Brian Flores, the Coach Who Called Out the NFL

In January the Miami Dolphins fired Brian Flores as head coach. He was one of just three Black head coaches in the league. Three days later, David Culley, one of the other two, was fired by the Houston Texans, leaving Mike Tomlin of the Steelers as the only Black head coach among 32 teams. On Feb. 1, Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL for discrimination in its hiring practices.

The league, Flores alleged, is “managed much like a plantation,” with a mostly Black labor force—about 70% of players—overseen by mostly White coaches, executives and owners. And, he said, the NFL’s primary attempt to fix the problem, known as the Rooney Rule, is a sham. Implemented in 2002, it required teams to interview at least one Black coach (since expanded to two) for a head coaching vacancy. Flores says he experienced an abuse of the rule firsthand: After the Dolphins fired him, the New York Giants scheduled an interview for their head coaching job, but three days beforehand, Flores learned that the team had already decided on a White candidate. Yet the interview went ahead as planned under false pretenses. (The NFL said the lawsuit was without merit; the Giants said the allegations were false.)