Other BrianGate - The Flores lawsuit against racist hiring practices

[Constantgin]

To be fair i can't imagine their being too many ppl who would think Herbert would be as good as he is right now.

 

[Exe Gesis]

To be fair i can't imagine their being too many ppl who would think Herbert would be as good as he is right now.

Only the great Chris Simms, aint that right, LicoriceAllsorts ?

Simms’ Top Five QB prospects:

1.	Joe Burrow, LSU
2.	Justin Herbert, Oregon
3.	Jordan Love, Utah State
4.	Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama
5.	Jacob Eason, Washington

 

[Monocle]

Flores couldn't develop a o-line or running game so who's to say Herbert would of turned out as good as he has if drafted by miami. My money would be not.

Flores is the reason his not getting a job not racism. He sues teams, league and airs knowledge they rather not aired.
In what world did he think he was getting the Texans job with easterby and his cohorts still running things in Houston. Their be plenty on secrets and knowledge that easterby would not wanting to get out so why would he hire a coach that has no problem telling everyone about it.

Well heaven forbid that.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Lovie Smith meets the media for first time as coach of Texans today​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 8, 2022, 10:20 AM EST

The compromise candidate officially is the new coach of the team that couldn’t hire Josh McCown and wouldn’t hire Brian Flores. On Tuesday morning at noon ET, new Texans coach Lovie Smith meets with the media for the first time in his new role.

It’s quite a coincidence, given that his name came up last week in connection with the deeper dives into the Brian Flores lawsuit. Smith coached the Buccaneers in 2014, during one of the only clear-cut, caught-in-the-act incidents of tanking.

It’s covered in Playmakers, available now wherever you buy books, as part of the essay regarding the very real temptation to tank. As long as the worst team gets the first pick in the next draft, the temptation will remain.

The Buccaneers surrendered to it. Smith implemented it, removing roughly half of his starters in a game the Bucs led by 11 points at the half. With the Buccaneers deliberately using something less than their best players, the Saints came back and won the game.

It allowed Tampa Bay to secure dibs on Jameis Winston. Then, after only one year, the Bucs dumped Smith and elevated offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, in what many still believe was an inside job aimed at keeping Winston’s quarterback whisperer from leaving to be the head coach elsewhere.

Koetter did not appreciate being asked about that after he was hired by the Buccaneers. Now that Smith was hired by the Texans and given the clear relevance of tanking to the current NFL discourse, will someone ask him today about what happened in Week 17 of the 2014 season?

Probably not, but it would be very interesting to see what he has to say about it.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Civil rights leaders call for replacement of Rooney Rule​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 8, 2022, 8:49 AM EST

The threat of litigation sparked the passage of the Rooney Rule nearly 20 years ago. The actuality of it has prompted calls to get rid of it.

Multiple civil rights leaders met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday. After the meeting, they issued a statement calling for the scrapping of the Rooney Rule.

Meeting with Goodell were National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial, National Action Network Founder and President Rev. Al Sharpton, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation President and CEO Melanie Campbell, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, and National African American Clergy Network co-convener Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner. They requested the meeting in the aftermath of the lawsuit filed last Tuesday by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores.

“However well-intentioned, the effect of the Rooney Rule has been for team decision-makers to regard interviews with candidates of color as an extraneous step, rather than an integral part of the hiring process,” Morial said. “The gravity of the situation is long past the crisis point.”

The argument is that the Rooney Rule has become an exercise in form over substance.

“The Rooney Rule has been proven to be something the owners used to deceptively appear to be seeking real diversity,” Sharpton said. “We must have firm targets and timetables.”

Sharpton said that the National Action Network has begun an effort to pressure the league through sponsors, local governments that fund stadiums, and Congress — which can hold hearings on the issue — in an effort to improve a system that NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent has publicly called “broken.”

The press release also included a call for involvement by the civil rights and racial justice community in reviewing the current situation and repairing it.

“It’s simply not enough for the League to declare its good intentions,” Johnson said. “This is a longstanding crisis that must be confronted with diligence and rigor.”

