“It can’t be an accident if it’s happening over and over again” - Mike Florio calls out NFL’s pattern of setting up minority coaches to fail
The NFL's back has been pushed further against the wall after two former coaches joined Brian Flores' lawsuit against the league on Thursday. Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks and former NFL coach Ray Horton joined Flores in accusing the NFL of discrimination against minority coaches.
NFL analysts have come at the league harshly because of their pattern of racism, regarding their head coach hiring practices. This includes Pro Football Talk's, Mike Florio. Florio took shots at teams for their pattern of hiring minority coaches when they're rebuilding, only to fire them when they're ready to win. Florio said,
"You've got a general manager, who had the extreme DUI, that arguably was fireable in and of itself, .19 on the Fourth of July in 2018. Possibly the notion that he was involved when he shouldn't have been involved. And the team bends over backward for him and only gives Steve Wilks one year, a year that was set up to fail from the get-go, so he could be the bridge coach. See, I think the bigger picture argument would be that, if a team knows it's in kind of a weird transition period, and it knows it's not going to be good for a couple of years. It doesn't matter who the coach is. So hey, we can say, ‘We have a diverse coaching staff. We hired a black coach. Now's the time to do it.’ And then you'll fire him when you're ready to move on and actually put a team together that wins."
Florio, then, cited former Houston Texans head coach David Culley and Flores himself as examples of this pattern in action. Florio questioned whether the Miami Dolphins may have held onto Flores if he intentionally lost games in 2019 like Flores accuses owner Stephen Ross of requesting. Florio said,
"That's what happened to David Culley. That's possibly what would happen to Brian Flores. Because Stephen Ross was hell-bent on getting Sean Payton earlier this year, and the Flores lawsuit put the kibosh on that. But, if Flores had gone along with Stephen Ross in 2019 and had gone 1-15 and they get Joe Burrow? Maybe, he buys him out, clears the decks, and hires a different coach after one season."
That's a fair question from the NFL insider, specifically since news emerged validating the Dolphins' attraction to Sean Payton this offseason.
When Tom Brady retired, he was going to be introduced as part-owner of the Dolphins, per @ProFootballTalk & @BenVolin.
Miami reportedly planned to pursue Sean Payton, then add Brady at QB too.
The plan was scrapped after Brian Flores' lawsuit — filed the same day Brady retired. https://t.co/QIAbeyEGh6
Florio concludes by noting that patterns are repeated behaviors. Accidents aren't repeated behaviors, and he calls out the league for acting like the circumstances don't prove Flores has a case. He said,
"I mean, that’s one of the arguments that's being made here. That when it's time for a short-term coach, that seems to be the occasion for a team to hire a black coach and let him fail, and then get rid of him and hire somebody else. And that's one of those things that just, you know, no one's ever going to admit it. But when it happens over and over again, the circumstances tend to prove it. It can't be an accident if it's happening over and over again."
The NFL must proceed with caution
The NFL must be cautious in response to the latest developments in Flores' lawsuit. When Flores' lawsuit started, the NFL responded by saying that his claims of alleged racism "were without merit." Commissioner Roger Goodell, then, contradicted that statement by acknowledging that the NFL must do better.
Old comments made by former Titans head coach Mike Mularkey have resurfaced. In those comments, he admits he's not proud of knowing the Titans' Horton interview was a "sham interview."
Here is my story about Ray Horton and Steve Wilkes joining Brian Flores’ lawsuit, which includes comment from Mike Mularkey, who said in a podcast with @steelers_realm that the Titans told him he had the job before they interviewed Horton and Teryl Austin. espn.com/nfl/story/_/id…
In addition to Flores' case, six United States attorneys general threatened the league with an investigation into its poor treatment of women in the workplace.
The league has swept issues of racism and misogyny under the rug for far too long. They're now at a point where they can no longer afford to do that. The public and the law aren't letting them off the hook anymore. We've reached a crossroads in the league's history.