SPORTS & MORE: FLORES MAY WIN IN COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION, NOT A COURT OF LAW

When you take on the fat cats, you may have a point, but you may not win. 

Brian Flores, the deposed Miami Dolphins coach, is hoping to be another Curt Flood, the baseball player whose legal actions led to free agency in that sport. 

Flores, who is black, brought forth in a recent class-action lawsuit several items that show essentially what is wrong with the Rooney Rule, the National Football League’s directive that says teams must interview minority candidates before hiring coaches and general managers. 

Flores has sued the league, the Dolphins, the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos for racial discrimination. The accused have all denied his claims. 

When I heard his accusations, my first thought was, “Prove it.” 

When he was interviewed by the Broncos for their then-vacant head coaching job in 2019, Flores claims the executives who met with him were an hour late, disheveled and hung over. I think this is his weakest charge as I go back to my mantra: Prove it. Even if he can do that, what does it mean? That General Manager John Elway and his cohorts didn’t take the interview seriously and did it only because the league says they have to interview a black candidate? I think that happens in a lot of NFL coaching interviews. Nothing new there. Elway and the Broncos have denied being hung over. 

I heard one commentator espouse that owners should be able to hire whomever they wish. Maybe. But with 32 non-black owners making money from teams that are 70% black, you’d think somewhere along the way someone would hire a black coach. As of this writing, there are but two – Mike Tomlin of Pittsburgh and, named on Monday, Lovie Smith of the Houston Texans. The Dolphins’ new coach, Mike McDaniel, has a black father and a white mother. Two other coaches, the Jets’ Robert Saleh and the Washington Commanders’ Ron Rivera, are listed as non-white.

Before he was interviewed by the Giants, Flores traded text messages with New England coach Bill Belichick in which his former employer congratulated him for getting the New York job, only to learn that Belichick had mistakenly sent the text to the wrong Brian when he meant it for Brian Daboll, who had allegedly been selected as the Giants’ new coach before Flores was interviewed. 

That one flies a little bit because of the Belichick texts, but is probably not enough to win an entire case. And the Giants have denied they had hired Daboll before they interviewed Flores. 

Flores also charges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross invited his coach and an unnamed quarterback (presumedly Tom Brady) to meet on a yacht in deference to the no-tampering rule, as Brady was employed by another team. Flores refused the invitation. 

Then comes the big one. Flores says he has proof and, if he does, we have a very different scenario here. The former Dolphins coach claims Ross offered him $100,000 for each loss in 2019. The losing record would have moved the team up in the draft and given them better picks of players. Flores said he refused the offer. The team lost 11 games that season – without Flores’ help – and from the sixth draft position took quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, while Cincinnati, in the top spot, took Joe Burrow, who has led the Bengals to Sunday’s Super Bowl. Flores says he has corroborating evidence that proves Ross wanted him to dump games. If he does, that could force Ross to sell the team, which is what some Miami-based writers are calling for. 

In the meantime, former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson has indicated that team owner Jimmy Haslam offered him a bonus for each loss that moved the Browns up the draft ladder. 

So, what do we have here? We have a legal case of accusations. Some may be proven and may be enough to force Ross to sell the Dolphins. Others may be true, but unable to be proven. The NFL will be embarrassed nonetheless. And Flores will not be hired to coach another NFL team – ever. 

My suggestion: The league needs to strongly enforce the Rooney Rule. The owners, or whoever makes the hires, need to make a solid connection with a minority – meaning black – candidate. 

All this comes as we’re trying to concentrate on Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI, which will match the Los Angeles Rams (favored by 4 to 4½ points) in their home stadium to the Cincinnati Bengals. I’m sorry, but I’m unable to give an unbiased pick. When I was in Dayton, Ohio, I had season tickets to the Bengals’ home games and unabashedly rooted for them. I also reported on their previous two Super Bowl losses, both to the San Francisco 49ers, at the Pontiac, Michigan Silverdome and at Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium. 

So, yes, I’m rooting for the Bengals.

But, I’ll tell you what I think. The Bengals have won all their playoffs by less than a touchdown. Their “luck” will run out Sunday. The Rams will win by 20 or so points.

Veteran sports columnist Ralph Morrow says the only sport he doesn’t follow is cricket. That leaves plenty of others to fill his time.