“While the NFL has begun making strides with regard to social justice and racial equity, it’s clear that voices of color are not being entirely heard in the executive suites,” Sharpton said. “Good intentions are not enough.”

The NFL issued the following comment regarding the meeting to the Associated Press: “The leaders said they welcomed Goodell’s previous announcement of an independent review of the NFL’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies and initiatives.”

They may have done that, but they clearly want more. Ultimately, the target shouldn’t be Goodell but the folks for whom he routinely runs interference, in exchange for $65 million per year. The oligarchs behind the curtain are the ones who need to change their ways. For some of these folks — who are very used to getting what they want, when they want, how they want it — the application of pressure to get them to do something they don’t want to do may be enough to get them to push back, simply because they resent being pushed.

That’s why we’ve argued that the single-owner system has become the real cause of the problem. A corporate structure, featuring a diverse and inclusive board of directors and layers and levels of checks and balances and committees and accountability would work better than having an emperor with full and total and continuous and unquestioned power over a team. While corporations definitely aren’t above making illegal employment decisions, the approach would work far better than a collection of grown-up Veruca Salts who refuse to listen to reason, if for no reason other than they want everyone to know that they have earned (or inherited) the right not to.

 

[Satan]

 

[Exe Gesis]

Nick Caserio: Brian Flores lawsuit didn’t affect our hiring process​

Posted by Josh Alper on February 8, 2022, 1:07 PM EST

 

[drd23]

That’s why we’ve argued that the single-owner system has become the real cause of the problem. A corporate structure, featuring a diverse and inclusive board of directors and layers and levels of checks and balances and committees and accountability would work better than having an emperor with full and total and continuous and unquestioned power over a team. While corporations definitely aren’t above making illegal employment decisions, the approach would work far better than a collection of grown-up Veruca Salts who refuse to listen to reason, if for no reason other than they want everyone to know that they have earned (or inherited) the right not to.

I don't normally read the reposted PFT articles because I don't rate any of the people that write them, but I can't help but comment on this one - Florio is living in la la land if he thinks that the NFL can/would get rid of its ownership structure for the majority of franchises

 

[Monocle]

Note for self Brian.

When you wear a suicide vest and carry hand grenades with you ...... guess what ..... you don’t get invited to many parties.

Side note: I don’t have any problem with the issues that he is raising as they are legitimate and need addressing.

However it appears from the outside looking in - that the way he has gone about it is very adversarial and confrontationalist with a “ scorched earth policy” , the Gattling Gun approach that his Lawyers have implemented, may well have been a hinderance rather than a help.

But then again the US legal system is cluster * in itself.....that’s a whole other issue.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Roger Goodell: Tanking violations “very disturbing,” any violations won’t be tolerated​

Posted by Josh Alper on February 9, 2022, 3:46 PM EST

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell opened his annual Super Bowl press conference by answering questions related to the lack of progress for minority head coaching candidates in recent years.

That issue moved into the spotlight after former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the league and several other teams last week. That lawsuit also alleged that Dolphins head coach Stephen Ross offered Flores $100,000 per loss in 2019 in order to incentivize a bid to get the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

When asked about those allegations on Wednesday, Goodell said that they were “very disturbing” because they impacted the integrity of the game. He said that the league will look into the allegations and that any violates that are found “won’t be tolerated.”

Goodell did not outline what kind of penalties might come from any violations that are uncovered or give any update about anything the league has done since the allegations were initially leveled.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Roger Goodell: We want to see outcomes for minority head coaching candidates​

Posted by Josh Alper on February 9, 2022, 3:26 PM EST

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s annual Super Bowl week press conference opened with a series of questions about the hiring of minority head coaching candidates.

The NFL’s initial statement in response to former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ lawsuit was that his allegations were without merit, but Goodell sent a memo to all 32 teams a few days later saying that the league has not done enough to advance minority candidates. On Wednesday, Goodell said the initial response had to do with the “legal claims” rather than the experiences that Flores and others have had during their careers.

Goodell said “racism or any form of discrimination is against our values and really something we will not tolerate” and that the league has fallen short of where they want to be “by a long shot” on the hiring front.

