Brian Flores takes on the NFL and it’s hiring practices

Miami during his time there. When did this process of his decision to file this suit against the NFL and three NFL clubs really begin? Yeah, so you have to take this back to last week, Um, when they actually

decided to follow the lawsuit. Um, we'll talk a little bit about it later, but there's a text message sent from from Bill Belichick to Brian Floors on Monday of last week, which was the last week of January, and so that was the first time that they realized, hey, we may have evidence that basis a longstanding belief that he and a lot of other black coaches have that they have been discriminated against. And some of the Rooney Rule interviews have been quote unquote sham interviews. So that

happened on Monday. As far as the text message, I was told that by Wednesday they already had drafted up the beginning portion of a lawsuit for this happening, and they started to make contacts into their media rounds saying that hey, we want to share our story at some point early next week about Brian Flores and this lawsuit. So that started to happen in the middle of last week, and so they started to do a lot of different information collecting their evidence that they wanted to put into

this case. And you could clearly tell they spent a lot of time on This is a fifty eight page report, uh, you know, mentioning everything from the lack of black coaches and coordinators in the league, two civil rights leaders. You know, they wanted to purposely followed on the first day of February to start Black History Month, um, to sort of really send a message to the league and really to everyone that this was a message and they wanted to get out. And Brian Flores is a very principal guy.

I've covered him for a while and you know he has his flaws. You know, this is not really the podcast to discuss whether it was right or wrong to fire him. But when he mentioned something, he wants to stay up for it, stand for stand up for it. And I think this was something that he really wanted to stand behind and put his name on it and put action by it. And he did and again sue the NFL, the Broncos, the Giants, and his former team,

the Miami Dolphins. All three clubs have denied any wrongdoing in this as it pertains to this lawsuit, as has the NFL, and we'll get to that here in just a little bit. But more specifically, as you dig into the lawsuit, what is it really alleging in these instances? Yeah? Right, you could boil it down to two different situations. There is a accusation that they did not have fair value and spirit of the Roomy rule, and that comes into regard of the Giants not giving what Brian Flores felt

was an honest interview, and that's what this year. Yes, he was. He was scheduled for what would have been his in person interview in New York Thursday of last week,

so he had that interview schedule. He received the text message from Bill Belichick that he shared publicly on Monday, where Belichick mistakenly sent him a message saying that hey, um, I heard that you got the job, and so Flori's excited thinking that Belichick heard something different than he heard saying what you know, I hope so and and and through the back and forth messaging, Flores realized that he

was thinking he was talking to the wrong guy. So, you know, thank you was talking to Brian and Ball Flor exactly, and Brian day Ball was named the guy named the head coach on Friday. So Flores went into his interview on Thursday, UM interview. He initially believed he had a very good chance of winning. The owner John Merrit he actually said, called him and told him he killed the interview and You've got a great chance to winning.

But he said he was, you know, uh, frustrated, angry when he hears this from Bill Belichick and essentially confirms that this interview was a sham. I would say, I think that those text messages confirmed a lot of what UM. A lot of us, you know, black minority coaches already feel that a lot of we're going into these um and they're shams. They confirmed that a lot of there's a belief and you know, look, that was just a

mistake by Billichick. We've all sent the wrong text message to somebody, um, but in this instance, it came to me and it was almost you know, it was confirmation that that that those back, back, back, back room dealings are happen. And for contact for people with asking maybe

asking why Billy Bill Belichick and the Giants are important. Well, he has a relationship with owner John John Mara that dates back years and years and he actually recommended right and he actually recommended the last Giants that coach Joe Judge, who was a Patriot assistant. So it's it's I think that's an easy way for Brian Flores to connect the dots and say somebody you know clearly told them something in the mill. So I think that that was what

really drove this lawsuit. And then from there he was backtracking and getting other evidence and other um, you know, parameters of teams that he felt like, you know, we're a part of this in their own way, and also really addressing the league and some of their long standing issues with um black and minority coaches being able to

get jobs. So he has been open. He did his media media run on Wednesday, essentially saying that, hey, I know that I'm taking a risk here and there's a chance that I may not coach again, but he feels like this is for the other coaches, not as much for him, but for the other coaches to be able

