Brian Flores, a black Honduran-American, is a former college football linebacker who worked his way up from a scouting position with the New England Patriots to its defensive coordinator before accepting a head coaching position for Miami, compiling a 3-year record of 24-25, no NFL playoff game; and reportedly at odds with certain key players and the general manager, among others. He has been in the headlines for recently filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Dolphins, the NFL, and 2 other teams who allegedly engaged in sham interviews for their coaching positions (Denver and New York Giants). He has also alleged Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of trying to bribe him to lose games in order to get better positions for an upcoming NFL draft.
If you listen to progressive media, you'll hear all sorts of sympathetic coverage of Flores, arguing racial discrimination against black coaches and disparate treatment against the 24 who have made it, like Flores. Anyone who has ever taken a statistics course knows better than to generalize from a small number of black NFL head coaches. Never mind that the league strongly encourages consideration of hiring black coaches through the Rooney rule, which mandates interviewing black candidates for coaching and organization management positions. [You would think with only one current black head coach, an experienced coach like Flores would get his fair share of interviews given annual coach turnover and his long tenure in the highly successful Patriots organization. As mentioned above, Flores is upset at the Broncos and Giants because he felt they never interviewed in good faith and implied or suggested that he was being used to accommodate the Rooney rule. One item he mentions is a former coach mistakenly texted him (versus another one with his given name) congratulations for the Giants job, with the interview still pending.
I will point out I've seen a lot of sympathetic pro-Flores coverage in the press, including CNN. For example, the first season was his worst, losing his first 7 games but things turned around with a split record the rest of the way. This was the season he alleges Ross offered to pay him a bonus if he would intentionally lose more games to get better draft picks. This would be a Black Sox like scandal, and if something similar would have happened to me, I would have quit. Not to mention Flores didn't like Ross' draft picks, including selection of an Alabama quarterback. The positive coverage of Flores includes observations that the last two seasons were winning ones, the first consecutive ones in years, almost making the playoffs.
I am not a lawyer, and I have not read the briefs; I know little beyond what's presented in the press. I am Franco-American, not black, and the closest I've been to football is going out for high school tryouts one spring. (I didn't have size or speed, but my gym teacher was impressed I had blocked a punt in touch football one game and took a violent hit in another, spraining my left wrist [the running back was charging at me full speed, playing a game of chicken--and I thought he would change direction and was playing angles to tag him].)
Comparisons with my own experience are at best questionable, but I have been unjustly terminated in my own job history and had my fair share of sham interviews. Just to give a few examples: I was once literally fired in the first 20 minutes of a federal contractor job with the Department of Energy. My new supervisor changed his mind over the weekend and waited until I came to work. He had had my resume for weeks. In another case, a Rhode Island company had tried to hire me, and I went instead to a consulting company. After an initial temp assignment they didn't have a follow-up and warned me I would be laid off if I didn't keep billing. One of their clients happened to be a RI company (yup, that one). I had been told an EBS project was behind schedule for patching reasons (I have relevant Apps DBA experience). So I fly into Providence, drive to the client site, and my company point of contact meets me, tells me I first have to meet the client project lead, a formality. Said manager then goes through a list of platforms and Oracle technologies not in my resume. I'm totally confused; I had met with my company's project team members who warmly welcomed me like their savior. I questioned the client manager about the patching situation, and he immediately dismissed it as a lie, saying they were all caught up. He then says they can't use me. My company project lead in front of me apologizes for presenting an unsuitable candidate and reassured him he would not be charged a penny of my expenses. (Wow, that bus hit me hard when it ran over me.) I had to cancel my hotel reservation and reschedule my Southwest Air flight back to DC. When I was subsequently laid off, guess what company immediately tried to recruit me? Yup. Go to hell.
Another couple of examples. For weeks I had been commuting to this temp gig in Sterling Heights, MI. I had flown into Detroit and checked into a hotel as usual Monday morning before driving to the client site. I got called into a meeting with a client project manager who told me they had decided last Friday they didn't need me anymore. and I needed to leave NOW. Under security escort. And they are literally chasing me out of the parking lot as I'm trying to call my boss in Alabama to find out what's going on. So now I'm having to check out of my hotel and fly back to DC.
Now as to sham interviews, it's difficult to tell. For example, in academia for an open faculty position they might have a process that calls for campus visits for 3 candidates. The process is opaque from the candidate's perspective. In some cases I never got a follow-up, even a typical "Thank you for coming, but we've found someone who is a better fit to our requirements". One case that clearly stands out was a prominent private college in Rhode Island (two of my cousins earned teaching degrees there). They told me their budget for the position was about $10K below what I had made at state universities and I was below-market. I was still interested, did the interview, but they eventually decided on a "local candidate". Maybe they didn't like me personally, and this was a tactful response on their part. But my immediate thought was "Dude, you knew I was out-of-state when you recruited me." Maybe they used me to show they considered non-local candidates, and they certainly had a right to hire who they wanted, regardless of the reason. I don't personalize it. It could be applicant #1 was their preferred candidate, and follow-up applicants were at a disadvantage. I do recall someone saying to me once something like in the context of my last example, "At least you got a paid vacation to Providence." I'm like, "Dude, you don't know what a campus visit is, and if I planned a vacation, it would not be to Providence."
There was one time I got close to a sham interview. My phone rang as I was literally walking out the door to drive to the interview for a job I was clearly qualified for. They told me they had interviewed their dream candidate and made an offer; there was no reason to do my interview. It wasn't like I had a backup interview set up. There was the competitive side of me who still wanted to interview, but I respected their right; they had my contact information if the offer fell through.
This is my read of the Flores situation. I think he committed career suicide. I haven't seen any racial discrimination in what's been presented in the media. I don't doubt he is unhappy with being fired, that he deserved more time to turn around the franchise. But he has engaged in a scorched earth policy against the team that hired him for 3 years and 2 teams that interviewed him. Playing the race card is really questionable, even in the Kaepernick era. Airing dirty laundry shows really bad judgment. Venting may be cathartic but it sends the wrong message to prospective employers. Me, I've been fired over far worse circumstances than Flores has (based on what I've heard). I haven't gone after former bosses, employers or others, suing or harassing them. I know what I've accomplished but I don't want to work for people who treat me unfairly and don't appreciate what I've done. I prefer a fresh start, not obsessing over the negative actions and opinions of others. I can't speak for NFL owners, but I've got to wonder if I were to hire Flores, the first time a bad thing happens, is he going to play the race card on me or vent dirty laundry in the press? It's more an issue of character, not race.
From where I stand, a lot of team owners are unhappy when their teams don't win championships, and coaches are a natural symbolic target or scapegoat. I earlier tweeted a source listing numerous coaches with winning records but fired. Flores had some bad relationships with certain players (like the QB) and team management (the general manager). He openly disagreed with draft picks. Ross himself referenced a bad fit with the organization. It's not so much the merits of Flores' arguments as the manner he conducted himself in contentious situations. For me, it's more an application of Occam's razor. I don't need the racism boogieman to explain Flores' termination. In Flores' place, I would have thanked Ross for the opportunity and wished the franchise success in the future. I'm not sure what to advise Flores now; maybe college football positions. But he needs to work on his attitude and interpersonal skills, his professionalism.
