Speaker 1: Climbrate Lewis and this is NFL Inside Report. Huge story
Speaker 1: this week in the NFL as former Dolphins head coach
Speaker 1: Brian Flores suing the NFL and three NFL franchises. We
Speaker 1: bring in our Cameron Wolf to help shed some lights
Speaker 1: on what all this means, where it came from, and
Speaker 1: how both parties will move forward. And let's start with
Speaker 1: the very beginning here, Cam. When did this process of
Speaker 1: Brian Flores, who I know you've covered extensively down in
Speaker 1: Miami during his time there. When did this process of
Speaker 1: his decision to file this suit against the NFL and
Speaker 1: three NFL clubs really begin? Yeah, so you have to
Speaker 1: take this back to last week, Um, when they actually
Speaker 1: decided to follow the lawsuit. Um, we'll talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about it later, but there's a text message sent
Speaker 1: from from Bill Belichick to Brian Floors on Monday of
Speaker 1: last week, which was the last week of January, and
Speaker 1: so that was the first time that they realized, hey,
Speaker 1: we may have evidence that basis a longstanding belief that
Speaker 1: he and a lot of other black coaches have that
Speaker 1: they have been discriminated against. And some of the Rooney
Speaker 1: Rule interviews have been quote unquote sham interviews. So that
Speaker 1: happened on Monday. As far as the text message, I
Speaker 1: was told that by Wednesday they already had drafted up
Speaker 1: the beginning portion of a lawsuit for this happening, and
Speaker 1: they started to make contacts into their media rounds saying
Speaker 1: that hey, we want to share our story at some
Speaker 1: point early next week about Brian Flores and this lawsuit.
Speaker 1: So that started to happen in the middle of last week,
Speaker 1: and so they started to do a lot of different
Speaker 1: information collecting their evidence that they wanted to put into
Speaker 1: this case. And you could clearly tell they spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time on This is a fifty eight page report, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, mentioning everything from the lack of black coaches
Speaker 1: and coordinators in the league, two civil rights leaders. You know,
Speaker 1: they wanted to purposely followed on the first day of
Speaker 1: February to start Black History Month, um, to sort of
Speaker 1: really send a message to the league and really to
Speaker 1: everyone that this was a message and they wanted to
Speaker 1: get out. And Brian Flores is a very principal guy.
Speaker 1: I've covered him for a while and you know he
Speaker 1: has his flaws. You know, this is not really the
Speaker 1: podcast to discuss whether it was right or wrong to
Speaker 1: fire him. But when he mentioned something, he wants to
Speaker 1: stay up for it, stand for stand up for it.
Speaker 1: And I think this was something that he really wanted
Speaker 1: to stand behind and put his name on it and
Speaker 1: put action by it. And he did and again sue
Speaker 1: the NFL, the Broncos, the Giants, and his former team,
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins. All three clubs have denied any wrongdoing
Speaker 1: in this as it pertains to this lawsuit, as has
Speaker 1: the NFL, and we'll get to that here in just
Speaker 1: a little bit. But more specifically, as you dig into
Speaker 1: the lawsuit, what is it really alleging in these instances? Yeah? Right,
Speaker 1: you could boil it down to two different situations. There
Speaker 1: is a accusation that they did not have fair value
Speaker 1: and spirit of the Roomy rule, and that comes into
Speaker 1: regard of the Giants not giving what Brian Flores felt
Speaker 1: was an honest interview, and that's what this year. Yes,
Speaker 1: he was. He was scheduled for what would have been
Speaker 1: his in person interview in New York Thursday of last week,
Speaker 1: so he had that interview schedule. He received the text
Speaker 1: message from Bill Belichick that he shared publicly on Monday,
Speaker 1: where Belichick mistakenly sent him a message saying that hey, um,
Speaker 1: I heard that you got the job, and so Flori's
Speaker 1: excited thinking that Belichick heard something different than he heard
Speaker 1: saying what you know, I hope so and and and
Speaker 1: through the back and forth messaging, Flores realized that he
Speaker 1: was thinking he was talking to the wrong guy. So,
Speaker 1: you know, thank you was talking to Brian and Ball
Speaker 1: Flor exactly, and Brian day Ball was named the guy
Speaker 1: named the head coach on Friday. So Flores went into
Speaker 1: his interview on Thursday, UM interview. He initially believed he
Speaker 1: had a very good chance of winning. The owner John
Speaker 1: Merrit he actually said, called him and told him he
Speaker 1: killed the interview and You've got a great chance to winning.
