Mike McDaniel made his exit known.
Mike McDaniel declared his intent to resign today
policies. Flores is presently suing the National Football League and three of its teams for allegedly having terminated him wrongfully and using racist hiring practices.
Flores became the first head coach in 18 years to lead the Dolphins to two consecutive winning seasons, but he was fired by the team in mid-January. The NFL community, which had been greatly impressed by Flores’ ability to turn around a struggling squad, was taken aback by his departure. Many Dolphins fans were thrilled by his 3-1 record against their rivals, the New England Patriots. It goes without saying that there were a lot of unanswered issues around the choice to make an abrupt coaching change. The departure of Flores, according to Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, was due to problems with communication between the ownership and coaching staff. Ross, according to Flores, wanted the team to ruin the 2019 campaign in order to get the top choice. Flores refuted these allegations. Ross allegedly offered Flores $100,000 for each loss, but Flores rejected the offer. Ross was offended by this and finally decided to fire Flores from his coaching position.
Many observers predicted that Flores would be in high demand from the nine teams looking for a replacement coach after his dismissal. It was rumored that Flores had an interview arranged with the New York Giants, one of the teams interested in him. However, Flores received a text message from Patriots head coach Bill Belichick congratulating him on getting the job before he could even have an interview. This was strange, of course. As it happened, Belichick had texted the incorrect Brian. He believed he was texting Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brain Dabul, who was eventually named the new head coach of the Giants.
Flores praised Bill for the text message, which showed him that the Giants were doing a “sham” interview with him in order to adhere to the Rooney rule, in addition to being a lost opportunity. Every company is required by the Rooney rule to give substantial consideration to interviewing at least one person of color for each major position, including director of football operations, coach, and general manager. The Giants were using Flores, and there was sufficient proof to file a lawsuit based on the texts between Flores and Belichick.
Flores gave the NFL one key message in an interview with ESPN: “We need reform.” In order to raise awareness of these problems, Flores has jeopardized his NFL coaching career. ESPN’s The Undefeated contributor Bill Rhoden likened Flores to former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kapernick, who faced expulsion from the NFL for his vocal criticism of institutional racism in the country. Flores is striving for more than just the football game, much like Kapernick.
According to NBC News, 71% of NFL players in 2021 were people of color, but in the league’s existence, there had only ever been 24 black head coaches. With the recent hire of Lovie Smith as head coach of the Houston Texans, the NFL now has a pitiful 6.3% of black head coaches. Apart from the Flores case, these figures are real. Although people of color make up about three-quarters of the playing population, they are underrepresented among coaches.
Numerous former teammates of Flores have come out in favor of him; Patriots defender Devin McCourty called Flores a “great individual” and applauded him for “calling out what we all already know” in a tweet. The players back Flores, but it will be interesting to watch how other management handles the case and whether they address the clear problem at hand.
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