Coach wins key battle in discrimination war against NFL
- Mark Parker
- Jun 4
- 5 min read
Thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the NFL can no longer shield its controversial Rooney Rule - created to increase diversity in key positions - from public scrutiny.
The groundbreaking saga began in January 2022 after Brian Flores was fired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins after back-to-back winning seasons. The team has not accomplished that feat since.
Flores, now the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, interviewed for but didn’t receive another head coaching job. A misdirected text message subsequently led the top candidate to file a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL.
The league adopted the Rooney Rule in 2003 to ensure that “promising candidates have the opportunity to prove they have the necessary skills and qualifications to excel.” It requires all 32 teams to interview two external minority or female candidates for general manager or head coaching vacancies.
In late-January 2022, then-New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick texted Flores to congratulate him on landing the top spot with the New York Giants. Flores, who is Black, replied that he had yet to interview.
Belichick subsequently admitted that he meant to text Brian Daboll, who is white and ultimately landed the Giants job. Flores then realized that the team had scheduled an extremely qualified Black candidate for an interview despite already deciding to hire someone else - a clear violation of the Rooney Rule’s intent.
"It was a range of emotions. Humiliation, disbelief, anger," Flores told CBS Mornings at the time. "I've worked so hard to get to where I am in football, to become a head coach, for 18 years in the league. To go on what was gonna be or what felt like or what was a sham interview, I was hurt."
Flores filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the NFL of systemic racism in its hiring, promotion, and termination practices while still under consideration for multiple head coaching jobs. He has remained an assistant ever since, and believes his lack of opportunities is retaliation for the ongoing litigation.
"The Rooney Rule is intended to give minorities an opportunity to sit down in front of ownership, but I think what it's turned into is an instance where guys are just checking the box," Flores said in 2022. "I've been on some interviews in the past where I've had that feeling. I know I'm not alone in that."
Pulling back the veil
The NFL’s internal arbitration process, codified in its constitution, has historically shielded the league and its owners from public scrutiny by keeping damaging evidence and business practices confidential. David Gottlieb, an attorney for Flores, called the process "secretive and obviously bogus" in a statement to ESPN.
In 2025, an appeals court ruled that Flores’ lawsuit could proceed, increasing the likelihood that the NFL’s internal documents and communications will become public. The league appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but justices declined to hear the case.
Flores has also alleged that Dolphins owner Steven Ross offered to pay him $100,000 for every loss during the coach's first season because he wanted to increase the team’s chances of receiving the top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Additional allegations against Miami have surfaced as Flores has amended his lawsuit.
He is now accusing the Dolphins of failing to make scheduled severance payments after he was fired and attempting to make him repay money he earned as head coach from 2019 to 2021. According to an amended complaint filed in late May, 25 NFL teams have been served subpoenas, along with more than 1,000 discovery requests, as Flores’ attorneys attempt to obtain leaguewide hiring records and communications related to discrimination claims.
Some experts believe the NFL will now attempt to settle out of court rather than unveil potentially damning documentation. “Regardless of the forum, we are fully prepared to defend ourselves as this matter proceeds,” said a league spokesperson.
Attorneys for Flores have signaled their desire for judiciously mandated systemic change instead of a hefty, closed-door payout. “We are pleased that the Supreme Court declined to accept the NFL’s appeal,” his legal team said in a statement.
“The NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams. We look forward to litigating these claims in court.”
Florida subpoenas the NFL
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeir, albeit for wildly different reasons, also has a problem with the Rooney Rule. In March, he demanded that the NFL abolish the initiative or potentially face “civil rights enforcement action.”
Uthmeier said the Rooney Rule “brazenly” violates Florida law as the state continues banning policies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). “People with race and sex characteristics that the NFL doesn’t like are deprived of employment and training opportunities available to people with race and sex characteristics that the NFL likes,” he wrote in a letter to league Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The letter, also sent to the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Miami Dolphins, gave the league until May 1 to confirm it will no longer enforce the Rooney Rule and other DEI initiatives. Goodell subsequently defended the initiative, which he said is “not a hiring mandate.”
However, the league’s website previously stated that the Rooney Rule promotes “diverse leadership among NFL clubs” and aims to “increase the number of minorities hired in head coach, general manager and executive positions.” That was updated to say the policy “establishes best practices designed to expand opportunity and strengthen the NFL’s talent pipeline” by May 1.
On May 13, Uthmeier subpoenaed NFL officials, who must now appear in his office on June 12. He said the revisions did not go far enough.
“We appreciate how quickly the NFL changed its website in response to our letter and capitulated on some of their discriminatory hiring quotas,” Uthmeier said in a social media post. “But their response raises more questions about the Rooney Rule, and we look forward to their cooperation with the investigative subpoena we issued them today.”
Just three NFL teams - the Buccaneers, New York Jets, and Houston Texans - employ Black head coaches (9.4%). That demographic accounts for 53.5% of all players.
“One thing that doesn’t change is our values, and we believe that diversity has been a benefit to the National Football League,” Goodell said in response to Uthmeier’s initial letter.
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