Reverend Al Sharpton and other top civil rights leaders have requested a meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a class-action suit against the league alleging racial discrimination.
“In light of the recent lawsuit filed by Brian Flores, it has brought this attention back to the forefront of our community, and it is important that you have an immediate open dialogue with Civil Rights leadership,” the letter read. “We are being asked to do everything within our power, including direct action at next week’s Super Bowl, as well as appealing to local municipalities that underwrite and give special considerations to stadiums to pressure the NFL and its owners to get more serious about enforcing the ruling law.”
Flores and his representation filed the suit on Monday, alleging that he had been placed in unfair situations by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross while being treated facetiously as a legitimate head-coaching candidate by other teams just so they can comply with the NFL’s Rooney Rule.
The Rooney Rule was put into effect in 2003 by the NFL requiring all teams to interview at least two minority candidates for head coaching or executive roles.
“Despite continued efforts and commitments, we are still sitting here today with 32 teams, not one Black owner and only one Black coach,” the letter continued. “This is an outrage at best, and requires your immediate attention.”
Since the Rooney Rule was established, NFL teams have made 22 hirings of Black head coaches. Only seven of them remained in their positions for more than three years.
Flores claimed that Ross offered him $100,000 to throw games in 2019 and break league tampering rules by having a meeting with a “prominent” quarterback that played for another team in hopes of luring him to Miami.
“Ultimately, that led to my demise in Miami,” Flores said on ESPN Wednesday morning.
[ALSO READ: Brian Flores on filing lawsuit against NFL: ‘We need to change the hearts and minds of the people]
He was fired following the 2021 season despite winning eight of the Dolphins’ final nine games of the campaign.
The Brooklyn native was a finalist for the New York Giants’ head-coaching job, but his final interview with team officials a formality when he discovered days earlier via a text from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick that the Giants had already decided to hire Brian Daboll as their next head coach.
“Disbelief. Humiliation,” Flores said when describing how he felt. “That was a tough pill to swallow.”
