Brian Flores has sued the NFL and three teams – the Miami Dolphins, the Denver Broncos and New York Giants – alleging discrimination regarding his interview processes with Denver and New York and his firing last month by Miami, reports EXPN, as well as other news sources. The 59-page lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday and seeks class-action status.
Flores alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross attempted to incentivize him to “tank,” or purposely lose games, shortly after he was hired in 2019, with Ross allegedly offering Flores $100,000 for every loss that season. Flores says that as the team won games late in the season, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier told him Ross was “mad” that the on-field success was “compromising [the team’s] draft position.”
Additionally, Flores alleges that Ross pressured him into recruiting a “prominent quarterback” at the end of the 2019 season, which the coach refused so as not to violate the NFL’s tampering rules. Ross then allegedly invited Flores onto a yacht for lunch in the winter of 2020, where he informed him that the quarterback was “conveniently” arriving at the marina for an impromptu meeting.
Flores refused the meeting and left the yacht. Afterward, Flores alleges he was “treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with.”
He was fired Jan. 10 despite recording the Dolphins’ first back-to-back winning seasons since 2003 (10-6 in 2020, 9-8 in 2021).
Flores also alleged that the Giants interviewed him last month for their head-coaching vacancy for no other reason than compliance with the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for their open positions. The league has amended that rule in recent years and now says teams must hold an in-person interview with at least one external minority candidate for any general manager or head-coach opening.
