Brian Flores: Is the NFL Anti-black?
Racism and any form of discrimination is contrary to the NFL’s values. We have made significant efforts to promote diversity and adopted numerous policies and programs which have produced positive change in many areas, however we must acknowledge that particularly with respect to head coaches the results have been unacceptable.
-Roger Goodell
Introduction
In this short essay, I will argue that Brian Flores’s lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) is one example, among others, that illustrates how the NFL perpetuates anti-blackness. I generally define anti-blackness in this instance as practices, policies, or procedures that marginalize Black people socially, politically, and economically regardless of intent. My essay will begin by unpacking the events that led to Flores’s lawsuit and provide a brief analysis of its implications. Next, I will discuss three points that support my argument. First, the Rooney Rule is failing Black head coach candidates, which is obvious. Second, NFL team owners’ blackballing of Colin Kaepernick and their implicit support for divisive politics during Donald Trump’s presidency reveal their apathy toward social justice. Third, the NFL’s use of race norming/correction to approve or deny payouts for the class-action concussion lawsuit demonstrates its use of modern-day scientific racism. These points reveal that the NFL’s challenges with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) extend beyond a paucity of Black head coaches.
Why is Brian Flores Suing the NFL?
If you have been following current events in the NFL, you are likely aware that former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores filed a class-action lawsuit on February 1, 2022, against the NFL and three teams — the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, and New York Giants, alleging he was a victim of racist practices. Flores is a protégé of Bill Belichick, the reputed greatest NFL head coach of all time. From 2008–2018, Flores served on Belichick’s coaching staff, rising up the ranks and positioning himself as a budding head coach candidate.
Following the 2018 season, Flores officially became a head coach candidate. One of the teams that interviewed him was the Broncos, who ultimately decided he was not the best fit for the organization. However, the lawsuit revealed alarming details about Flores’s interview that previously were not public knowledge. It claimed that representatives from the Broncos were an hour late and appeared hungover, noting “It was clear from the substance of the interview that Mr. Flores was interviewed only because of the Rooney Rule, and that the Broncos never had any intention to consider him as a legitimate candidate for the job.”
The Rooney Rule was established in 2003 and requires each team to interview at least one minority for head coach openings. The rule was amended in 2009 to include front office positions, and in 2021, it required teams to interview at least two minorities. Nearly 20 years after the rule was instituted, the NFL only has two Black head coaches — Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Lovie Smith, who the Houston Texans recently hired. This circumstance is beyond embarrassing, given the NFL had three Black head coaches in 2003.
When the Broncos passed on Flores, the Miami Dolphins hired him, and although he led them to back-to-back winnings seasons, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross decided to fire him. Based on reports from the media, the Dolphins did not fire Flores because of his performance. They fired him due to internal conflict, or what the lawsuit called “poor collaboration.” The poor collaboration may be partly due to Flores refusing Ross’s request to tank games for a better draft position. He accuses Ross of offering him $100,000 per loss.
Still, Flores’s success with the Dolphins made him a surefire candidate for multiple head coach openings in 2022. He has interviewed with multiple teams, but his candidacy with the Giants was the straw that broke the camel’s back, compelling him to take legal action. Before Flores’s second interview, he inadvertently discovered the Giants decided to offer the job to Brian Daboll, the former offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. Daboll was also a former assistant coach for Belichick. Unfortunately, Belichick accidentally sent Flores a congratulatory text intended for Daboll, which puts the legitimacy of Flores’s second interview into question. Despite Flores having proved that he could successfully coach in the NFL, the Giants seemingly were using him to check off the Rooney Rule box, similar to what the Broncos did in 2019.
The Relationship between Flores’s Lawsuit and the NFL’s Devaluing of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
This situation has raised questions that need answers. Why did Belichick, who has no official affiliation with the Giants, know that Daboll received the job before Flores had his second interview? Is Belichick’s text the smoking gun that once again confirms the NFL’s good ole boys network? Most importantly, how will this lawsuit impact the NFL? Only time will tell what’s to follow from this debacle, but I do know that whether or not Flores’s lawyers successfully defend his case, the NFL is guilty as charged in the court of public opinion.
There are several reasons it appears the NFL does not value DEI or, better yet — Black people. The first reason is the most recognizable — the ongoing scarcity of Black head coaches. The second reason is the NFL owners’ implicit endorsement of divisive politics during Donald Trump’s presidency. And the third reason is the NFL’s use of race norming/correction in the concussion lawsuit payouts. While these points illuminate distinct situations that seem independent of one another, anti-blackness is the underlying link that connects them. As I briefly discuss each point, I hope one thing becomes crystal clear — the NFL does not value Black people. Now, the NFL may value Black players’ labor, but the powers that be do not appear to care about the players’ humanity. Like the antebellum era, during which planters valued their enslaved labor, but they did not value the people picking their cotton.
Is the NFL a Modern Plantation? (This isn’t the focus of my essay, but bear with me; I’m going somewhere.)
