With the one-year anniversary of the filing of the landmark Brian Flores race discrimination litigation against the NFL looming, the current hiring cycle is only making the case stronger.
We still don’t know where the case will unfold. Will it happen in open court, where justice is dispensed equally — a prospect that those who face equal justice desperately fear? Or will it be diverted to the NFL’s secret, rigged kangaroo court, where the deck is stacked in favor of those who utilize boilerplate terms in contracts of adhesion to continuously delay a much-needed reckoning?
If the case ends up being resolved by the man who is hired and paid by the NFL’s 32 teams to run the league, recent developments won’t matter. If the case ends up being resolved in court, recent developments have indeed made it stronger.
Apart from the NFL’s problematic history of shying away from minority head coaches, a reality that the league office surprisingly has conceded, the possible shunning of those who have dared to stand tall against Big Shield opens the door for claims that the league’s teams are retaliating against those who have sued. The fact that the league’s collective response to being held accountable surprises no one says much about the way the NFL conducts business, frankly.
Fans and media generally accept the intimidation, the retribution, the bullying — in all of its various forms. Brian Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton have decided not to accept it. They have decided to invite even more bad treatment by standing up against the bad treatment they and others have received.
And here’s how the case is getting stronger. There were five head-coaching vacancies. Wilks won six of 12 games as the interim coach of the Panthers, and he didn’t get the job. Flores has gotten one interview for a head-coaching vacancy.
Meanwhile, Colts owner Jim Irsay still seems to be hellbent on making Jeff Saturday the next head coach, despite going 1-7 in eight games as the interim coach. Irsay’s team interviewed neither Flores nor Wilks for the current vacancy.
With the Dolphins (for firing Flores), the Giants (for allegedly giving him a sham interview), the Broncos (same), the Texans (for not hiring Flores last year in retaliation for the filing of his lawsuit), the Cardinals (for firing Wilks), and the Titans (for giving Horton a sham interview) already named as defendants along with the NFL, the Panthers, Cardinals, Colts, Texans, and Broncos could be facing retaliation claims, if neither Wilks nor Flores become head coaches in the current cycle.
It all comes down to the Cardinals at this point. Nearly three weeks into the process, a sudden scramble to interview Flores and/or Wilks for the Colts, Texans, and/or Broncos jobs would likely be worse than doing nothing.
In Carolina, the die has been cast. In Arizona there’s one last chance to take some of the steam out of the litigation, by truly setting aside the fact that Flores has decided to stand up for himself — and to force the NFL to potentially do something more meaningful than say, “We’re trying to get better.” A major verdict aimed at rectifying decades of hiring bias is the only thing that has any chance of forcing change.
And it will take that major verdict. As we’ve seen Flores and Wilks getting short shrift in the current cycle, a pending lawsuit isn’t enough to get the attention of the members of Club Oligarch.