to try to make what he calls real change. And then the Broncos part of this whole lawsuit and how they found themselves here was as a result of an interview back in two thousand and nineteen, before Flores took the head coaching job with the Miami Dolphins. Right, this is when the Broncos were interviewing for a head coaching job that eventually went to Vic Fangio. Yes, absolutely, And that was the year that Brian Flores and the Patriots they won the Super Bowl. That was when Brian Flores

was the hot candidate. He had just had his first successful year as the defensive play caller of the Patriots, and so he had done multiple interviews in that cycle, and he accused the Broncos of essentially not taking his interviews serious enough in the In the lawsuit, he specifically alleged that they came an hour late. So I've had nine interviews with NFL clubs there's been one interview square anyone was late. Um, and it wasn't me that was later.

It was the interview interview wars who were late. Um, that was what the Broncos. He specifically says that he they came disheveled and he felt like they were drinking the night before, but gave you the impression, if he will,

that they had been out drinking the night before. Well, I mean when you sit at the table with with with five people who are interviewing you, um, uh, you know who's you can tell, who's um asking questions, who's into the interview, and who's uh not necessarily in the right, right, right state, I would say, And in that moment, the

Broncos have denied this. But this is something that he felt like was a sign that hey, this was a sham interview where they had already made their mind up or didn't treat me seriously enough as a candidate to give that sort of respect. So uh, he used this as additional evidence and part of his lawsuit against the Broncos and the rest of the league of just sort of how to go about their hiring practices. And then the Dolphins piece of this whole thing is really interesting.

The reasons why he got fired have also been kind of mentioned throughout the lawsuit, and then this bizarre story of you know, tanking essentially, which everyone outside of NFL

buildings have kind of casually talked about. There was the whole tank for tah movement, you know, before the Dolphins actually even ended up with him at the number five overall pick, taking him one spot before one spot before Justin Herbert in a couple of spots after you know, Joe Burrow went number one overall, and that there was this meeting between he and the owner of the Dolphins, Stephen Ross, and that it had promised him a hundred

thousand dollars per loss. Have you had you heard any of this going on but before it was mentioned in the lawsuit, right? No, I didn't, honestly, And I covered I covered that team for three years, um, you know, including that year, um exclusively, so I I was remember that twenty nine team years one of the one of the most difficult teams to cover because they were they were awful, and a lot of the reason they were awful was they traded a lot of players before the

season the game. Remember that's when they traded Patrick away. Yes, they had you know, both Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen starting that year, and they started off very bad before they turned it around in the second half of that year. Um, but yes, there, I had heard nothing about it. I've learned more about it in the coming days. There was, um the word tank thrown around a lot, and Brian Flores was adamant throughout the year when he was asked

continually that he would not lose. He didn't. He didn't believe in it. He thought it was disrespectful to even bring up. I've never I'm gonna go into every game, Uh, trying to win. You know, That's That's always gonna be my objective. I'm gonna go on anything I do trying to win. I'm gonna try to instill that and every every everybody had come across. So no, there's no there's no tankking Uh, you can write that over and over

and over again. So there was there was a whole conversation the narrative that coaches and players cannot tank, but organizations can can make a decision to do so. So there was no hard evidence that, hey, the Dolphins made the decision or er what eventually came out, tried to pay to make this decision, but there was a belief that if anybody in the organization was taking it was an organizational decision to get a draft pick rather than

a coaching or player decision. In Miami, when you were the head coach, you will legend the lawsuit that the owner, Stephen Ross, approached you about tanking games to get a better draft choice and said he would give you a hundred thousand dollars for every game you lost. As you can imagine, that obviously has enormous repercussions. What could you tell me about the specifics of that offer? How specifically

did he state that to you? You know, that was a conversation about not doing as much as we needed to do to win football games. Take a flight, go on vacation. I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars per loss. And those are just, you know, exact words. So when I heard this, uh, this news, it was just as outrageous for me because I had never heard of an owner being accused of paining for for losses essentially, and that gets into a whole element of integrity of the

game exactly. It's a whole whole another kind of worms there. I mean, in addition to the discrimination part of this whole lawsuit, which is right, you know, right at the crux of it, of course, right so and so yeah, yeah, So obviously the discrimination part of it is is Brian Flores is a big mess that he wants to get

across in the big mission of change. But this story, the Dolphins element of it is obviously I popping element for a lot of people who read the lawsuit because of the hundred K. There's also an allegation and there that you know, the owner, Stephen Ross, um you know, kind of pressured or or tried to get him the temper um where you know, as far as uh prominent

quarterback and trying to bring him on. And I've been told that the quarterback that they're referring to is Tom Brady when he was coming up and becoming a free agent.

