Brian Flores suing NFL, Giants over "sham" Rooney rule - "mistakenly" (?) sent Belichick text may be linchpin
- Thread starter bsj
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Bill Belichick reading the lawsuit today:
Brian Flores spilling the private text message from BB.
Brian Flores refusing to tamper with BB's incumbent QB after 2019 season.
Brian Flores spilling the private text message from BB.
Brian Flores refusing to tamper with BB's incumbent QB after 2019 season.
Cowboys have never had one. Eagles haven’t had one since Ray Rhodes. Giants I don’t believe ever had one. Washington had Terry Robiskie as an interim for 4 games in 2000.
I think BB knew he was texting Brian Flores. He opened the conversation with "Sounds like you have landed - Congrats".
"Sounds like you have landed" is something you say to someone who doesn't have a job but is looking (Flores), it's not something you say to someone who already has a job and is being offered a better opportunity (Daboll).
"Sounds like you have landed" is something you say to someone who doesn't have a job but is looking (Flores), it's not something you say to someone who already has a job and is being offered a better opportunity (Daboll).
I think it's akin to when you hear someone say they love their country but not the President (which is something both parties, do some I'm not making a political point here)--BB reveres the league and it's history but likely can't stand Goodell and current powers that be and if this burns them down, then he will not care.
Or being told by BB he had been hired and within 60 seconds being utterly being kicked in the grapes.
His coaching job that year was basically heroic. They were outscored in the first 4 games 163-26, but managed to keep them competitive the rest of the way despite an offense where Ryan Fitzpatrick led the team in rushing.
Seems like a far more likely reason is there's a typo and he left out an "it" before the "landed". I'm not sure why you would tell a job seeker "Sounds like you have landed" unless BB is an avid flight tracker and knew that Flores had just landed at LaGuardia or something.
IMO landed makes perfect sense. He (BF) found a landing spot. He landed in NY, except he didn't.
I agree. Clearly, the NFL has an issue with lack of minority head coaches, GMs, and owners. It's a problem. At the same time, the Rooney Rule was always a token rule that did nothing to address this. I don't know what the solution is, but I know the Rooney rule hasn't been and isn't it. The NFL needs to think outside the box and come up with real, meaningful solutions, or at least partial solutions, and their track record at doing so suggests it just won't happen.
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I'm thinking the testimony of Flores stating he was fired for refusing to tamper with another team's player and refusing an owner's request to lose games on purpose to improve draft position, and then the charade of faux interviews for faux coaching jobs, may lead to the NFL settling this/burying this ASAP. This could be a PR disaster.
I think the position of the Rooney Rule is that teams should not have a preferred candidate before the process even begins; they should be truly open-minded to the candidate pool. Anything less than that is fundamentally unfair. And generally that winds up being unfair to the sorts of people that unfair practices have always harmed disproportionately. Has the "preferred candidate" ever been a minority?
You are basically describing systemic racism. The intent is not (for the most part) racist. The effect is.
I know that we seem to have arrived at a consensus that Bill's mistake was texting the wrong Brian. And I can definitely buy that.
But his last bit has me questioning that slightly:
I don't know, I am probably overthinking, but that piece doesn't quite sit right with me.
Maybe there was some kind of confirmation bias at work with BB where he read Brian and assumed whomever texted him was referring to Flores.
But his last bit has me questioning that slightly:
What text has he double checked? If it were the assumed narrative, he is maybe referencing having scrolled his texts to find a previous thread with BF, but I don't know if that fits 100%.
I don't know, I am probably overthinking, but that piece doesn't quite sit right with me.
Maybe there was some kind of confirmation bias at work with BB where he read Brian and assumed whomever texted him was referring to Flores.
There’s a huge difference between what the Astros and Sixers did and what Ross asked Flores to do. The Astros and Sixers’ tanking was done by putting worse players out on the field. But even then the coaches and players were trying to win. Asking the coach to actually lose games is a whole different level of challenge to competitive integrity.
Thats my read. Someone texted him "Congrats on your guy Brian, I hear he's going to be the next HC of the Giants."
And Bill's most recent Brian is Flores, so he assumes. Only when Brian says he hasn't interviewed yet he goes back and sees the original text was from a Buffalo source likely speaking of Dabol, not Flores.
Davis might be one of the only owners, if not the only one, who doesn't care (or at least cares far less) at maintaining the good old boys club with his colleagues, especially given the history he lived through with his dad and given how the other owners screwed him out of moving to LA.