Speaker 1: But he said he was, you know, uh, frustrated, angry
Speaker 1: when he hears this from Bill Belichick and essentially confirms
Speaker 1: that this interview was a sham. I would say, I
Speaker 1: think that those text messages confirmed a lot of what UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of us, you know, black minority coaches already
Speaker 1: feel that a lot of we're going into these um
Speaker 1: and they're shams. They confirmed that a lot of there's
Speaker 1: a belief and you know, look, that was just a
Speaker 1: mistake by Billichick. We've all sent the wrong text message
Speaker 1: to somebody, um, but in this instance, it came to
Speaker 1: me and it was almost you know, it was confirmation
Speaker 1: that that that those back, back, back, back room dealings
Speaker 1: are happen. And for contact for people with asking maybe
Speaker 1: asking why Billy Bill Belichick and the Giants are important. Well,
Speaker 1: he has a relationship with owner John John Mara that
Speaker 1: dates back years and years and he actually recommended right
Speaker 1: and he actually recommended the last Giants that coach Joe Judge,
Speaker 1: who was a Patriot assistant. So it's it's I think
Speaker 1: that's an easy way for Brian Flores to connect the
Speaker 1: dots and say somebody you know clearly told them something
Speaker 1: in the mill. So I think that that was what
Speaker 1: really drove this lawsuit. And then from there he was
Speaker 1: backtracking and getting other evidence and other um, you know,
Speaker 1: parameters of teams that he felt like, you know, we're
Speaker 1: a part of this in their own way, and also
Speaker 1: really addressing the league and some of their long standing
Speaker 1: issues with um black and minority coaches being able to
Speaker 1: get jobs. So he has been open. He did his
Speaker 1: media media run on Wednesday, essentially saying that, hey, I
Speaker 1: know that I'm taking a risk here and there's a
Speaker 1: chance that I may not coach again, but he feels
Speaker 1: like this is for the other coaches, not as much
Speaker 1: for him, but for the other coaches to be able
Speaker 1: to try to make what he calls real change. And
Speaker 1: then the Broncos part of this whole lawsuit and how
Speaker 1: they found themselves here was as a result of an
Speaker 1: interview back in two thousand and nineteen, before Flores took
Speaker 1: the head coaching job with the Miami Dolphins. Right, this
Speaker 1: is when the Broncos were interviewing for a head coaching
Speaker 1: job that eventually went to Vic Fangio. Yes, absolutely, And
Speaker 1: that was the year that Brian Flores and the Patriots
Speaker 1: they won the Super Bowl. That was when Brian Flores
Speaker 1: was the hot candidate. He had just had his first
Speaker 1: successful year as the defensive play caller of the Patriots,
Speaker 1: and so he had done multiple interviews in that cycle,
Speaker 1: and he accused the Broncos of essentially not taking his
Speaker 1: interviews serious enough in the In the lawsuit, he specifically
Speaker 1: alleged that they came an hour late. So I've had
Speaker 1: nine interviews with NFL clubs there's been one interview square
Speaker 1: anyone was late. Um, and it wasn't me that was later.
Speaker 1: It was the interview interview wars who were late. Um,
Speaker 1: that was what the Broncos. He specifically says that he
Speaker 1: they came disheveled and he felt like they were drinking
Speaker 1: the night before, but gave you the impression, if he will,
Speaker 1: that they had been out drinking the night before. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean when you sit at the table with with
Speaker 1: with five people who are interviewing you, um, uh, you
Speaker 1: know who's you can tell, who's um asking questions, who's
Speaker 1: into the interview, and who's uh not necessarily in the right, right,
Speaker 1: right state, I would say, And in that moment, the
Speaker 1: Broncos have denied this. But this is something that he
Speaker 1: felt like was a sign that hey, this was a
Speaker 1: sham interview where they had already made their mind up
Speaker 1: or didn't treat me seriously enough as a candidate to
Speaker 1: give that sort of respect. So uh, he used this
Speaker 1: as additional evidence and part of his lawsuit against the
Speaker 1: Broncos and the rest of the league of just sort
Speaker 1: of how to go about their hiring practices. And then
Speaker 1: the Dolphins piece of this whole thing is really interesting.