So there was a situation that mentioned in the lawsuit that um that that Flora's alleges that owner Stephen Ross invited him onto a yacht and all of a sudden that prominent quarterback arrives happenstance and Flora's you know, kind of storms out and comes through so these are all part of Floris's claims that he feels like the accusations of tampering that he's making and the accusations of pain the tank are the main reason why he's no longer

the dolphins that coach, and not because of any performance reasons or relationship reasons, which is what the message of dolphins we're sending out after has felt firing. This lawsuit was filed as a class action lawsuit, which means people other people can join the lawsuit. In your understanding and your reporting on this subject, do you get a sense that there are going to be others that are going

to join? Yes, right, I I do. I actually spoke with two coaches last night who wanted to reach out to me to see if I could connect them with Brian Flores so that they could talk to him about potentially getting involved in the class lawsuit themselves. They had experiences that they felt like they had receipts of and wanted to see if they can get involved. And I mentioned it to Brian Flores's team and they mentioned that hey, sending the information will vetted and see what we can do.

So they've welcomed people to join them and We've seen even today publicly, certain coaches have come out and shared their experience. And then just today Marvin Lewis came out and said he felt like he had a sham interview

with the Carolina Panthers when they hired John Fox. You're seeing and this is a big part when I talked to black coaches that they were excited about with Flora's coming out is that hopefully it opens the floodgates of every other coach sharing their experience and making it clear that it's not just Flores who may have this, uh, this this belief that he's discriminated against, this is something that other coaches believe and feel like they've experienced as

well and want to share. So can We've outlined some of the key pieces of this lawsuit that Brian Flores has filed in the allegations within it. But now for the solution or the resolution that he hopes to come from this lawsuit, what are some of the biggest pieces there that the change that he's hoping can be made so Flores't actually lines out several areas of of actual real change. And one element that um that I thought was really interesting was the diversification of ownership. There are

currently no black owners. It's a very rich, white dude industry that has been for a while, and so um, these are the guys making the decisions. So he outlines a path of trying to get owners to be more diversified. And that's something that a lot of people in league offices have been pushing forward for a while. But I think that's one of the main key solutions UM that

he believes can be helpful for this. He also mentioned setting up different town house meetings with black assistance and getting them comfortable with meeting a lot of these owners and having conversations to get to know each other and be able to be more comfortable UM with each other because there's often the saying that you you you go with what you feel comfortable with, and a lot of times for these owners who are white, it's a lot

of these white assistant coaches. So the hope is you get them more comfortable with black assistant coaches and some of these hiring um, you know, pass can change. And so we talked. We talk a little bit about the Rooney rule and and the Rooney rule is something that has a lot of UM subjectivity because some people are fans of it, some people are not. But the the overall core that I hear when I talk to assistances, you you can't force people to hire people that they

don't want to hire. So no matter what the rule is, there's always gonna be a way, UM to get around it. So I know that a lot of people are are watching this case, particularly coaches, and seeing how the NFL

handles it. If there's some sort of UM rule change that comes out of it, whether it's um you know, incentivizing teams um you know and not for losses as far as you know, a draft lottery potentially UM you know, or or you know, figuring out a certain way that coaches can be able to get fair chances m despite what their skin color is. So that's something that's going

to continue to be evolving conversation. There's gonna be lawyers throughout this whole deal, and so it's early on we're talking about this at the very it's a lengthy Yes, it's going to be a lengthy process. And I reported this on NFL Network earlier, but I was told by Brian Floors team that they do not plan to settle this case unless they get some sort of real change

that they outline. So that's what they're saying at this point, and that's something that indicates to me, if they're going to go through that process, then this is going to be long and difficult and a lot of lawyers and maybe a lot of legal proceedings. And look, I think it's clear there are still some real issues in terms of the disparity between minority head coaches in this league and white head coaches in this league, with Mike Tomlin

currently the only black head coach in the league. Now there are still some openings right that we have in this cycle. But the one positive that I think we need to kind of continue to mention because hopefully it is something that can influence change, is there has been a greater number of minority general managers hired in the last couple of years, this year in particular with Quaisia

