Flores lawsuit shows NFL can’t self-police
So, Steve Wilks and Ray Horton are all-in with Brian Flores when it comes to pulling back the curtain on the alleged discrimination that has damned Black coaches in the NFL for decades.
Kudos, my brothers. Not everyone — especially Black men who may still harbor designs of leading somebody’s NFL team – has the wherewithal to publicly join a worthy cause that so many discuss among themselves privately.
Yet for all the fresh allegations that surfaced in the amended complaint filed Thursday, there’s an old and stale reality at the root: The NFL can’t be trusted to do right with its pledges for fairness in filling the highly visible head-coaching roles. And the league certainly has scant credibility in policing itself on this front.
Sure, the NFL also can’t be trusted when disciplining team owners and couldn’t be trusted as it used racist standards to determine payouts from the concussion settlement until forced to do otherwise.
Let’s contain this, however, to the plight of Black coaches.
Hello, Congress. Time for a hearing? I’m wondering whether Mike Mularkey’s admission during a 2020 podcast about the white privilege apparently attached to his selection as Tennessee Titans coach in 2016 moved NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and other powerbrokers as much as it moved me. The now-former head coach (three teams, three losing records) said that the biggest regret of his coaching career occurred when he had already been promised the Titans job while two Black candidates — Horton and Teryl Austin — went through the process as apparent window dressing to comply with the Rooney Rule.
It’s noble that Mularkey ultimately came clean. Shame on him that he didn’t state his internal conflict in real time. And there’s a whole lot more shame on the Titans ownership if the allegations are true.
The lawsuit details how Horton, now retired after nearly 30 years in the NFL coaching ranks, came to realize that his process with the Titans allegedly was a “sham” — the fourth and final time he spun on the head coaching interview carousel— that included a hastily arranged interview and the surprise of Mularkey walking into the office at the team’s headquarters immediately following his interview.
And Mularkey backed that up with his version of events — almost five years after the fact.
“If the allegations made by Mularkey are true, it sheds light on the belief that not all NFL teams regard diversity and fairness in hiring as one of their top priorities,” Rod Graves, executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance (FPA), told USA TODAY Sports.
Graves, like his predecessor, John Wooten, was unaware of the assertions made by Mularkey until the lawsuit was filed. It’s unclear whether Goodell — charged to ensure that teams comply with the Rooney Rule, which is at heart of Flores’ original filing in February — was aware of the Titans’ messy procedures, but there was no investigation before or after Mularkey’s comments in 2020.
Since the Rooney Rule was instituted in 2002, there’s been just one case in which a team was disciplined (by former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue) for non-compliance. That, along with the sorry track record for hiring Black coaches, fuels the increasing heat about the effectiveness of the Rooney Rule that requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coach openings and now other key positions.
It seems like Goodell can at minimum open up the Titans case and, if the allegations are true, hand out some retroactive discipline.
Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk was in the middle of the interview process in 2016, conceivably subject to the “significant” discipline that Goodell often trumpets as a possibility when wrongdoing is found.
The NFL declined to comment on the new allegations; the Titans denied wrongdoing.
In a statement, the team professed pride in the organization’s commitment to diversity and maintained of the 2016 search: “No decision was made, and no decision was communicated, prior to the completion of all interviews.”
Given history, it is a stretch to assume that Goodell— who, according to a New York Times report last year, earned nearly $64 million per year in salary and bonuses in 2020 and 2021 — will vigorously pursue the new claims against the Titans. And although he should, we can’t hold our collective breath that Goodell will drop the hammer on the New York Giants and influential legacy owner John Mara for the alleged “sham” interview of Flores that ignited the lawsuit.
But here’s another opportunity — a week after the league announced more initiatives, a new diversity advisory committee and an ownership resolution in the name of diversity and inclusion – for Goodell to cement progressive layers to his legacy.
The NFL will fight the allegations, which include Wilks maintaining that he was subject to a “double standard” that resulted him holding the Arizona Cardinals job for just one year (2018). If the lawsuit progresses to the point of a jury trial that Flores and his co-plaintiffs are demanding, an open forum could prompt the transparency that has been absent as the league dealt with other issues, such as the Washington Commanders’ mess revolving around workplace sexual harassment.
It’s interesting, too, that in the new filing, Flores maintained that the NFL has received a copy of the memo he sent to Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and other team executives in 2019 that apparently supports his contention that he was encouraged to “tank” games— another issue beyond discrimination that strikes at the core of the NFL’S ethics.
Flores also contends that the Dolphins sought behind-closed-doors arbitration to address his case, contrary to the transparency that could come in court.
Can Flores, et al, win this case?
Carl Douglas, a Los Angeles-based attorney who once worked alongside the late Johnnie Cochran, has doubts while fully grasping the spirit of the legal action.
“Is there racism in the NFL? Yes, of course,” Douglas told USA TODAY Sports. “Is the Rooney Rule designed to ensure fairness? Yes, of course, even though you can argue whether it’s been effective. Can you force billionaire owners to hire Black coaches? I don’t think you can.”