Speaker 1: The reasons why he got fired have also been kind
Speaker 1: of mentioned throughout the lawsuit, and then this bizarre story
Speaker 1: of you know, tanking essentially, which everyone outside of NFL
Speaker 1: buildings have kind of casually talked about. There was the
Speaker 1: whole tank for tah movement, you know, before the Dolphins
Speaker 1: actually even ended up with him at the number five
Speaker 1: overall pick, taking him one spot before one spot before
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert in a couple of spots after you know,
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow went number one overall, and that there was
Speaker 1: this meeting between he and the owner of the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: Stephen Ross, and that it had promised him a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars per loss. Have you had you heard any
Speaker 1: of this going on but before it was mentioned in
Speaker 1: the lawsuit, right? No, I didn't, honestly, And I covered
Speaker 1: I covered that team for three years, um, you know,
Speaker 1: including that year, um exclusively, so I I was remember
Speaker 1: that twenty nine team years one of the one of
Speaker 1: the most difficult teams to cover because they were they
Speaker 1: were awful, and a lot of the reason they were
Speaker 1: awful was they traded a lot of players before the
Speaker 1: season the game. Remember that's when they traded Patrick away. Yes,
Speaker 1: they had you know, both Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen
Speaker 1: starting that year, and they started off very bad before
Speaker 1: they turned it around in the second half of that year. Um,
Speaker 1: but yes, there, I had heard nothing about it. I've
Speaker 1: learned more about it in the coming days. There was,
Speaker 1: um the word tank thrown around a lot, and Brian
Speaker 1: Flores was adamant throughout the year when he was asked
Speaker 1: continually that he would not lose. He didn't. He didn't
Speaker 1: believe in it. He thought it was disrespectful to even
Speaker 1: bring up. I've never I'm gonna go into every game, Uh,
Speaker 1: trying to win. You know, That's That's always gonna be
Speaker 1: my objective. I'm gonna go on anything I do trying
Speaker 1: to win. I'm gonna try to instill that and every
Speaker 1: every everybody had come across. So no, there's no there's
Speaker 1: no tankking Uh, you can write that over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. So there was there was a whole
Speaker 1: conversation the narrative that coaches and players cannot tank, but
Speaker 1: organizations can can make a decision to do so. So
Speaker 1: there was no hard evidence that, hey, the Dolphins made
Speaker 1: the decision or er what eventually came out, tried to
Speaker 1: pay to make this decision, but there was a belief
Speaker 1: that if anybody in the organization was taking it was
Speaker 1: an organizational decision to get a draft pick rather than
Speaker 1: a coaching or player decision. In Miami, when you were
Speaker 1: the head coach, you will legend the lawsuit that the owner,
Speaker 1: Stephen Ross, approached you about tanking games to get a
Speaker 1: better draft choice and said he would give you a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars for every game you lost. As you
Speaker 1: can imagine, that obviously has enormous repercussions. What could you
Speaker 1: tell me about the specifics of that offer? How specifically
Speaker 1: did he state that to you? You know, that was
Speaker 1: a conversation about not doing as much as we needed
Speaker 1: to do to win football games. Take a flight, go
Speaker 1: on vacation. I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars per loss.
Speaker 1: And those are just, you know, exact words. So when
Speaker 1: I heard this, uh, this news, it was just as
Speaker 1: outrageous for me because I had never heard of an
Speaker 1: owner being accused of paining for for losses essentially, and
Speaker 1: that gets into a whole element of integrity of the
Speaker 1: game exactly. It's a whole whole another kind of worms there.
Speaker 1: I mean, in addition to the discrimination part of this
Speaker 1: whole lawsuit, which is right, you know, right at the
Speaker 1: crux of it, of course, right so and so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So obviously the discrimination part of it is is Brian
Speaker 1: Flores is a big mess that he wants to get
Speaker 1: across in the big mission of change. But this story,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins element of it is obviously I popping element
Speaker 1: for a lot of people who read the lawsuit because
Speaker 1: of the hundred K. There's also an allegation and there
Speaker 1: that you know, the owner, Stephen Ross, um you know,
Speaker 1: kind of pressured or or tried to get him the
Speaker 1: temper um where you know, as far as uh prominent
Speaker 1: quarterback and trying to bring him on. And I've been
Speaker 1: told that the quarterback that they're referring to is Tom
Speaker 1: Brady when he was coming up and becoming a free agent.
