Ex-Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores accuses NFL of racial discrimination in lawsuit

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The 58-page lawsuit names the NFL, the New York Giants, the Denver Broncos, and the Dolphins — along with the other 29 teams in the league as "John Doe's."

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for all Black head coaches, offensive and defensive coordinators and quarterback coaches as well as general managers and African American candidates for those positions.

It also seeks a declaratory judgment that the NFL and its teams violated the laws of the United States and New York and New Jersey.
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www.npr.org

Ex-Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores accuses NFL of racial discrimination in lawsuit

Flores alleges that the league is "managed much like a plantation" charging that its 32 owners, none of whom are Black, profit from the labor of its players, 70% of whom are African American.
www.npr.org www.npr.org
 
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I'm gonna keep this to one single post because I know exactly what this thread is going to devolve into and I'd rather not see the crapshow. So for anyone who read the complaint filed:

The entirety of the background section is just there for the media and to make his point. It's largely irrelevant to the causes of action. The Section 1981 claim is where he can get his settlement or push for discovery to embarrass the NFL. He didn't even file a 1964 Civil Rights Act claim, though reserved the right to do so. Surviving a motion to dismiss is hard these days, so this is likely going to stay between him, Belichick, the Giants, and the Broncos and not be a class action lawsuit relating to the Rooney Rule itself and the entire NFL. I don't think the Dolphins would even be involved because that's an entirely different matter. The court is not going to care that he didn't want to be a tank commander.
 
The court may not care about the tanking issue but the NFL will if the allegation of Dolphin owner Stephen Ross offering $100,000 to Flores fir every loss has any merit. If it does, anything that could harm/jeopardize the NFL’s potential revenue stream that is gambling will be dealt with. The NFL’s 1st line of defense is to have this swept under the rug but if it all goes south, it could possibly cost Ross the Dolphins. Unlikely but again, fixing or attempting to fix games is a big no, no.
 
Harbaugh and Andy Reid were both fired even though they were both successful, owners will hire, and fire based on success and personality. Marvin Lewis was HC for 10 plus years with the Bengals. Nothing to do with racism, everything to do with winning.
 
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From a non-legal standpoint, the optics of this don't look good for a few teams. The text from Bellicheck, telling Flores the Giants job is basically his (Bill confused Flores with Daboll). And is accusations that the Denver people were basically hungover for his interview and didn't really give him the time of day. But to me, the accusation that the Dolphins owner offered him $100K to purposely lose games and improve their draft position is pretty damning. I'm not sure his lawsuit changes anything, but I'm interested to see how teams respond to his accusations.
 
jackson03 said:
I'm gonna keep this to one single post because I know exactly what this thread is going to devolve into and I'd rather not see the crapshow. So for anyone who read the complaint filed:

The entirety of the background section is just there for the media and to make his point. It's largely irrelevant to the causes of action. The Section 1981 claim is where he can get his settlement or push for discovery to embarrass the NFL. He didn't even file a 1964 Civil Rights Act claim, though reserved the right to do so. Surviving a motion to dismiss is hard these days, so this is likely going to stay between him, Belichick, the Giants, and the Broncos and not be a class action lawsuit relating to the Rooney Rule itself and the entire NFL. I don't think the Dolphins would even be involved because that's an entirely different matter. The court is not going to care that he didn't want to be a tank commander.
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The courts might care that Ross invested multiple millions of dollars in sports gambling the same year he offered Flores $100k to fix games.
 
He's not wrong but would he have filed if he'd gotten the Giants gig and why didn't he file when he was at Miami?
 