“We want to see outcomes,” Goodell said. “We’re going to step back and look at everything we’re doing.”

Goodell included the Rooney Rule among the things that the league has to re-evaluate in the future. He said the league would look at both changes to the rule and the possibility of eliminating it if it’s found that the rule is not creating the opportunities that the league wants to see. He added that the league will not “draw any conclusions” before fully evaluating “everything we’re doing” when it comes the lack of diversity in the head coaching ranks.

 

[Monocle]

Roger and his mates guarding the Citadel to protect the NFL and its stake holders to all that is fair, right and just.

This gif sort of sums up their effectiveness.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Sean Payton: Tanking doesn’t work​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 11, 2022, 8:03 PM EST

Tanking has become a hot topic in recent days, thanks to the claim from former Dolphins coach Brian Flores that he was offered $100,000 for each 2019 loss. Former Saints coach Sean Payton has some opinions regarding the value of tanking.

In his view, it has none.

His point is that trying not to win contradicts the importance of having a culture that values winning.

“This idea of tanking games to get the best player in our league is mythical, because you can’t turn off and turn on winning,” Payton said on PFT Live. “The idea that it benefits you as a club is crazy. Your locker room’s soul, you sell.”

Payton talked about the tanking he witnessed in Week 17 of the 2014 season, when the Buccaneers led the Saints by 11 points at halftime before pulling the plug, taking the L, and securing the first pick in the 2015 draft.

“When someone gets hurt, the coaches upstairs will say, ‘Coach, the corner’s out, the right corner’s coming in,'” Payton said. “And I just kept hearing over the headset, ‘They took out Lavonte David, they took out — Coach, all their backups are in.’ And all that took place in the second half of a game, and you know what? We gladly won it then.”

Even though the Saints weren’t a playoff team in 2014, Payton wanted to win the game.

“The day that a guy walks in to tell me, ‘We’d be a little bit better off if we didn’t win.’ Again, it’s flawed thinking. And we want to play those teams.”

So, basically, Payton doesn’t care if it hurts his spot in the draft order. He still wants to win as many games as he can. And, as he said, there’s no example of an eventual Super Bowl-winning team that ever deliberately lost in order to get a better player. Winning must be the cornerstone of the culture; how a team gets who it gets is just a detail along the way toward putting together a team that values winning, no matter the circumstances.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Tony Dungy’s letter to the NFL: How to improve the head coach hiring process​

Posted by Tony Dungy on February 13, 2022, 12:35 PM EST

To Commissioner Goodell and NFL Owners,

The current system for hiring head coaches is broken. It’s not producing good results. Two-thirds of the league changing hands every three years is not the model of stability we should be striving for. The minority hiring record, which I wrote about this time last year, is very poor as well. None of this is good for business. But what can we do to fix these problems?

The league faced this issue with minority hiring 20 years ago. Dennis Green and I were fired after the 2001 season, leaving one African American coach at the time, Herm Edwards. Prominent civil rights attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Cyrus Mehri came to the NFL asking to work together to get answers to the problem. They advised the league that litigation was certain to follow if things didn’t change.

After meeting with Cochran and Mehri, the league set up a subcommittee to work on diversity and inclusion and Dan Rooney made some suggestions on how to help the head coaching/GM searches. He suggested a process and the league adopted what was called the Rooney Rule.

But the rule was only a small part of the process. We have followed the rule but by and large have ignored the process. And now 20 years later, it’s been deja vu. At the end of the 2021 season, two African American coaches were fired, leaving only one in position at the time. Many of the same problems still exist, and the litigation did come with Brian Flores’ lawsuit.

Dan’s hope was that decision makers would follow this process and it would lead to successful outcomes—that is, choosing the best candidate for each franchise. Here was the process he followed, which was very successful for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

1. Set the blueprint for what you want in your head coach. That is certainly different for every franchise but establish in your mind what the parameters are.