Dopho Mensa in Minnesota, with Ryan Poles in Chicago. So maybe if that trend continues, then we can have a trickle down effect into the head coaching ranks and continuing into the coordinator ranks from that point on. So look, here's hoping and and of course we'll see and we will continue to follow this and we're not done discussing this lawsuit that Brian Flores has filed against the NFL and against three NFL clubs, all of whom have denied

all allegations against them. But again, the Rooney Rule is at the crux of this. This was created to influence more minority opportunities in the NFL, and it's had some changes throughout the league. We'll go through that right after this. Karen NFL inside report back on NFL and signed report with Cam Wolf, you know, our colleague at NFL Network.

As we're digging into this lawsuit filed by Brian Floores against the NFL and the Broncos, the Giants, and the Dolphins, and look at the crux of it is the discrimination part of it, right which the Rooney Rule was designed to combat. Now, the Rooney Rule has gone through some adaptations and some changes, certainly since it was instituted years ago. How have you kind of seen and understood some of

those changes? Can? Yeah? I think it's important for us to note that the League office, um, whether whether it successful or not, has been trying to you know, create sort of a better you know, stopping ground area for minority coaches to rise, and so the Rooney rule changed. The most recent one was changing it to too external black candidates or minority or women candidates interviewing for these

head coach and GM jobs. And so the league noticed that a lot of times teams were interviewing internal candidates and it would maybe one or two internal candidates and they would count that as a running rule. So they tried to make a change, and they're trying to adjust, and I think some of the adjustments are are effective. But I think at the core of this is ownership. So owners aretain the ones who are going to make

the decision. So the League office can want all they want to be able to UM have more black coaches, have more black owners, have more black gms, but ultimately it's gonna take these owners to be able to know and make the decisions themselves. So the Rooty rule has certainly evolved in how UM is putting pressure on teams to have more of an open um you know, wide net coaching and GM interview process. But look where we are. We're one black head coach halfway through a coaching cycle.

It's the same way we worked twenty years ago. So a lot of coaches are saying, yes, the roomy rule may have helped some people get interviews and may have helped people get into the room, but as far as the coaching rank, the GM is different. Like you said, there's been progress, and have to address that. There has been real progress for the coaching ranks. Just one coach, Mike Tomlin, who is arguably one of the best coaches

of his era. And you can't tell me that there's only one qualified coach who's black out of thirty two to be head coach. So where is that coming from? Is that implicit bias? Is there something we can do? So I just don't know if more rooting rule changes are going to truly make a difference in these numbers. And we've continued to see these changes happen, but the

numbers have stayed relatively stegmas. And then you know, one of the reasons that Mike Tomlin is the only black head coach currently and again there are still openings in this year's you know, cycle of head coaching changes, and so it is one of the reasons you know that again the Tomlin is the only black head coach currently is because Brian Flores was fired from the Miami Dolphins and the reasons why, you know, we were sort of led to believe there were these relationship issues within the

building with the way that that Flora's maybe have interacted with general manager Chris Greer and you know, with other with others in the organization. In your understanding of that whole situation, how did that unfold and and how were those interactions? Yeah, that's an interesting part of this because some of it certainly was real. There was a strife

between Brian Floors and Chris Career. I've been told, but I think Flores and his team pointed out in the lawsuit and even talking to some coaches on that staff before, there were sort of, uh an opinion coming out that he was very difficult to work with and that he was sort of a you know, quote unquote tiring in the building, and that you know, he was going through this sort of situation where it just was unmanageable going

forward for him to be the head coach. And I spoke with two Dolphins assistant coaches who told me that, yes, he's not the you know, you know, jolly green giant. He's not always gonna you know, ask how was your how was your your weekend or that sort of thing. But I talked to a coach who said, Hey, the idea that he wasn't talking to us after a certain period,

