Graney: Flores’ suit shines light on ineffective Rooney Rule

Brian Flores is swinging back. He’s determined that he’s not going to be just another box checked by the NFL.

The Super Bowl may be in Los Angeles next week, but the center of the NFL universe this week is in Las Vegas. And the No. 1 topic is Flores, the former Miami Dolphins coach who has sued the NFL and three teams for alleged racial discrimination in his interviews with the Denver Broncos and New York Giants and his dismissal by the Dolphins.

A great deal of this has to do with the Rooney Rule, established in 2003. It states that NFL teams must interview minority candidates for head-coaching and senior football operation jobs.

In a league made up of 70 percent Black players, only three head coaches over 32 teams are minorities. Only one is Black.

When the rule was first enacted, there were three.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed but not surprised having been in this league for nine years now,” said Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu at a Pro Bowl practice on Thursday at Las Vegas Ballpark. “I’m glad (Flores) took a stand, not only for himself but a lot of Black coaches around the league that seem to get overlooked.

“There are a lot of Black coaches more than capable of leading men and winning.”

Owners have the right to make any hire they believe best for their organization. That part hasn’t changed. Yet the Rooney Rule was, in a way, flawed from the outset — most making decisions seemingly haven’t ever really taken the concept seriously. The league really has no power here. Teams do what they do.

Texting Belichick

The Flores class-action case has a few wrinkles others before didn’t, namely a text chain between him and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. The latter believed he was conversing with Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll when texting, “heard from Buffalo and NYG that you are their guy.”

Flores — who had yet to interview in person with the Giants — asked Belichick to clarify who he was texting. A day after that in-person sit-down with Flores occurred, New York hired Daboll.

That’s called a paper trail.

Said Myles Garrett, the Cleveland Browns’ star defensive end, at Thursday’s practice: “Maybe they should all come together and do (an ESPN) ‘30 for 30’ so everyone’s story is out there and not just Brian’s. We need to hear from everybody.”

If you’re ever going to sue the almighty and powerful NFL and any of its members for systemic racism, you better bring a boatload of evidence, proving a case has merit. It’s a tough go. The burden is extremely difficult.

Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden will likely ultimately discover this in his lawsuit against the NFL. Gruden is claiming the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to destroy his career through an orchestrated campaign.

Flores also alleges an interview with the Broncos in 2019 was merely to satisfy the Rooney Rule and that Miami owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 for each loss — also in 2019 — as head coach so as to improve the team’s draft position.

(Just wondering: Would we have heard of such an offering had he not been fired and remained head coach? And why interview with the Giants if Flores believed a decision had already been made?)

Look. It’s a lot to unpack. All parties being sued have vehemently denied the accusations. We haven’t even gotten to the part where Flores charges Ross wanted him to try to recruit a “prominent quarterback” on another team in 2020, a prohibited act known as tampering in the NFL.

Nothing has changed

But at its core, the lawsuit brings us back to a relatively obvious truth: The rule put in place to supposedly champion diverse hiring hasn’t worked.

This was Goodell at the Super Bowl in Miami three years ago when speaking on the Rooney Rule: “Clearly, we are not where we want to be. We need to change and do something different. There’s no reason to expect we are going to have a different outcome next year without those kind of changes.”

They haven’t yet changed. The outcome hasn’t been different.

And now Brian Flores is fighting back. Maybe he wins. Maybe he loses. Maybe he settles.

But whether it makes a long-term difference this time is anyone’s guess. Nothing has before.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.