SCOTUS Just Aided Brian Flores' Fight Against The NFL

Perhaps the highest court in the land feels bad for demolishing the Voting Rights Act. Maybe Clarence Thomas remembered he’s Black. Or, maybe even a group of people who are comfortable with doing Donald Trump’s bidding understand just how repugnant the NFL can be.

Regardless, victories of this magnitude are rare.

A week after Brian Flores, the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, had his attorneys subpoena 25 NFL teams for over 20 years’ worth of hiring and employment records, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins — who is suing the league for its alleged racist hiring practices — achieved a major legal win when the United States Supreme Court declined to intervene in his case, allowing it to move forward in open court.

In the coming days and weeks, the NFL will face a decision that will alter its history. The league will either concede to a Black man and agree to settle out of court, which would be interpreted as an admission of guilt, or it will choose to go to trial, exposing all of its dirtiest secrets.

Every Black coach who has been overlooked or unfairly dismissed in favor of a sorry white coach must be smiling right now.

“We didn’t have to file a lawsuit for the world to know there’s a problem from the hiring standpoint with regard of minority coaches,” said Flores when he filed his lawsuit back in 2022. “The numbers speak for themselves. We filed a lawsuit so that we could create some change. And that’s important to me. I think we’re at a fork in the road right now. We’re either going to keep it the way it is, or we’re going to go in another direction and actually make some real change.”

When the lawsuit was initially filed, Flores had just been fired after two winning seasons in Florida. “This is a class action lawsuit that is finally bringing to light what any number of Black coaches have told me over my decade of covering the NFL and certainly what has taken place far before I ever started covering the NFL,” CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones previously said.

Currently, there are only three Black head coaches in the NFL: DeMeco Ryans (Houston), Aaron Glenn (New York Jets), and Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay). 

Notably, no Black candidates were hired in the most recent hiring cycle, which had ten openings in a predominantly Black league. The odds have also never favored Black coaches in interim head-coaching roles. From 2010 to 2022, 14 white interim coaches held the position, with three being promoted to full-time head coaches. In contrast, during that same time frame, a Black interim coach was never replaced by another Black coach.

Given the league’s history when it comes to racial hiring and the current landscape, Flores’ attorneys argued that the reasoning behind their subpoena was necessary to prove “systemic racial discrimination,” as the conversation about who doesn’t get hired has become an annual discussion. “ … The process itself is governed by uniform league rules and reporting requirements, including the Rooney Rule and related interview and documentation obligations, all of which are monitored by the NFL league office and subject to potential league discipline for noncompliance,” read the legal filing.

Despite multiple attempts by the league to keep the case out of the public eye, SCOTUS’s position serves as a brief moment to breathe in the ongoing fight against this administration and what it represents. Unsurprisingly, Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the decision not to hear the case.

“The NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams. We look forward to litigating these claims in court,” Flores’ attorneys said in a statement.

Similar to Kaepernick and Eric Reid’s collusion lawsuit against the league — based on their allegations that they were blackballed for peacefully kneeling in protest during the national anthem to bring awareness to racism and police brutality — it is expected that the NFL will similarly settle Flores’ lawsuit.

If they don’t, it’s a wrap.

This is a league that takes great pride in being an obstacle on the path to equality and justice. In 2021, the NFL had to officially pledge to stop the practice of “race-norming,” — which assumed that Black and white players did not have the same intellect, due to a racist belief that Black people have lower cognitive levels than white people — as part of a $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims. 

Two years later, New York and California attorneys general investigated the league’s office for a collection of sexual harassment and racial discrimination allegations. And just a few months ago, the league announced that a program that was created to locate, identify, and help advance diverse talent had been amended to include white men, as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier demanded that the league get rid of the Rooney Rule — which mandates that teams interview diverse candidates for head coaching positions to address the lack of Black men being hired for those roles.

“We’re engaging with the Florida attorney general and will continue to. We’ll share everything we’re doing with them. We think it’s certainly within the law, but also something very positive,” Goodell said recently after receiving a subpoena from Uthmeier — a man who has all but labeled the Rooney Rule as reverse racism, after saying it amounts to “blatant race and sex discrimination.”

The realization that Brian Flores is on the brink of implicating the most popular league in a country where the government and judicial system have systematically sought to dismantle any progress made toward equity and equality for Black Americans is monumental. He is forcing the league to either confront its past bigotry or risk having its discriminatory practices laid bare in court. This achievement will secure his place in the history books.

This is why Muhammad Ali refused to go to war, why John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised their fist at the Olympics, and why Kaepernick risked it all.

Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University. Follow his Substack to keep up with more of his work.

SEE ALSO:

The United States Is Crumbling. Bring the ‘DEIs’ Back

Ime Udoka And Mel Tucker Just Added Sherrone Moore To Their Group Chat

SCOTUS Just Aided Brian Flores’ Fight For Justice Against The NFL was originally published on newsone.com