the club could secure the top draft pick.
The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court sought class-action status and unspecified damages from the league, the Dolphins, the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants, along with unidentified individuals.
Flores was fired last month by Miami after leading the Dolphins to a 24-25 record over three years. They went 9-8 in their second straight winning season, but failed to make the playoffs during his tenure.
In a statement released by the law firm representing him, Flores said: “God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goals.”
“In making the decision to file the class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come,” he said.
In a statement, the NFL said it will defend “against these claims, which are without merit.”
It added: “The NFL and our clubs are deeply committed to ensuring equitable employment practices and continue to make progress in providing equitable opportunities throughout our organizations. Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time.”
The lawsuit alleges that the league has discriminated against Flores and other Black coaches for racial reasons, denying them positions as head coaches, offensive and defensive coordinators and quarterbacks coaches, as well as general managers.
According to the lawsuit, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told Flores he would pay him $100,000 for every loss during the coach’s first season because he wanted the club to “tank” so it could get the draft’s top pick.
The lawsuit alleged that Ross then pressured Flores to recruit a prominent quarterback in violation of the league’s tampering rules. When Flores refused, he was cast as the “angry Black man” who is difficult to work with and was derided until he was fired, the suit said.
always comes down to this, doesnt it? you suck as a coach, cant hack it, losing record but you got fired cause of your skin tone?why do ya’ll always have to go there?
doug pederson won a superbowl and got fired!
his skin color didnt help him much did it?
no you got fired cause you sucked at your job!
People get fired! grow up and learn how to live with failure!
I don’t know if a 24-25 overall record and two 9-8 seasons are any proof of a God given gift of talent for coaching football.
He didn’t make the playoffs once and had a losing record.
It was God’s gift?
Merit.
If you win, no one cares about the color of your skin (ask Mike Tomlin), but if you lose, it’s because you are black and no one will give you anything??
It always comes back to “we will never have anything or achieve anything until white people GIVE US MORE stuff, including success”.
Just win, baby.
NFL talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. What’s sad is you guys keep feeding into their little diversity commercials and cute little helmet stickers advocating for racial justice. NFL is no diff then our government. It’s the same old “ throw some money at it to make the uneducated happy bs”. And the masses are still falling for it.
On Feb 3, one of the retired lawyers who contributes to Powerlineblog.com wrote about the fired coach and the possible merits and hurdles of his lawsuit. The post is captioned: BRIAN FLORES SUES THE NFL. Worth reading as he details the objective legal shortcomings in the lawsuit related to the plaintiff’s complaint. The issues related to the accusation about ‘tanking’ are not racial but would be serious if proven.
My personal, non-lawyer, question is whether Flores had an affirmative responsibility to immediately report his alleged tanking offer to both the NFL, under its rules, and to law enforcement? It’s pretty clear if he had such a responsibility he did not meet it at the time. Why? Because it might disrupt his lucrative coaching deal, etc.
I don’t know if he’s a good coach or not, but he was employed for a number of years previously on coaching staffs. That’s true of all fired head coaches, without regard to their race. Pretty good bet he wasn’t hired for his race, especially if the owner was as focused on winning as he claims; in like fashion that is not likely to be the reason for his firing. And the article I referred you to pulls back more of the curtain; the General Manager of the team, who would be his boss, is the same race as the fired coach!
I think his NFL career is over. Period. Other teams would have hired him for staff or head coach jobs in the future, and supposedly he was being considered for those jobs when he blew up his career prospects.
Everything is racist if it doesn’t suit them