Speaker 1: So there was a situation that mentioned in the lawsuit
Speaker 1: that um that that Flora's alleges that owner Stephen Ross
Speaker 1: invited him onto a yacht and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: that prominent quarterback arrives happenstance and Flora's you know, kind
Speaker 1: of storms out and comes through so these are all
Speaker 1: part of Floris's claims that he feels like the accusations
Speaker 1: of tampering that he's making and the accusations of pain
Speaker 1: the tank are the main reason why he's no longer
Speaker 1: the dolphins that coach, and not because of any performance
Speaker 1: reasons or relationship reasons, which is what the message of
Speaker 1: dolphins we're sending out after has felt firing. This lawsuit
Speaker 1: was filed as a class action lawsuit, which means people
Speaker 1: other people can join the lawsuit. In your understanding and
Speaker 1: your reporting on this subject, do you get a sense
Speaker 1: that there are going to be others that are going
Speaker 1: to join? Yes, right, I I do. I actually spoke
Speaker 1: with two coaches last night who wanted to reach out
Speaker 1: to me to see if I could connect them with
Speaker 1: Brian Flores so that they could talk to him about
Speaker 1: potentially getting involved in the class lawsuit themselves. They had
Speaker 1: experiences that they felt like they had receipts of and
Speaker 1: wanted to see if they can get involved. And I
Speaker 1: mentioned it to Brian Flores's team and they mentioned that hey,
Speaker 1: sending the information will vetted and see what we can do.
Speaker 1: So they've welcomed people to join them and We've seen
Speaker 1: even today publicly, certain coaches have come out and shared
Speaker 1: their experience. And then just today Marvin Lewis came out
Speaker 1: and said he felt like he had a sham interview
Speaker 1: with the Carolina Panthers when they hired John Fox. You're
Speaker 1: seeing and this is a big part when I talked
Speaker 1: to black coaches that they were excited about with Flora's
Speaker 1: coming out is that hopefully it opens the floodgates of
Speaker 1: every other coach sharing their experience and making it clear
Speaker 1: that it's not just Flores who may have this, uh,
Speaker 1: this this belief that he's discriminated against, this is something
Speaker 1: that other coaches believe and feel like they've experienced as
Speaker 1: well and want to share. So can We've outlined some
Speaker 1: of the key pieces of this lawsuit that Brian Flores
Speaker 1: has filed in the allegations within it. But now for
Speaker 1: the solution or the resolution that he hopes to come
Speaker 1: from this lawsuit, what are some of the biggest pieces
Speaker 1: there that the change that he's hoping can be made
Speaker 1: so Flores't actually lines out several areas of of actual
Speaker 1: real change. And one element that um that I thought
Speaker 1: was really interesting was the diversification of ownership. There are
Speaker 1: currently no black owners. It's a very rich, white dude
Speaker 1: industry that has been for a while, and so um,
Speaker 1: these are the guys making the decisions. So he outlines
Speaker 1: a path of trying to get owners to be more diversified.
Speaker 1: And that's something that a lot of people in league
Speaker 1: offices have been pushing forward for a while. But I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the main key solutions UM that
Speaker 1: he believes can be helpful for this. He also mentioned
Speaker 1: setting up different town house meetings with black assistance and
Speaker 1: getting them comfortable with meeting a lot of these owners
Speaker 1: and having conversations to get to know each other and
Speaker 1: be able to be more comfortable UM with each other
Speaker 1: because there's often the saying that you you you go
Speaker 1: with what you feel comfortable with, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times for these owners who are white, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of these white assistant coaches. So the hope is you
Speaker 1: get them more comfortable with black assistant coaches and some
Speaker 1: of these hiring um, you know, pass can change. And
Speaker 1: so we talked. We talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: Rooney rule and and the Rooney rule is something that
Speaker 1: has a lot of UM subjectivity because some people are
Speaker 1: fans of it, some people are not. But the the
Speaker 1: overall core that I hear when I talk to assistances,
Speaker 1: you you can't force people to hire people that they
Speaker 1: don't want to hire. So no matter what the rule is,
Speaker 1: there's always gonna be a way, UM to get around it.