For Dan, it was a defensive-minded coach who would be invested in the city and the franchise for the long term. For another franchise it might be an offensive-minded quarterback coach. Someone else might prefer a candidate with previous head-coaching experience. There are many possible criteria but spell out the ones that are most important to you and lay out your blueprint.

I’ve lived the other side of this. My first interview ever was with a team that said at the end of our meeting they were looking for an offensive-minded coach who had previous head coaching experience. Since I was a defensive coach who had never been a head coach, it was no surprise when I didn’t get the job.

I’ve talked to owners who have said they wouldn’t hire a coach who hadn’t been an offensive or defensive play caller. Listing the qualities that are top priorities to you and your organization is a great first step, which leads us to:

1. Do an exhaustive search looking for people who fit those parameters. Take your time, research candidates you don’t know, and interview as many people as you can who fit your blueprint. Those interviews must include minority candidates.

1. After doing an exhaustive, inclusive search, pick the best candidate for your franchise. Then stick with that candidate and be committed to a long-term process.

When Dan selected Chuck Noll in 1969, the team won one game in Chuck’s first year and didn’t have a winning season in any of his first three years. But Dan was committed to the long-term plan. Had he fired Chuck after three years, he would have missed out on 20 more years of excellence and four Super Bowls.

Zac Taylor’s Cincinnati Bengals won two games his first year and four games his second year. In most cases today, we don’t see teams stick with a coach who struggles like that out of the gate. But Cincinnati did and they are in the Super Bowl this year.

David Culley won four games in his first season with Houston and was fired due to “philosophical differences.” Pat Shurmur won nine games his first two years with the Giants and was fired. His replacement, Joe Judge, won 10 games his first two years and was fired. We’ll never know what could have happened had teams been committed to their coach for the long haul.

That is the process Dan laid out. Unfortunately, you can’t mandate the process. The only thing instituted was the rule to interview a minority head coaching candidate (that was increased to two minority candidates in 2020). Unfortunately, only implementing the rule but not the process has not helped matters. In fact, it may have hurt the process in some cases.

Looking at Dan’s blueprint, I can recommend two things that would help owners make better decisions.

1. Have a job description and let it be known what you are looking for.

If your number one criterion is to fix your quarterback, then every candidate who interviews needs to know they must have a plan to do that. If you prefer someone with previous head-coaching experience, you can concentrate on those candidates. Having those things identified in advance will allow you to utilize your time better and focus your search.

1. No interviews before the Super Bowl and no hirings until 10 days after the Super Bowl.

We need to slow the process down and make it fair for every candidate. Right now the interviewing and hiring process is done in a self-imposed tight window from the end of the regular season to the week before the Super Bowl – a window in which many of the best candidates are also involved in preparing for playoff games.

This hurts the process in a couple of ways. It puts the owners under unnecessary pressure to make a decision quickly, and it forces many of the best candidates to go through the process when they are totally engaged in trying to help their current team get to the Super Bowl. This can’t produce the best outcomes.

It also has had an inordinate impact on minority coaches because for the most part, the minority coaches who are getting the interviews are in the playoffs. Last year, Eric Bieniemy interviewed for five different jobs in a three-day span. Since 2019, he has had 15 interviews, and only one – last week with the Saints – has taken place after his team was eliminated.

This recommendation would level the playing field. Owners would not feel like they have to hurry up and hire their coach so he won’t be behind in compiling his staff. It would also take away the disadvantage of candidates being in the playoffs and not being able to devote full time, thought, and energy to the interview process.

For this plan to work the Commissioner would have to make sure these rules were followed and teams didn’t try to circumvent them with “unofficial” interviews or secret agreements. Any violations of the policy would be penalized with the loss of that team’s first round draft choice in the upcoming draft.

You might ask me, “Why should I have to spend a month after the regular season doing nothing when I have to replace my head coach?”

It is true that you might get behind in the short term. But if we are looking at it as a 10-20 year decision, then those few weeks don’t seem so significant. Hopefully that time would be spent researching possible candidates and learning about people you don’t know. You might discover some coaches you’ve never heard of who fit your blueprint perfectly.

The NFL has also taken this approach before, with the draft, which used to be in January.

