After all the anthem kneeling, after all the social justice crusading, after all the suspense culminating with the Washington Redskins renaming their once proud franchise the dorky "Washington Commanders," after the $250 million investment in combatting systemic racism, after all the "end racism," and "it takes all of us" sloganeering stenciled in the end zones, it comes to this:
Before any non-football fans yawn and move on, let me implore you that this has much larger implications for society, and involves many of the same racial canards that impact the non-football world just as significantly.
A quick synopsis of Coach Flores' 3 complaints:
Flores coached the Miami Dolphins for three years, including respectable finishes the last two. He was fired at the end of this season and alleges it is because he was unwilling to comply with the team owner's request his first year to intentionally lose games in order to secure a higher draft pick. Flores says the payment was to be $100,000 per loss, and that he has corroborating evidence.
Flores received a text message from New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick (his former boss) congratulating him on receiving the New York Giants head coaching job. Flores received the text before his scheduled interview with the Giants. It turns out, Belichick meant to send the text to a different Brian, Brian Daboll. The Giants conducted the Flores interview, which he claims was a "sham" since they later hired Daboll. The NFL requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate before making a coaching hire (the so-called Rooney Rule), and Flores said he was just the minority box they were checking off.
Flores says he had another sham interview with the Denver Broncos, one in which then general manager John Elway and team CEO Joe Ellis arrived an hour late, appeared disheveled, and where "it was obvious that they had [been] drinking heavily the night before." The team later hired a white head coach instead of Flores – something he apparently attributes to racism rather than the other guy being a better organizational fit.
Several have remarked on the boldness and even "courage" that it takes for Flores to file these suits, understanding that this type of conduct will undoubtedly make him persona non grata in several professional sports-team boardrooms. Who wants to hire the guy that will sue you for racism and air any and all kinds of organizational secrets if you have to part ways over poor performance? For his part, Flores says he is willing to take that risk in order to make positive change.
But looking at the entire situation with an objective lens, it seems impossible not to conclude two things.
- If Flores has text messages, emails, or any other legitimate corroborating evidence that his former team attempted to pay him bonuses to throw or lose games, there will be massive repercussions not just for the offending owner, but for the entire league. Think for just a moment about the millions of dollars that were exchanged, won and lost, over Dolphins games alone that year. And who can say that it was isolated to just this coach, and just that year? And if the Dolphins were willing to do it, how many other teams have done it (already a former coach of the Cleveland Browns has claimed a similar thing happened to him)? The legitimacy of the entire game is up in the air if this claim proves true.
- The remainder of these claims not only sound like sour grapes, they are virtually impossible to prove, and represent again the facile use of the label "racism" that has undermined both its seriousness and its gravity.
The logic of the Rooney Rule has been that coaching is, like most other things in life, a "know someone to get somewhere" profession. Yes, merit is involved to the extent that if you stink you won't keep your job. But being in the coaching pipeline is a boon to any resumé. The Rooney Rule helps get more minority candidates in that pipeline.
So it's one thing to say, "Owners and general managers aren't seeing enough minority candidates because if they did, they'd really be impressed with them and want to hire them." It's quite another to say, "Owners and general managers are intentionally refusing to hire minority candidates because they are racists that will only hire and pay white guys." The Flores lawsuit seems to embrace the latter – an unfeasible, uncharitable, and completely untrue assumption.
Consider that the New York Giants had already interview a minority candidate, former head coach Leslie Frazier, before deciding on Daboll. So even if Flores was given a "sham interview," it didn't run afoul of the Rooney Rule. Further, it has been widely known within the league that Flores rubbed many people the wrong way during his time in Miami. Getting fired by a boss that didn't like you after you managed to tick off a large portion of your coworkers isn't something that only happens to black guys. In fact, it's a time-honored tradition in the American workforce.
I'm not saying there aren't still white racists who don't like black people around, though I'd be surprised if they exist in a league that is 70% black. I am saying, however, that unless there's actual evidence of racial animosity fueling illegal discrimination, perhaps hurling that accusation around as some scorched-earth public relations bludgeon isn't the best way to handle disappointment at not being hired.