Speaker 1: So I know that a lot of people are are
Speaker 1: watching this case, particularly coaches, and seeing how the NFL
Speaker 1: handles it. If there's some sort of UM rule change
Speaker 1: that comes out of it, whether it's um you know,
Speaker 1: incentivizing teams um you know and not for losses as
Speaker 1: far as you know, a draft lottery potentially UM you know,
Speaker 1: or or you know, figuring out a certain way that
Speaker 1: coaches can be able to get fair chances m despite
Speaker 1: what their skin color is. So that's something that's going
Speaker 1: to continue to be evolving conversation. There's gonna be lawyers
Speaker 1: throughout this whole deal, and so it's early on we're
Speaker 1: talking about this at the very it's a lengthy Yes,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a lengthy process. And I reported
Speaker 1: this on NFL Network earlier, but I was told by
Speaker 1: Brian Floors team that they do not plan to settle
Speaker 1: this case unless they get some sort of real change
Speaker 1: that they outline. So that's what they're saying at this point,
Speaker 1: and that's something that indicates to me, if they're going
Speaker 1: to go through that process, then this is going to
Speaker 1: be long and difficult and a lot of lawyers and
Speaker 1: maybe a lot of legal proceedings. And look, I think
Speaker 1: it's clear there are still some real issues in terms
Speaker 1: of the disparity between minority head coaches in this league
Speaker 1: and white head coaches in this league, with Mike Tomlin
Speaker 1: currently the only black head coach in the league. Now
Speaker 1: there are still some openings right that we have in
Speaker 1: this cycle. But the one positive that I think we
Speaker 1: need to kind of continue to mention because hopefully it
Speaker 1: is something that can influence change, is there has been
Speaker 1: a greater number of minority general managers hired in the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, this year in particular with Quaisia
Speaker 1: Dopho Mensa in Minnesota, with Ryan Poles in Chicago. So
Speaker 1: maybe if that trend continues, then we can have a
Speaker 1: trickle down effect into the head coaching ranks and continuing
Speaker 1: into the coordinator ranks from that point on. So look,
Speaker 1: here's hoping and and of course we'll see and we
Speaker 1: will continue to follow this and we're not done discussing
Speaker 1: this lawsuit that Brian Flores has filed against the NFL
Speaker 1: and against three NFL clubs, all of whom have denied
Speaker 1: all allegations against them. But again, the Rooney Rule is
Speaker 1: at the crux of this. This was created to influence
Speaker 1: more minority opportunities in the NFL, and it's had some
Speaker 1: changes throughout the league. We'll go through that right after this.
Speaker 1: Karen NFL inside report back on NFL and signed report
Speaker 1: with Cam Wolf, you know, our colleague at NFL Network.
Speaker 1: As we're digging into this lawsuit filed by Brian Floores
Speaker 1: against the NFL and the Broncos, the Giants, and the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: and look at the crux of it is the discrimination
Speaker 1: part of it, right which the Rooney Rule was designed
Speaker 1: to combat. Now, the Rooney Rule has gone through some
Speaker 1: adaptations and some changes, certainly since it was instituted years ago.
Speaker 1: How have you kind of seen and understood some of
Speaker 1: those changes? Can? Yeah? I think it's important for us
Speaker 1: to note that the League office, um, whether whether it
Speaker 1: successful or not, has been trying to you know, create
Speaker 1: sort of a better you know, stopping ground area for
Speaker 1: minority coaches to rise, and so the Rooney rule changed.
Speaker 1: The most recent one was changing it to too external
Speaker 1: black candidates or minority or women candidates interviewing for these
Speaker 1: head coach and GM jobs. And so the league noticed
Speaker 1: that a lot of times teams were interviewing internal candidates
Speaker 1: and it would maybe one or two internal candidates and
Speaker 1: they would count that as a running rule. So they
Speaker 1: tried to make a change, and they're trying to adjust,
Speaker 1: and I think some of the adjustments are are effective.
Speaker 1: But I think at the core of this is ownership.
Speaker 1: So owners aretain the ones who are going to make
Speaker 1: the decision. So the League office can want all they
Speaker 1: want to be able to UM have more black coaches,
Speaker 1: have more black owners, have more black gms, but ultimately
Speaker 1: it's gonna take these owners to be able to know
Speaker 1: and make the decisions themselves. So the Rooty rule has
Speaker 1: certainly evolved in how UM is putting pressure on teams
Speaker 1: to have more of an open um you know, wide
Speaker 1: net coaching and GM interview process. But look where we are.
