Folks, former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores dropped a bombshell lawsuit on the NFL, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, and Denver Broncos alleging racial discrimination in the hiring process. Here is the thread detailing what he is alleging:
In this article, I am going to summarize the details of this case as we know it now. I am not a lawyer nor do I want to be a lawyer. As always, the facts of this case could change in the span of five minutes from me posting it so these are just the details at the time of publishing.
The New York Giants
I think the best place to start this article is about the involvement that the New York Giants had in this situation. It all started with Bill Belichick having the most boomer moment of his life by texting the wrong Brian. The below thread of tweets from Brian Flores’ lawyers show the Bill Belichick text messages.
Bill Belichick made a pretty gut wrenching mistake here because I’m sure he’s friends with Brian Flores. It absolutely must have sucked for Brian Flores to get his hopes up like that and have them be shattered all in the span of one text message thread.
Here is how Brian Flores said that the Giants interview process went down.
The Giants released a statement about this situation.
Summarizing the Giants role in this, I am curious to see what other details come out. I am not a lawyer by any means but I wouldn’t think that Bill Belichick spewing gossip is a legitimate case here. Especially considering he is no longer affiliated with the Giants organization. But again, I’m not a lawyer. I would like to see what other details come out here.
The Miami Dolphins
Now this is where the case gets EXTREMELY interesting because of what Brian Flores is alleging. Flores is claiming that Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross was offering him $100k per loss in the 2019 season to tank for better draft position.
If what Flores is alleging is true, that could have wide reaching impacts for the NFL. It could be what leads to the league installing a draft lottery instead of just seeding teams from last to first for the draft order.
The league also is attempting to grow its sports betting marketplace and obviously teams intentionally losing games is really bad for business. Especially considering there’s a report that Ross invested money in a sports gambling company.
At the time of this article being published, the Dolphins have not released a statement.
The Denver Broncos
The Broncos actually interviewed Brian Flores twice for head coaching vacancies, once in 2019 and once just a few weeks ago in January of 2022. For his interview in 2019, Flores is alleging that then General Manager John Elway showed up an hour late and was drinking heavily the night before.
As for the 2022 interview, the Broncos released a statement on how that went.
NFL’s Statement
The NFL, who is also a defendant in this lawsuit, has released the following statement saying that Brian Flores’ claims “are without merit.”
It will be interesting to see what comes of this situation here and I would think that there will be more details that come out as the offseason progresses. Stay tuned…