Ironically enough, the lawsuit associates the NFL with slavery. In the preliminary statement, it reads:
In certain critical ways, the NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation. Its 32 owners — none of whom are Black — profit substantially from the labor of NFL players, 70% of whom are Black. The owners watch the games from atop NFL stadiums in their luxury boxes, while their majority-Black workforce put their bodies on the line every Sunday, taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries to their bodies and their brains while the NFL and its owners reap billions of dollars.
Though I understand why some would link the NFL to slavery, I often hesitate to make that connection because there is a difference between voluntary and involuntary labor; there is a difference between paid and unpaid labor. Indeed, I am open to having a conversation about the NFL exploiting Black bodies for profit, but I think it is disrespectful to my ancestors who were abducted from their homeland, transported to foreign soil, and forced to labor from sunup to sundown. Nevertheless, both slavery and the NFL are systems that have benefited from structural racism. Just as Black people were born into a system that relegated them to forced labor, the NFL is constantly fed a pipeline of far too many Black men that grow up in conditions that make them believe their only chance at success is the NFL. For those who make it, great! For those who do not make it, they are left with broken dreams and bodies, and far too often, no contingency plan.
The Rooney Rule is Failing Black Coaches
In 2021, researchers at the Global Sport Institute published a report titled “NFL Head Coach Hiring and Pathways in the Rooney Rule Era.” They showed that between 2003–2020, there were 115 head coach openings but only 21 Black hires. Furthermore, there was only one year (2009) when there were more than two Black hires. There was only one year (2005) where there were less than three White hires. The report indicated that even though Black candidates typically have more playing experience at the collegiate and NFL levels than White candidates, they are still more likely to be passed over for head coach openings. Moreover, Whites are the only racial group to become NFL head coaches without any prior NFL coaching experience.
George B. Cunningham, Professor and Director at the Center for Sport Management Research and Education at Texas A&M, highlights three factors that may explain the hiring disparity between Black and White head coach candidates at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. He dismisses individual factors because Black and White head coach candidates have similar qualifications and performance. But when it comes to organizational factors, he notes that White head coach candidates are disproportionately represented in offensive and defensive coordinator positions. Why is this important? Because coordinators comprise a significant percentage of head coach candidates. Regarding the societal level, he acknowledges that systemic racism is also a variable that contributes to the lack of Black head coaches in the NFL.
NFL Owners in the Era of Kneeling and Trumpism
When Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel in 2016 during the National Anthem in protest of systemic racism, he was by all accounts blackballed by team owners. Though some people may dispute this point, riddle me this — why did the NFL reach a settlement with Kaepernick after he filed a lawsuit claiming that team owners colluded against his employability? Unfortunately, we do not know what evidence he had given both parties signed a confidentially agreement. Yet, I think it is safe to assume that he had something. Following the murder of George Floyd, Kaepernick’s protest again became a topic of contention in the sports world. Joe Lockhart, who was the NFL’s Executive Vice President of Communications and Government Affairs from 2016–2018 broke his silence and wrote an op-ed titled, “Now is the moment to sign Colin Kaepernick,” claiming the NFL’s social justice initiative, Inspire Change, was not enough.
He admitted that he thought it was an appropriate response because the NFL was providing needed financial aid to social justice causes. Lockhart shared he was uncomfortable with Kaepernick remaining unsigned, but he was willing to give team owners a pass for believing his employment would be “bad for business.” He writes, “I know now it was not enough just to spend money to make progress on the issue of racial disparities. That is crucial, but so are symbols that reflect that attempt at progress — and also the failure to reach it.”
Unfortunately, Kaepernick remains unsigned and will likely never play in the NFL again. As a result, he did not become a symbol of progress in the NFL; he became a symbol of failure and the team owners’ implicit endorsement of divisive politics. For instance, journalist Jemele Hill’s article, “The NFL Can’t Fight Racism When Owners Support Trump,” underscores the hypocrisy of team owners who back the NFL’s social justice initiatives yet supported Donald Trump. She states:
Individual owners may rationalize their support for Trump as a matter of personal friendship or business interests. But in their refusal to break up with Trump, despite his endless string of inflammatory actions and rhetoric, these owners are only signaling that the NFL’s mushy commitment to justice and their own donations to anti-racist causes are just for show.
If all 32 NFL teams adopted Inspire Change and endorsed social justice causes, why would team owners support a person that attacked diversity training programs and declared war on Critical Race Theory, or should I say Black History? I guess that is the cost of doing business, and if that is the case, team owners have shown us they are fine with harming the social, political, and economic health of marginalized groups so long as it keeps their bottom line healthy.
The NFL’s Endorsement of Scientific Racism
This past summer, the NFL’s use of race norming or race correction in its concussion settlement payouts left people in shock. In case you did not know, the NFL faced a class-action lawsuit from former players who claimed their diagnosis of various neurological disorders is due to concussions they suffered while playing professional football. While the NFL initially attempted to deny the link between concussions and neurological disorders, specifically, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), they eventually reached a $1 billion settlement with the claimants.