that was not a reality. And for people who work hard and put their work into it, we appreciate some of the tough coaching and the straightforwardness that he has from atmosphere. So the idea that everybody in the Dolphins organization hated Brian Flores has been told to me several times has proven false. Now, there are certainly things that Brian knows that he can be better at as far as his relationships with people, and I know that he's going on interviews and discuss those things and you know

expressed the ay, you know, desire to be better. Um. But I also think that we have to be careful in narratives that we put out. There's sort of a trope, particularly with a black man, of the angry black man, and I think it's a very dangerous trope to put out because once you have that label, it's tough to get off get it off of you. And we've talked on this chat a lot about owners and feeling comfortable with who they're hiring. If you had that angry black

man trope on you. That's gonna make it much more difficult for a white owner to feel comfortable hiring you, hiring for you. So I know, I talked to a couple of people who wanted to speak out on his their on his behalf and say, hey, that's not a reality the picture that everyone's painting of him. Yes, he's flawed like we all are, but to fit to feel like he is just untenable to work with is is a little bit of a saggeration of what he was for people in that building who had to deal with

him on a day to day basis. And then, as you mentioned, came at the top of the show, Brian Flores has done this knowing it very well might affect his future in the NFL, ending coaching in general, based on you know, him being the central figure in this lawsuit. How do you assess his future as there are as I mentioned, you know, like he a number of interviews this this year, not just the New York Giants, there are still job openings here. Does he still see a

future for himself in the NFL? Yeah, barn Floors has talked on the media cycles this today that he's hopeful. He's hopeful. That was the big word that he's saying. I'm hopeful that I will I'm very hopeful. Um, but I understand the risks of of uh filing a lasso like this. Um, but I'm very um. I am hopeful. Well that I'm passionate about. But if change, if change comes, Um, if I never coach again and there's change, it it'll be worth it. You wouldn't say that he was optimistic

or that he thought it would happen. He said he was hopeful, and um, you know, I talked to a couple of assistants who mentioned that they were fearful that maybe he would get black bawled in this sort of situation because it's really unseen that you have a coach active coach suing the NFL. This is you know, you're suing the NFL and all three or two teams, and then you're gonna ask for a job. Like just being real with it that that that becomes a sticky point.

You know, you can't really hide the reality of that. So I do think that they're they're obviously is gonna be conversations there. He's still in the mix with two jobs the New Orleans Saints job in the Houston Texations job. As we record this, he interviewed for both of those. UM had second interviews with both of those. Uh, second interview with the Texans and so UM, you know, and I talked to him and his team this week and they feel like, hey, we still got a chance there.

So UM, they're hopeful that this does not impact his chances to get that those gigs or any gigs in the future. And when you look at his resume, I mean, he came off a back to back winning seasons for the Dolphins. Um, there are certainly questions about how he's gonna build an offensive staff given the turnover in Miami, but you can't look at his resume and say that this guy doesn't deserve another opportunity, whether it's as a

coordinator or a head coach down the line. So I believe that it's going to be a very interesting period to see how teams react with lawsuit and whether they truly give him an opportunity, because like you, like you mentioned, if you, um, if he doesn't get an opportunity, then what does that say about um? You know where we are hiring cycles and what the league has done based on his you know, sharing his experiences and sharing of

what he feels like has happened to him. Gim Wolfe Man, we really appreciate your insight and you're reporting on, you know, the whole situation with the Dolphins and how this is all unfolded with Brian Floor as a really important and look, I think if I think we can all agree that at the very least what this has done as again made the conversation surrounding diversity and inclusion. Louder and I

certainly appreciate your voice. Camp, thanks very much, appreciate you and that's gonna do it for this episode of NFL Inside Report. Thanks so much for being with us. Reminder to subscribe, rate, review our show on iHeart Radio, on Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. We certainly appreciate and we can't wait to join you next week live from Radio Row as we get set for Super Bowl fifty six between the Bengals and the Rams from

Soapy Stadium. For producers Thomas Warren and Tim Paracca. I'm your host, Rrett Louis. We'll catch you next time. NFL Inside Report is the production of the NFL and partnership with I heart Radio. For more official podcasts from the NFL, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.