Speaker 1: We're one black head coach halfway through a coaching cycle.
Speaker 1: It's the same way we worked twenty years ago. So
Speaker 1: a lot of coaches are saying, yes, the roomy rule
Speaker 1: may have helped some people get interviews and may have
Speaker 1: helped people get into the room, but as far as
Speaker 1: the coaching rank, the GM is different. Like you said,
Speaker 1: there's been progress, and have to address that. There has
Speaker 1: been real progress for the coaching ranks. Just one coach,
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin, who is arguably one of the best coaches
Speaker 1: of his era. And you can't tell me that there's
Speaker 1: only one qualified coach who's black out of thirty two
Speaker 1: to be head coach. So where is that coming from?
Speaker 1: Is that implicit bias? Is there something we can do?
Speaker 1: So I just don't know if more rooting rule changes
Speaker 1: are going to truly make a difference in these numbers.
Speaker 1: And we've continued to see these changes happen, but the
Speaker 1: numbers have stayed relatively stegmas. And then you know, one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that Mike Tomlin is the only black
Speaker 1: head coach currently and again there are still openings in
Speaker 1: this year's you know, cycle of head coaching changes, and
Speaker 1: so it is one of the reasons you know that
Speaker 1: again the Tomlin is the only black head coach currently
Speaker 1: is because Brian Flores was fired from the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: and the reasons why, you know, we were sort of
Speaker 1: led to believe there were these relationship issues within the
Speaker 1: building with the way that that Flora's maybe have interacted
Speaker 1: with general manager Chris Greer and you know, with other
Speaker 1: with others in the organization. In your understanding of that
Speaker 1: whole situation, how did that unfold and and how were
Speaker 1: those interactions? Yeah, that's an interesting part of this because
Speaker 1: some of it certainly was real. There was a strife
Speaker 1: between Brian Floors and Chris Career. I've been told, but
Speaker 1: I think Flores and his team pointed out in the
Speaker 1: lawsuit and even talking to some coaches on that staff before,
Speaker 1: there were sort of, uh an opinion coming out that
Speaker 1: he was very difficult to work with and that he
Speaker 1: was sort of a you know, quote unquote tiring in
Speaker 1: the building, and that you know, he was going through
Speaker 1: this sort of situation where it just was unmanageable going
Speaker 1: forward for him to be the head coach. And I
Speaker 1: spoke with two Dolphins assistant coaches who told me that, yes,
Speaker 1: he's not the you know, you know, jolly green giant.
Speaker 1: He's not always gonna you know, ask how was your
Speaker 1: how was your your weekend or that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But I talked to a coach who said, Hey, the
Speaker 1: idea that he wasn't talking to us after a certain period,
Speaker 1: that was not a reality. And for people who work
Speaker 1: hard and put their work into it, we appreciate some
Speaker 1: of the tough coaching and the straightforwardness that he has
Speaker 1: from atmosphere. So the idea that everybody in the Dolphins
Speaker 1: organization hated Brian Flores has been told to me several
Speaker 1: times has proven false. Now, there are certainly things that
Speaker 1: Brian knows that he can be better at as far
Speaker 1: as his relationships with people, and I know that he's
Speaker 1: going on interviews and discuss those things and you know
Speaker 1: expressed the ay, you know, desire to be better. Um.
Speaker 1: But I also think that we have to be careful
Speaker 1: in narratives that we put out. There's sort of a trope,
Speaker 1: particularly with a black man, of the angry black man,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a very dangerous trope to put
Speaker 1: out because once you have that label, it's tough to
Speaker 1: get off get it off of you. And we've talked
Speaker 1: on this chat a lot about owners and feeling comfortable
Speaker 1: with who they're hiring. If you had that angry black
Speaker 1: man trope on you. That's gonna make it much more
Speaker 1: difficult for a white owner to feel comfortable hiring you,
Speaker 1: hiring for you. So I know, I talked to a
Speaker 1: couple of people who wanted to speak out on his
Speaker 1: their on his behalf and say, hey, that's not a
Speaker 1: reality the picture that everyone's painting of him. Yes, he's
Speaker 1: flawed like we all are, but to fit to feel
Speaker 1: like he is just untenable to work with is is
Speaker 1: a little bit of a saggeration of what he was
Speaker 1: for people in that building who had to deal with
Speaker 1: him on a day to day basis. And then, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, came at the top of the show, Brian
Speaker 1: Flores has done this knowing it very well might affect
Speaker 1: his future in the NFL, ending coaching in general, based
Speaker 1: on you know, him being the central figure in this lawsuit.