Gotta say, I admire Flores for this. Takes real courage to put your career and livelihood on the line. At first I questioned the strategy of including all the salacious details, but I think it makes sense. There’s no way this suit gets the same public traction without them and the way the NFL litigates, probably best to come out guns blazing. For Flores’ sake, I really hope he wins (or settles) and is able to continue what is a really promising career. And for the NFL’s sake I (foolishly) hope this spurs real change. The Rooney rule may have been well intentioned but it really creates a perverse incentive for token interviews. (I am sure Mayo is a hell of a coach, but I have no doubt he’s been jerked around on a few of his interviews thus far.) I think the draft pick compensation scheme is going to be much more effective in the long run. I’d like to see some more investment at the collegiate level too.
The NFL, and Goodell in particular along with the owners who employ him, are long overdue for a day of reckoning. I hope this along with the Gruden fiasco/WFT situation is the overdue impetus to make it happen.
To add to this, if true he was asking a rookie coach to do something intentionally that would make It less likely he’d ever get hired for another job after his tenure with Miami was over. Considering Flores is black and knows how hard it is for a black coach to get a chance in the first place, never mind a second chance, I cannot imagine how he must have felt being asked to intentionally sabotage what might be his only chance. And If it is true that this is part of what led Ross to conclude Flores is ”difficult”, it is far more odious than the other examples cited.
Given his temperament and pedigree, I suspect his initial reaction was to think it was some kind of perverse test/joke or that he was suffering a stroke in the moment.
Unreal.
Thank you, sir. This was the first thing i thought of when this came out today. It's incredibly difficult as it to get a hc job as a black man in the nfl.
Yes, anyone who ever gets a shot at an NFL head coaching job is going to be by definition hyper-competitive. When the guy who just hired you pulls you aside and tells you there’s some extra coin in it if you lose some games on purpose your first year it has to be a a surreal experience.
Wow. And maybe that’s WHY he hired him. He needed someone he thought would do it, and who was disposable.
Ross somehow weaponized the basic premise of ‘Major League’ in an even darker way.
Lost in all of this, and for good reason because it's not near as serious, but Elway and his cronies showing up hungover for an interview is like the sun rising tomorrow. Of course it will, and of course he did.
Except that Flores has stated that he wants a jury trial. He wants this all to be made public. Someone will hire him -- Kraft/Belichick, maybe? Honestly, he might land as a DC in Vegas with McDaniels -- say what you will about the Davis family, they're not racists and they like to thumb their nose at the NFL. He's too talented of a coach, though I said Kaep was too talented of a QB.
Billion percent agree. Ross -- or more likely someone under him -- a coach, a trainer, a player or even a player's friend -- could absolutely clean up with this info.
Hungover and an hour late.
That’s not just holding a sham interview, it’s intentionally and needlessly rubbing the unspoken reality that it’s a sham interview right in the black candidate’s face. Honestly I find it just as despicable as Ross’s conduct.
Broncos are in a full court press to deny they were late; no mention of anyone being hungover, though!
They got Mike Klis working Twitter to shut this thing down.
Worst case he can go to college, if you can coach a college program will hire you no matter what... kill a kid... oh well. Cover up some rapes... no problem. Something as minor as suing the NFL for being racist isn't going to make them blink.
My read of that situation wasn’t that Ross needed Flores there, but rather he wanted Flores there to help woo Brady. After all, he was the head coach Tom would be playing for, and they had a prior connection. But I could be wrong.
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Oh, it's better than that they were hungover. Elway's claiming in 2019 that he was dealing with the side effects from Ivermectin.
View: https://twitter.com/NFLGrandheer/status/1488637738798702592
Of course, this was goddamn gold.
View: https://twitter.com/LaCroixPolamalu/status/1488668058474491906
I assumed this phone call was going to be made if Flores didn’t t a HC job. not so sure now.
Of course Mark Davis is still really pissed about the timing of the Gruden leak, so perhaps he wants to tweak the league a bit.
The Elway story may or may not be horseshit, but I got a kick out of this particular justification:
Yeah, the recent history of the NFL definitely shows that enshrined leaders of NFL teams cannot survive for long periods of time if they're pulling shenanigans. Zero institutional protection! /s
The horse puns are absolutely hilarious, but this has to be 100% fake. Ivermectin and COVID weren’t a thing when Brian Flores interviewed with the Broncos.
It actually is approved for other things, like parasitic infections. But yeah, within this context, feels like BS cover story.
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-1122/ivermectin-oral/details
