Brian Flores sues New York Giants, NFL alleging racial discriminatory hiring practices

Brian Flores has sued the NFL, and the New York Giants for discriminatory hiring practices, calling his head coaching interview ‘a sham’ 

Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has sued the NFL for discriminatory hiring practices and named the New York Giants after the organization hired Brian Daboll, alleging his interview was a “sham” and the organization had already made up its mind who they were hiring prior his interview.

The NFL has been forced to rework the Rooney Rule, which now requires teams to interview at least two outside candidates in person for any head coaching vacancy and one minority candidate for any coordinator-level job prior to making a hire, because of a stunning lack of diversity in the coaching ranks.

Flores’ suit includes text messages purportedly between him and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, suggesting Flores was going to get the Giants‘ job, only to correct himself by saying the job was Daboll’s — both Flores and Daboll are former Belichick assistants.

Flores, in his lawsuit, alleges that the NFL discriminated against him and other African American candidates:

"“In certain critical ways, the NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation,’ “Its 32 owners — none of whom are Black — profit substantially from the labor of NFL players, 70% of whom are Black. The owners watch the games from atop NFL stadiums in their luxury boxes, while their majority-Black workforce put their bodies on the line every Sunday, taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries to their bodies and their brains while the NFL and its owners reap billions of dollars.”"

In this hiring cycle alone, jobs have already gone to Daboll, Matt Eberflus was hired by the Chicago Bears, and Nathanial Hackett was hired by the Denver Broncos, all Caucasians.

The New York Giants released the following statement Tuesday regarding the lawsuit:

"“We are pleased and confident with the process that resulted in the hiring of Brian Daboll. We interviewed an impressive and diverse group of candidates. The fact of the matter is, Brian Flores was in the conversation to be our head coach until the eleventh hour. Ultimately, we hired the individual we felt was most qualified to be our next head coach.”"

Prior to hiring Daboll, the New York Giants met the requirements of the Rooney Rule by interviewing Flores, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, and twice interviewed Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.

Frazier’s interview concluded just hours prior to Friday’s announcement that Daboll had been hired as New York’s next head coach.