Steve Wilks, who was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals for one season in 2018, and Ray Horton, the NFL assistant since 1994 who was interviewed for the position of Tennessee Titans coach in 2016, are now part of the lawsuit that filed against the NFL. , the Dolphins, the Denver Broncos, the New York Giants, the Houston Texans, the Titans and the Cardinals, plus 26 other NFL “John Doe” teams. The Titans, Cardinals and Texans were also added to the costume as part of the amendment. Flores’s lawyers claim in the amended complaint that the Texans “argued” against Flores by removing him from consideration for the coach’s vacancy “because of his decision to file this lawsuit and speak publicly about systemic discrimination in the NFL”. The amended lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York. It calls for, among other things, increased transparency in NFL recruitment, incentives to hire black coaches and increased visibility for Black assistant coaches. 2 About Lawyers say Wilks was discriminated against as a “bridge coach” who was “not given any real chance to succeed. Wilks was 3-13 in a season with Arizona before being sacked and replaced by Kliff Kingsbury.” while Kingsbury was successful, “Mr. Wilkes, given the same opportunity given to Mr. Kingsbury, would certainly succeed.” “When coach Flores filed this lawsuit, I knew I owed it to myself, and to all the black NFL coaches and aspiring coaches, to stand by him,” Wilkes said in a statement released by his lawyers. “This lawsuit has shed further light on a problem that we all know exists but very few are willing to deal with. Black coaches and candidates should have exactly the same ability to work and stay busy with white coaches and “This is not the case at the moment, and I look forward to working with Coach Flores and Coach Horton to ensure that racial equality ambitions in the NFL come true.” Wilks returned to the NFL this year as game coordinator and head coach for the Carolina Panthers after spending a season as a defensive coordinator at the University of Missouri. Horton was the Titans’ defensive coordinator in 2014-15 and was interviewed for the position of team coach. The lawyers said the interview was “a completely false interview conducted only to comply with Rooney’s Rule and to show an equal opportunity and a false willingness to consider a minority candidate for the post”. The Titans hired Mike Mullarki, who is white, for the job, and Horton left to be Cleveland’s defensive coordinator. He has since retired. Mularkey, who coached the team for the last nine games of the 2015 season, told a 2020 podcast that the Titans’ owners told him he would get the job done before completing the interview process, including interviewing two minority candidates. Mularkey’s comments, part of a wide-ranging interview on the Steelers Realm podcast, were in response to a question about his regrets during his career. The allegations have taken on a new meaning since Flores filed his lawsuit in February, alleging that he was discriminated against during job interviews. “I was always proud to be doing the right thing in this business and I can not say that this applies to everyone in this business,” Mularkey told the podcast. “It’s a very miserable business and a lot of guys will tell you that … I allowed myself at one point when I was in Tennessee to get caught up in something I regret and still regret. But the property there, Amy Adams Strunk and her family came and told me that I was going to be a coach in 2016 before going through Rooney’s Rule, and so I sat there knowing that I was the head coach in ’16 as they went through this fake recruitment process. the coaches they interviewed, knowing how much they were preparing to go through these interviews, knowing that what they could do and had no chance of finding this job.In fact, GM, Jon Robinson, was interviewing “I had no idea why he was interviewing me – that I already had the job. I regret it. I’m sorry I did it. It was not the right way to do it.” ESPN took note of the interview, which was not widely circulated at the time, as part of a report on the issues raised by Flores’s lawsuit, and contacted Mularkey for comment before filing the amended lawsuit. Mullarki was sacked by the Titans in 2017 after going 9-7 in a row and losing to the New England Patriots in the playoffs. “I think you have the truth and what you need,” Mularkey told ESPN via email. “Prefer not to comment anymore.” The Titans, in a statement to ESPN issued prior to the lawsuit, disputed Mularkey’s recollection of what happened during the interview process, but did not make Adams Strunk or other executives available for comment. “Our search for the 2016 coach was an open and competitive process during which we interviewed four candidates and followed all NFL rules,” the statement said. “The organization was undecided about its next coach during the process and made its final decision after examining all four candidates after the interviews were completed.” Two minority candidates who were finalists for the Titans position in 2016, Teryl Austin and Horton, did not respond to repeated interviews by ESPN prior to filing the lawsuit. Austin is currently the defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he works in the same staff as Flores. Flores, who was sacked in January after three seasons with the Dolphins, was hired in February by coach Mike Tomlin as a senior defense assistant and line-up manager. The NFL, speaking to ESPN before filing the lawsuit, said it did not know Mularkey’s comments before being asked about them. “I did a lot of internal research and it never got to the NFL,” said Brian McCarthy, vice president of communications for the NFL. “We did not know this as an issue.” “I’m proud to stand with Coach Flores and Coach Wilkes in the fight against systemic discrimination that has plagued the NFL for so long,” Horton said in a statement released by his attorneys. “When I learned from Coach Mularkey’s statements that my coach’s interview with the Titans was a scam, I was overwhelmed and humiliated. in the future.” In the amended complaint, Flores’s lawyers write that on February 4, it was widely reported that the Texans had reduced their candidacy for head coach to Flores, Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and Josh McCown. After it was announced that Gannon, who is white, was no longer in the spotlight, the decision was made to Flores or McCown, who is also white and has no coaching experience in the NFL. The complaint states that “the Texans were rightly concerned that if they hired Mr McCown over Mr Flores, it would reinforce Mr Flores’ allegations of systematic discrimination against black candidates, especially as the team had just sacked the Black Head coach. David Caley. after only one season. Therefore, later that day it was announced that the Texans had limited their search to just two candidates, it was also announced that the team had decided to give a first interview to its own Coach Culley’s Defense Coordinator, Lovie Smith, for his position. Head Coach. “ The Texans eventually hired Smith, who is also Black, for the job of coach. The complaint applauds Texans for hiring Smith, who “is more than qualified for the role,” but says it is “problematic” that Flores surrendered because he filed his lawsuit. The amended complaint also extends to allegations that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered Flores $ 100,000 per loss during the 2019 season – his first as coach – in a bid to boost the Dolphins’ draft value. He states that Flores sent a memo on December 4, 2019, to CEO Chris Grier, CEO Tom Garfinkel and senior vice president of football and business management Brandon Shore in which he “detailed the toxicity within the organization and explained the absurd position in which it was placed by the ownership of the team and the senior management “. Flores’s lawyers said the NFL had a copy of the memorandum. At its owners’ annual meeting last month, the NFL announced a new diversity advisory committee to review league and club policies on recruitment. The six-member committee “will offer its external perspective on industry best practices and evaluate diversity of leagues and clubs, equality and inclusion strategies and initiatives, including all recruitment processes, policies and procedures, with a focus on the coach senior level and front office positions. “ “While the NFL can hire outside advisers, make minor rule changes, and engage with a variety of stakeholders, real and lasting change can only be achieved through the appointment of a court-appointed supervisor, as the NFL has repeatedly proven to be incompetent. of the policing itself “, said in a statement the lawyers Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis.
