Flores not serious about being NFL head coach
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If Brian Flores wanted to be a head coach in the NFL again, he wouldn't settle for anything less. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the Pittsburgh Steelers named Flores as their senior assistant/linebackers coach.
Flores' hire by Pittsburgh was met with mixed reactions because anything discussed in public discourse these days is. Flores filed a bombshell lawsuit against the NFL a few weeks ago, accusing the league of being "racist" and discriminating against minorities when it comes to promoting them as head coaches.
The league initially said that Flores’ claims were “without merit,” and that they were committed to ensuring “equitable employment practices.”
Since filing his lawsuit, Flores and his representation have been unapologetic about wanting him to be a head coach again in the NFL. If that truly is the endgame, then Saturday's move did nothing to accomplish that.
The Steelers offered him a position as a senior assistant should have come across as insulting, frankly. I know that school of thought won't land well on Twitter or social media — the driving forces of fake outrage — but it's the truth. I don't know Flores' financial or life situation, so if economics was his motivating factor for taking the job in Pittsburgh, then more power to him.
But, think about the chess move the NFL just employed. Only one coach in the NFL identifies as Black, and that's the Steelers’ head coach, Mike Tomlin. Mike McDaniel, Flores' replacement in Miami, is Black and white, but he identifies as bi-racial. So, technically you could count him as the second Black head coach, but that's another discussion for another day.
Now back to the NFL.
I find it "ironic" that the team with the only African-American coach was the only organization to offer Flores a job. On one hand, it makes sense, because what coach better relates to Flores' plight than Tomlin, who routinely has to validate his legitimacy?
And so Tomlin, with the blessing of the Rooney family, of course, decided to bring Flores in as a way to empower and protect him. If Flores turns down the position, he’s perceived as ungrateful. If he takes the position, he’s seen as “selling out.”
I'd argue that Flores is moving backward, not forward by taking on this role with the Steelers. If Flores saw himself as just a senior assistant/linebackers coach, he doesn't file his lawsuit. In his mind, he believes he's qualified to lead a roster of 53 men out of the tunnel on Sunday.
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Flores has been in the NFL since 2004. There’s no way that after spending nearly two decades as an employee of the league Flores wasn’t aware of how the owners operate. I'd be remiss if I didn't admit that Flores' firing was surprising. In the three years, he was at the helm, Miami finished with a winning season in back-to-back seasons.
And while the team never reached the playoffs throughout his tenure, Flores got the most out of a quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa, who has yet to live up to his high draft status expectations.
I would also be disingenuous if I didn't state that the timing of reported friction between Flores and Tagovailoa was inauspicious in the immediate aftermath of the Dolphins firing Flores. However, I don’t believe Flores who finished his stint as head coach of the Dolphins with a 24-25 record in three years was fired because he was Black.
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For the sake of argument, let’s say Flores and Tagovailoa weren't seeing eye-to-eye. Deciding whom to retain and whom to let go became increasingly apparent for Dolphin’s ownership. The Dolphins organization invested in Tagovailoa, whom they drafted with the fifth overall pick in the first round. Parting ways with the former Alabama quarterback this early into his career is an omission that the front office was wrong for selecting him.
And so it's plausible that Flores' firing was driven by ego and wanting to protect Tagovailoa, more so than race. Flores' attorneys should have advised him to wait until the coaching cycle played out to see if he would receive another head coaching opportunity.
I don't think Flores is qualified to coach in the NFL; I know he is!
The only issue is the people he's suing are the ones he's trying to convince of that.