Think how much time, energy, and research goes into making that pick. People realized they needed more time to conduct due diligence on prospective NFL players, and the correct decision was made to move it back. I would argue the selection of your head coach is just as important.

I know this is radical and it won’t necessarily produce an instant increase in minority hiring. We know that you can’t mandate hires and if someone does not want to hire a minority candidate there is nothing that can be done. However, giving our owners the best opportunity to make decisions and giving the candidates the best opportunity to showcase themselves to the owners will make for better, more informed decisions. And, in my opinion, if we make more-informed decisions, we will get more minority hires because there are plenty of excellent candidates out there.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Brian Flores will amend his lawsuit to include a claim against the Texans for retaliation​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 13, 2022, 4:56 PM EST

Plenty of people think that it’s fine for a company to slam a door in the face of a current or former employee who has had the audacity to file a lawsuit against it. It’s not fine. It’s a violation of the rights of the person who filed the claim and then was shunned.

It’s a point that soon will play out for the NFL and the landmark litigation filed against it by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores. In addition to the pending claims against the league, the Dolphins, the Broncos, and the Giants, a source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that the case will be amended to state a retaliation claim against the Texans for failing to hire Flores.

Obviously, the Texans will never admit that they passed over Flores for an illegal reason. Rarely if ever does an employer confess to improper motivations for employment decisions. Proof of retaliatory intent would come from other less obvious forms evidence.

Flores was one of the three finalists for the job. Then, the job went to Lovie Smith. Common sense suggests that the Texans realized they couldn’t hire unproven and inexperienced Josh McCown, and they wouldn’t hire Flores. Smith became the compromise candidate, arguably thrown into the mix late to allow the Texans to avoid hiring Flores.

Cases like this are proven through a careful review of documents, such as emails and text messages. Also, key witnesses will be grilled aggressively during depositions in an effort to test their stories, and ideally (from Flores’s perspective) to blow holes in them.

Regardless of how it plays out, it’s coming.

 

[Exe Gesis]

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports Dolphins owner Stephen Ross could be forced to sell the team if the league's investigation into ex-coach Brian Flores' tanking allegations are proven true.​

Quite the Super Bowl night news dump. "Stephen Ross would face severe discipline, up to and including Ross losing the team by a vote of fellow owners, sources say," is the exact wording of Rapsheet's report. Commissioner Roger Goodell did hint at such a fate last week, saying "if there were violations, they won't be tolerated," and "I do believe that clubs do have the authority to remove an owner from the league." We are still a long, long way off from that, of course. 81-year-old Ross has vehemently denied Flores' allegations. Even if the league's investigation turns up some troubling details, it might still not be enough to force a sale. Fans need look no further than the owners' decades of protection afforded to Washington owner Daniel Snyder. What is clear is that Ross is in no ordinary pickle.
SOURCE: NFL.com
Feb 14, 2022, 1:44 AM ET

 

[A11dAtP0w3R]

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports Dolphins owner Stephen Ross could be forced to sell the team if the league's investigation into ex-coach Brian Flores' tanking allegations are proven true.​

Quite the Super Bowl night news dump. "Stephen Ross would face severe discipline, up to and including Ross losing the team by a vote of fellow owners, sources say," is the exact wording of Rapsheet's report. Commissioner Roger Goodell did hint at such a fate last week, saying "if there were violations, they won't be tolerated," and "I do believe that clubs do have the authority to remove an owner from the league." We are still a long, long way off from that, of course. 81-year-old Ross has vehemently denied Flores' allegations. Even if the league's investigation turns up some troubling details, it might still not be enough to force a sale. Fans need look no further than the owners' decades of protection afforded to Washington owner Daniel Snyder. What is clear is that Ross is in no ordinary pickle.
SOURCE: NFL.com
Feb 14, 2022, 1:44 AM ET

I give it a 0.01% chance. Would trust the leagues investigators as far as I could throw them.

 

[Exe Gesis]

I give it a 0.01% chance. Would trust the leagues investigators as far as I could throw them.

