Brian Flores, who was fired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 10, sent shock waves through the sports world when he filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL on Tuesday.
During a discussion about the issue with former ESPN host Dan Le Batard on Wednesday, current ESPN host Bomani Jones declared that the root of the NFL’s alleged racism problem was “white people.”
Flores’ lawsuit — filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York — named the NFL, the Dolphins, the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos as defendants, alleging he experienced racial discrimination in the hiring process from these four groups.
Among Flores’ claims is that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 for every loss during the 2019 season — his first in Miami — in an effort to secure the first overall draft pick for the franchise.
On Wednesday, the former coach appeared on ESPN’s “Get Up” to detail his allegations, the network reported.
“That was a conversation about not doing as much as we needed to do in order to win football games,” Flores said. “Take a flight, go on vacation, I’ll give you $100,000 per loss — those were his exact words. I deal in truth, I tell the players this, as well. I’m gonna give you good news, bad news — but it’s going to be honest.
“To disrespect the game like that, trust was lost, and there were certainly some strained relationships, and ultimately, I think that was my demise in Miami.”
Flores was fired despite winning eight of his last nine games to lead Miami to a winning record. While Ross said the firing resulted from “collaboration” issues between the coach and the Dolphins organization, Flores said it was because he refused to tank in 2019, ESPN reported.
The fired coach had an interview with the Giants scheduled for Jan. 27 regarding their vacant head coach position. He said he received a text from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick congratulating him on getting the job three days before the interview.
Flores later determined that Belichick’s text was meant for Brian Daboll, the former offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills who landed the Giants head coaching job one day after Flores’ interview.
Yet despite the fact that the hiring occurred after Flores’ interview, he said the text from Belichick meant the Giants had already decided to hire Daboll instead of Flores prior to the interview.
Flores told ESPN he believes the Giants were never seriously considering him for the head coaching vacancy. Instead, he said, the interview simply “checked a box” so the team could satisfy the NFL’s Rooney Rule requiring teams to interview a minority candidate for vacant head coach and coordinator positions.
“Those text messages confirmed what a lot of us minority coaches already feel,” Flores said. “That we’re going into these interviews and they’re shams.”
According to USA Today, his allegation against the Broncos stemmed from his interview with the organization in 2019. Flores accused Broncos president of football operations John Elway and CEO Joe Ellis of arriving to the interview hung over and “completely disheveled.”
On Le Betard’s show, the host and Jones were discussing the lawsuit and the specific allegations Flores made. Regarding the fired coach’s time in Miami, Jones said the team “hired the black dude to lose.”
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Later in the interview, Le Betard asked Jones what the NFL could do to address the alleged racism problem.
“What changes here, Bo?” the host said. “What has to change, what can change, what won’t change?”
Jones responded to those questions with two words: “white people.”
“I just don’t know why people try to make this far more complex than it is,” he said. “What’s the problem? White people.
“Now, not every single individual white person, no. But in the macro and the aggregate, who are the ones that are making these decisions? White people. Who are the ones that won’t change their decision-making? White people.”
“White people.” – @bomani_jones
Full Interview Now Available #Youtube
https://t.co/V5cmCV2EsN
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) February 3, 2022
Jones went on to say that he should be asking Le Betard what can change because “y’all the ones that be hanging out with these white people.”
Flores’ lawsuit has not yet gone to court, and all four parties named in the suit have denied the allegations, USA Today reported. Nonetheless, Jones was ready to assume their guilt and blame it on a specific race of people.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