The sooner the Rooney rule goes away the better. Stop looking at race in everything, we are way, way past this. There have been many, many black head coaches in the NFL, because they were QUALIFIED, not because they are black. Think about it, would you really want an interview because you're black and not because you're good? Owners/ GM's are allowed to hire who they want to coach their teams, period.
 
wolves82 said:
If Haslam had been offering Hue Jackson $100K per loss Hue would be on the Forbes richest man list now.
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Jackson claims he has corroborating evidence that Haslem offered him money to lose

His salary was $4.7mill a yr as head coach, $100,000 a game would only come to $1.6 mill

thespun.com

Hue Jackson Claims Browns Paid Him Money To Lose Games

Brian Flores is not the only former NFL head coach to allege he was offered money by his organization to lose games. Hue Jackson has joined him. In his class
thespun.com thespun.com
 
14Red said:
The sooner the Rooney rule goes away the better. Stop looking at race in everything, we are way, way past this. There have been many, many black head coaches in the NFL, because they were QUALIFIED, not because they are black. Think about it, would you really want an interview because you're black and not because you're good? Owners/ GM's are allowed to hire who they want to coach their teams, period.
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Flores is a good coach and Miami did him wrong. I think he deserves another chance to be a HC, but it would be hard to blame ownership for not trusting him.
 
Stirred not Shaken said:
Harbaugh and Andy Reid were both fired even though they were both successful, owners will hire, and fire based on success and personality. Marvin Lewis was HC for 10 plus years with the Bengals. Nothing to do with racism, everything to do with winning.
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I don’t think it’s racism, but I also don’t think he was given a fair shake in Miami.
 
Omar said:
Flores is a good coach and Miami did him wrong. I think he deserves another chance to be a HC, but it would be hard to blame ownership for not trusting him.
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I think Flores can be a good coach, however, it's a results business and he started the season 1-8, how can that be explained? And as we've heard already, he's not easy to get along with. Ownership calls the shots, it's like that everywhere. This is being made much more than it really is.
 
"racism" from the POV of numbers, sure.
"racism" from the POV of bigotries or inferiority beliefs? I doubt it. That kind of accusation should never be made without concrete evidence and Flores hasn't presented any. He hasn't even made a case that there are sufficient numbers applying for the positions, let alone gone through the same ranks. His statement about ownership is BS because there are plenty of Black minorities with the cash and influence, had they desire could have been owners.
 
Omar said:
Flores is a good coach and Miami did him wrong. I think he deserves another chance to be a HC, but it would be hard to blame ownership for not trusting him.
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He wasn't on the same page with the owner and GM regarding Tua. If you're a coach in that position, and you're not willing to just tell them what they want to hear, you're not staying around.
 
I'm disappointed in ESPN covering this issue. They've already tried this case and fully support a verdict favoring Flores.

It is a remarkable lawsuit with his accusations. The three major charges:

1. Miami tanked on purpose.
2. Denver management showed up hungover.
3. The Giants already had their guy before interview.

Maybe there is racism in the NFL but looking at purely numbers is just silly. 70% of the NFL is African-American but the racial disparity cannot be used as proof of racism. Same with the Owners, GMs, and Head Coaches. There needs to be more than simply saying the percentages indicate racism.

The tanking issue is one of the most important to me. If true, it has major implications for the ownership and anyone that colluded together to throw games (including Flores too). Anyone involved should no longer be allowed to participate in the NFL. Throwing games should never be acceptable.

Denver accusation is one that I think will get alot of attention. John Elway being accused of inappropriate behavior can't be left hanging around without a strong response or acknowledgement of wrong-doing. Attacking the integrity of another well-known athlete will cause waves.

The Giants will be interesting to follow. How often is a coach expected to be signed but the club goes through with the rest of the candidates. Just an aside, ESPN is saying that Harbaugh must already have the Minnesota Vikings job even though he is going to the interview today. They believe the job is his or he would never have agreed to the interview being done on national signing day.
 
TylerDurden said:
He wasn't on the same page with the owner and GM regarding Tua. If you're a coach in that position, and you're not willing to just tell them what they want to hear, you're not staying around.
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I don’t think he’s wrong about Tua. Also, winning 7 games when the owner was trying to intentionally tank is very good.
 