Going back to race norming/correction, the NFL required claimants to undergo a cognitive test, but the test was used differently for Blacks than for Whites. Race norming/correction was incorporated based on the racist assumption that Blacks have a lower cognitive ability than Whites. As a result, Black claimants had to show more neurological degeneration than White claimants to either qualify for a payment or receive equitable compensation. But we should not be surprised the NFL used this method because it is widespread in medicine. Race norming/correction is a conventional practice that physicians use in cardiology, nephrology, obstetrics, and urology. Lucia Trimbur and Lundy Braun discuss how race norming/correction harked back to the antebellum period and served as a foundational component of pulmonary medicine: They write:
In pulmonary medicine, the idea of racial difference dates as far back as Thomas Jefferson. In Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson wrote that he found meaningful corporeal differences between Black and white people and, in particular, thought there must be ‘a different structure in the pulmonary apparatus.’ As previously chronicled, this difference imagined by Jefferson in 1787 quickly became the foundation of lung function studies and was later incorporated into the spirometer, the instrument still used to diagnose respiratory disease today.
If the NFL believes Black players have a lower cognitive baseline than White players, could that explain why Black head coach candidates are continually passed over for head coach job openings? The NFL has since dropped race norming/correction from its cognitive testing, but that is a response to public backlash — not a shift in mindset.
Concluding Remarks
At the beginning of this essay, I cited a quote from Roger Goodell from a memo he sent to all 32 NFL teams on February 5, 2022. The subject line was “Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Really? When I read his statement, I had trouble taking him seriously. His claim that “Racism and any form of discrimination is contrary to the NFL’s values” is laughable if one evaluates what they do instead of what they say. Goodell’s memo followed an NFL statement in response to Flores’s lawsuit that read, “Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time. We will defend against these claims, which are without merit.” Really? In a press conference on February 9, 2022, Goodell explained that the NFL’s statement was not dismissive of allegations of racism.
Rather, he explained that “The initial reaction was regarding the legal claims themselves and not really the experiences of what Coach Flores was going through.” I am not a lawyer, but Goodell’s rationale is baffling to me. How can we separate Flores’s experiences from the lawsuit when his experiences are the reason why he filed the lawsuit? I am not smart enough to figure that one out, but what I have figured out is this — the NFL has a problem with anti-blackness. The current head coach hiring cycle inched closer toward a conclusion on Monday with the Houston Texans hiring Lovie Smith, who is Black and was previously a head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears. Following the hiring of Smith, Flores’s lawyers released a statement claiming the Texans decided not to hire him due to his lawsuit. Whether or not their accusation is true, I think it is plausible to predict that Flores will not receive another head coach opportunity in the NFL. He acknowledged this much himself in an interview with Mike Greenberg of ESPN.
Flores is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for future Black NFL head coaches, and I applaud him for that. At the same time, he has repeated in various interviews like the one with Chris Hayes of MSNBC that his goal is to change the team owners’ “hearts and minds.” Honestly, I am doubtful at worse and cautiously optimistic at best whether hearts and minds will ever change. In a perfect world, the NFL would embody diversity, equity, and inclusion in theory and practice, but it appears their focus is more theoretical than practical. I hope this lawsuit will receive the support it needs from Black coaches and White coaches who are brave enough to be allies. I hope this lawsuit will completely uncover the good ole boys network that we all know operates at full capacity. And I hope this lawsuit will force the NFL’s hand to do right by Black coaches because it is their responsibility. Whether team owners change their hearts and minds is another matter.
Aside from Black coaches not receiving equitable opportunities for head coach positions, team owners’ blackballing of Colin Kaepernick and their implicit support for divisive politics indicates a level of racial apathy that transcends football. It illuminates a worldview that sees Black players as commodities. Team owners’ support for Donald Trump during the 2016 and 2020 United States presidential elections further signifies this point. I do not need to review Trump’s racist and immoral behavior — you should know by now his actions embolden people to reactivate overt racism (although I would argue it never left), but that did not matter to them. Lastly, the NFL’s use of race norming/correction shows they believe Black people are genetically less intelligent than White people (and we thought the United States was past eugenics). Could this belief possibly explain why locating Black head coaches in the NFL is like finding a needle in the haystack? Does the NFL generally believe that Black coaches fail to exhibit the intellectual capacity to lead players, manage a coaching staff, and integrate strategies that set their teams up for success?
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule (Black exceptions have always existed), but the lack of representation among head coaches raises questions that need answers. I have one question — is the NFL anti-black? Based on the information I shared in this essay I would say yes — it is anti-black. Yes, the NFL is possessed by an unrelenting spirit that radiates anti-blackness. Spending millions of dollars on social justice causes can go far, but it will not go far enough because this spirit I speak of also possesses the United States, but that is a topic for another day. Hopefully, Flores’s lawsuit will help us gain clarity on what is really going on in the NFL.
