Be it college admissions, CEO hiring, the Nation Football League or the endless toil of day-to-day existence, I am endlessly reminded that I do not live in a meritocracy. Despite high profile lawsuits and ceaseless debate in political theater, the American dream continues to be an exclusive club.
On Tuesday, Feb. 1, former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores filed a 58 page, blockbuster lawsuit against the Dolphins, Denver Broncos, New York Giants and the NFL more broadly for racially discriminatory hiring practices. This is a landmark case for the NFL and a long overdue reckoning for a league that has made no significant progress in head coach diversity since the implementation of the Rooney Rule in 2003, a policy mandating teams interview at least two “minority” candidates for head coach and senior front office vacancies.
Flores alleges that the Dolphins set him up for failure after he refused offers of $100,000 per loss to intentionally throw games and implement illicit recruiting practices. He also claims the Denver Broncos executives arrived late and hungover to his interview, clearly only interviewing him because the Rooney Rule required it.
The crux of the lawsuit, though, comes from private text messages that allege those within the league knew the New York Giants ownership had already internally named Brian Daboll, a white man, as their head coach prior to Flores’ scheduled interview. Flores is rightfully outraged, and his tokenization as the “minority” interviewee speaks to the systemic racism that exists throughout the league.
Only two NFL owners are people of color. Three NFL head coaches are, with only one Black person, Mike Tomlin, currently holding one of the 29 filled positions. Yet NFL players are nearly 60% Black and under 25% white. It only takes a glance to see the injustice in representation.
NFL owners, who ultimately control hiring, have time and time again shown they have no intention of making diversity and representation a point of their hiring. Not in 2012, when eight head coach vacancies went to white candidates. Not in 2020, when Super Bowl Champion Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy was passed on by six separate teams for a head coach position.
So long as the current regime of owners controls the league agenda, little to no action is likely on the regulatory level, so I won’t waste time arguing for Rooney Rule revisions, something that is very much needed.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
NFL owners are unlikely to respond to any argument that does not undercut their bottom line, and there’s only one group that has the power to do that: players.
Player power is at a historical apogee. The era of “shut up and dribble,” is over. It isn’t fair to ask the NFL Players Association, a group that depends on its relationship with league owners, to take a stand on racist coach hiring, a crisis they have done little to nothing to cause. Even so, cases like Flores’ show us it might be necessary to take immediate action.
