The 58-page lawsuit filed five days ago by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores mentions plenty of names and examples when it comes to the racial “double standard” (as admitted by NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent) in NFL coaching. Flores at no point mentions former Browns coach Hue Jackson.
That likely wasn’t a mistake. Beyond the fact that Hue simply wasn’t a very good coach is the fact that Hue has, in recent days, been all over the place, making strong accusations that he was paid to lose games and then clumsily walking them back. While it makes sense for Jackson to change his tune on cash-for-clunking if (unlike Flores) Hue actually took the money and thus committed a potential violation of federal law, Jackson has come off in recent days as far less credible than Flores. At times, Jackson has seemed not credible at all.
Multiple people in and around the sport and the industry of covering it have expressed both support for Flores and a hope that Jackson won’t join the case. Jackson, in our opinion, could operate as an impediment to Flores’s efforts.
Flores and his lawyers quite possibly know it. The Flores lawsuit cites Jim Caldwell, Steve Wilks, David Culley, Kris Richard, Teryl Austin, and Eric Bieniemy as victims of discrimination. Any of them would be viable candidates to join the Flores lawsuit. Jackson simply would not be.
Indeed, Jackson wasn’t fired after going 0-16 in 2017. The Browns had a multi-year strategy in place during Jackson’s tenure. It wasn’t as clear and direct as the scheme Flores alleges in Miami, but the Browns obviously weren’t prioritizing winning. And Jackson went along with it.
So if Jackson contacts Flores and wants to add his name to the title of the case, Flores should politely decline. Besides, if Jackson believes his rights were violated in some way, nothing stops him from filing his own lawsuit.