Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and the Denver Broncos are part of that.
Former Miami Dolphins head coach, Brian Flores, has filed a lawsuit against the NFL for racial discrimination. A bulk of the 58-page filing focused in on his time with the Dolphins and the hiring process around the NFL in general. However, for the Denver Broncos there is one very damning claim against the team within the filing that occurred during their coaching search during the 2019 cycle of hirings.
21. Incredibly, this was not Mr. Flores’ first sham interview that was held only in an effort to comply with the Rooney Rule. Indeed, in 2019 Mr. Flores was scheduled to interview with the Denver Broncos. However, the Broncos’ then-General Manager, John Elway, President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Ellis and others, showed up an hour late to the interview. They looked completely disheveled, and it was obvious that they had been drinking heavily the night before. It was clear from the substance of the interview that Mr. Flores was interviewed only because of the Rooney Rule, and that the Broncos never had any intention to consider him as a legitimate candidate for the job. Shortly thereafter, Vic Fangio, a white man, was hired to be the Head Coach of the Broncos.
The allegations are pretty strong that Denver was only interviewing Flores due to the Rooney Rule and never had any intention of considering him legitimately for the head coaching position.
Looking back at the 2019 head coach interview timeline, the Broncos completed their interview with Flores pretty quickly announcing the interview was completed at 9:08 AM mountain time. Then two days later they needed until 12:28 PM mountain time to complete their interview of Vic Fangio. Whether or not that backs up any of these claims is in question, but it is worth discussing.
All eyes will be on this situation as the Broncos head through a team sale. Those involved could very well be ex-Broncos employees by the time a trial date is actually set. Other teams have begun issuing statements on this story, so if the Broncos respond we will update this post at that time.
What do you think of this lawsuit and what it might mean for the Broncos and the NFL at large? Let us know in the comments section below.
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