I find it more disturbing that supposedly an NFL Owner told the Head Coach that he would give him a “bonus” for every game his Team lost. NFL Teams and Owners have the right to Hire and Fire whoever they wish. I compare the Rooney Rule to Mask wearing. You must do something that everyone doesn’t agree with and it doesn’t guarantee anyone anything.
 
Yappi said:
I'm disappointed in ESPN covering this issue. They've already tried this case and fully support a verdict favoring Flores.

It is a remarkable lawsuit with his accusations. The three major charges:

1. Miami tanked on purpose.
2. Denver management showed up hungover.
3. The Giants already had their guy before interview.

Maybe there is racism in the NFL but looking at purely numbers is just silly. 70% of the NFL is African-American but the racial disparity cannot be used as proof of racism. Same with the Owners, GMs, and Head Coaches. There needs to be more than simply saying the percentages indicate racism.

The tanking issue is one of the most important to me. If true, it has major implications for the ownership and anyone that colluded together to throw games (including Flores too). Anyone involved should no longer be allowed to participate in the NFL. Throwing games should never be acceptable.

Denver accusation is one that I think will get alot of attention. John Elway being accused of inappropriate behavior can't be left hanging around without a strong response or acknowledgement of wrong-doing. Attacking the integrity of another well-known athlete will cause waves.

The Giants will be interesting to follow. How often is a coach expected to be signed but the club goes through with the rest of the candidates. Just an aside, ESPN is saying that Harbaugh must already have the Minnesota Vikings job even though he is going to the interview today. They believe the job is his or he would never have agreed to the interview being done on national signing day.
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Let's hope he has evidence or witnesses on the tanking charge. If he doesn't, BS walks.

The Giants having their man identified, but not signed would not be a bad thing.
If Plan A fell through, they would have another interview under their belt to consider.

Being hungover is not real bad.

I remember closing a big sale sitting around a table with doctors and administrators while pretty hung over.
 
jackson03 said:
The court is not going to care that he didn't want to be a tank commander.
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Violating my one post rule. The reason I said the part above:

He's not asking for a remedy on that part of his complaint. He just mentions that that is what Ross did. It actually undermines his discrimination case if he wanted to take it all the way through the courts, because it sounds more like he was fired because he didn't wanna play ball instead of racial discrimination.

It's actually a pretty devastating legal maneuver because a prosecutor could open a separate criminal case now that this is in the open (with Hue jumping on board, etc). And pretty much ensures Flores will get a settlement because now everybody's scared. NFL will settle and fast to avoid discovery, because it's everybody... Browns, Jets, Eagles, etc. I think Flores knew he would never coach again after Ross made him an offer he couldn't refuse. So he went nuclear. And gets his pet issue concerning black coaches/GM/owners advanced.

This is the same firm that brought down Harvey Weinstein -- this is exactly what they did then. This is the Rose McGowan special right here.
 
Flores is a good coach, did a good job in Miami even as he was stuck with a QB he never wanted. He was fired by an owner who is on par with dolts like Daniel Snyder and Jimmy Haslam, but he would have gotten another HC job…possibly in this cycle…for sure IMO, but he’s now made himself toxic with the racism charges. Yesterday, if I owned a team he would be high on my list. Today? Nope.
 
Yappi said:
The Giants will be interesting to follow. How often is a coach expected to be signed but the club goes through with the rest of the candidates. Just an aside, ESPN is saying that Harbaugh must already have the Minnesota Vikings job even though he is going to the interview today. They believe the job is his or he would never have agreed to the interview being done on national signing day.
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Was listening to Doug Gottleib and he had an NFL insider on talking about all this. It was very interesting and from what they were saying, it doesn't sound like the Giants did anything wrong IMO. Some things I found interesting:

- The Giants had already interviewed two minority candidates (Frazier & Graham) so the Flores interview had nothing to do with the Rooney rule
- Mara is obsessed with the Patriots and wanted to meet with Flores because of his past experience there
- The new GM had worked with Daboll so that was going to be his guy, but the interview with Flores was already scheduled
- Flores rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and apparently every Belichik coach that has become a head coach (beside Crenell) has done the same
 
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