Speaker 1: How do you assess his future as there are as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, you know, like he a number of interviews
Speaker 1: this this year, not just the New York Giants, there
Speaker 1: are still job openings here. Does he still see a
Speaker 1: future for himself in the NFL? Yeah, barn Floors has
Speaker 1: talked on the media cycles this today that he's hopeful.
Speaker 1: He's hopeful. That was the big word that he's saying.
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that I will I'm very hopeful. Um, but
Speaker 1: I understand the risks of of uh filing a lasso
Speaker 1: like this. Um, but I'm very um. I am hopeful.
Speaker 1: Well that I'm passionate about. But if change, if change comes, Um,
Speaker 1: if I never coach again and there's change, it it'll
Speaker 1: be worth it. You wouldn't say that he was optimistic
Speaker 1: or that he thought it would happen. He said he
Speaker 1: was hopeful, and um, you know, I talked to a
Speaker 1: couple of assistants who mentioned that they were fearful that
Speaker 1: maybe he would get black bawled in this sort of
Speaker 1: situation because it's really unseen that you have a coach
Speaker 1: active coach suing the NFL. This is you know, you're
Speaker 1: suing the NFL and all three or two teams, and
Speaker 1: then you're gonna ask for a job. Like just being
Speaker 1: real with it that that that becomes a sticky point.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't really hide the reality of that.
Speaker 1: So I do think that they're they're obviously is gonna
Speaker 1: be conversations there. He's still in the mix with two
Speaker 1: jobs the New Orleans Saints job in the Houston Texations job.
Speaker 1: As we record this, he interviewed for both of those.
Speaker 1: UM had second interviews with both of those. Uh, second
Speaker 1: interview with the Texans and so UM, you know, and
Speaker 1: I talked to him and his team this week and
Speaker 1: they feel like, hey, we still got a chance there.
Speaker 1: So UM, they're hopeful that this does not impact his
Speaker 1: chances to get that those gigs or any gigs in
Speaker 1: the future. And when you look at his resume, I mean,
Speaker 1: he came off a back to back winning seasons for
Speaker 1: the Dolphins. Um, there are certainly questions about how he's
Speaker 1: gonna build an offensive staff given the turnover in Miami,
Speaker 1: but you can't look at his resume and say that
Speaker 1: this guy doesn't deserve another opportunity, whether it's as a
Speaker 1: coordinator or a head coach down the line. So I
Speaker 1: believe that it's going to be a very interesting period
Speaker 1: to see how teams react with lawsuit and whether they
Speaker 1: truly give him an opportunity, because like you, like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: if you, um, if he doesn't get an opportunity, then
Speaker 1: what does that say about um? You know where we
Speaker 1: are hiring cycles and what the league has done based
Speaker 1: on his you know, sharing his experiences and sharing of
Speaker 1: what he feels like has happened to him. Gim Wolfe Man,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate your insight and you're reporting on, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole situation with the Dolphins and how this is
Speaker 1: all unfolded with Brian Floor as a really important and look,
Speaker 1: I think if I think we can all agree that
Speaker 1: at the very least what this has done as again
Speaker 1: made the conversation surrounding diversity and inclusion. Louder and I
Speaker 1: certainly appreciate your voice. Camp, thanks very much, appreciate you
Speaker 1: and that's gonna do it for this episode of NFL
Speaker 1: Inside Report. Thanks so much for being with us. Reminder
Speaker 1: to subscribe, rate, review our show on iHeart Radio, on
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Speaker 1: appreciate and we can't wait to join you next week
Speaker 1: live from Radio Row as we get set for Super
Speaker 1: Bowl fifty six between the Bengals and the Rams from
Speaker 1: Soapy Stadium. For producers Thomas Warren and Tim Paracca. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Rrett Louis. We'll catch you next time. NFL
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