Yeah, they wouldnt allow the admittance of that. Theyll say there wasnt, the mere investigation of showing they care, dont tolerate it.

Snyder might go tho. And then gently nudge Ross out a year or two later, poor health or something.

 

[Constantgin]

Knowing the nfl Ross will go first and somehow Snyder will not then outcry about Ross going before Snyder will force him out

 

[Exe Gesis]

Storm clouds gather for Stephen Ross​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 14, 2022, 2:40 PM EST

Washington owner Daniel Snyder isn’t the only American oligarch who has to be concerned about the possibility that he’ll be forced to sell one of his most cherished possessions. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross suddenly finds himself in a potential jackpot with his partners, too.

Former Dolphins coach Brian Flores has accused Ross of offering $100,000 per loss in 2019, in order to improve the team’s draft position in 2020. As mentioned during Sunday’s Super Bowl pregame show, there’s a belief that the league’s investigation will conclude that Ross did indeed make the offer.

Ross apparently knows it. Already, there’s a sense emerging that Ross will claim he was joking. Beyond the fact that it’s one of those jokes with no obvious punchline, it’s also a topic on which joking probably shouldn’t occur, like joking about having a bomb on an airplane.

As one source opined, “I doubt Roger [Goodell] will have any sympathy for that defense.”

If the allegations are proven, it won’t be good for Ross. Already, NFL.com is pushing the idea that Ross could lose his team over it. NFL.com, which is owned and operated by the NFL.

Previously, NFL.com reported that an unnamed witness heard Ross make the offer. The report later disappeared. Still, everything NFL.com generates on this matter is significant, because NFL.com and NFL Network and NFL Media are the NFL. And the NFL will be investigating Ross, making a decision as to whether he did it and, eventually, passing judgment.

That could be the least of his concerns. If/when an ambitious prosecutor with jurisdiction over the matter behind poking around, Ross could be indicted.

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[aussiedude]

I dont know if Ross has the pull to have the owners vote for him like Snyder. it feels like he could be pushed out and not too much blowback on the other owners.

 

[Exe Gesis]

NFL hires former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to defend the Brian Flores lawsuit​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 16, 2022, 6:17 PM EST

The NFL faces a significant and historic lawsuit from former Dolphins coach Brian Flores. It has hired a former United States Attorney General to represent its interests.

Via Brian Baxter of BloombergLaw.com, Lorretta Lynch will represent the league, along with Brad Karp. They work with the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

The Dolphins and majority owner Stephen Ross will be represented by William Burck of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Per the repot, minority owner Bruce Beal has hired his own counsel for the proceedings; he hold a right of first refusal on the equity owned by Ross. If the allegations that Ross offered Flores $100,000 per loss in 2019 as part of a tanking effort force Ross to sell, Beal would presumably step in.

The Broncos and Giants also have been sued. They presumably will have their own lawyers, too. As reported during the Super Bowl pregame show on NBC, the Texans will eventually be joined as a defendant, under the argument that they failed to hire Flores in retaliation for the lawsuit he filed 15 days ago. Once the Texans are joined, they’ll likely also hire their own counsel.

 

[Constantgin]

 

[Exe Gesis]

The Brian Flores lawsuit will continue​

Posted by Mike Florio on February 19, 2022, 4:40 PM EST

Surprisingly, Brian Flores has an NFL job. Even though isn’t a head coach (and should be), he’ll work with the Steelers in 2022, serving as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach.

His landmark class-action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination will continue.

“We congratulate Coach Flores on his new position with the Steelers and thank Coach Tomlin and the organization for giving him this great opportunity,” attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis said in a statement. “While Coach Flores is now focused on his new position, he will continue with his race discrimination class action so that real change can be made in the NFL.”

The existence of the lawsuit against the NFL, the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, and (eventually) Texans should not disqualify Flores from employment with another team. Yes, he should be a head coach. It’s good that he hasn’t had the door completely slammed in his face.

And it’s smart, from the NFL’s perspective. While the situation is bad for the league, it becomes even worse if a qualified and accomplished coach gets the full and complete blackball treatment.