Brian Flores

February 18, 2022

Now that the Super Bowl has come and gone and the Winter Olympics are wrapping up, Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL and its owners for racially discriminatory hiring practices will get a lot more attention unless Phil Mickelson’s coddling up to the Saudis gets in the way. Flores, a former New England Patriot assistant coach, is claiming that the NFL is systemically-biased against coaches of color, and is also guilty of individual acts of racism. This is in a league where the players are 70% black, and there is no shortage of talent.

When I was in the working world and had the ability to hire, I wish I had had the opportunities that the NFL owners have to hire people of color. Despite our best efforts at the local and corporate level, it was difficult to source minority candidates, qualified or not. I rarely had the chance to interview black candidates. They either didn’t exist, didn’t know about our job openings and training programs, or were not interested. We probably didn’t have the networks that extended to the people we wanted to reach. Regardless, minority applicants rarely, if ever, walked through the door, and it was frustrating.

I see the same thing as a member of a private club. Having served on the board for several years, I know that we never discriminated against any applicant. We just didn’t have the applicant flow. We do have people of color as members, which is terrific, but it is a struggle to make it a significant, representative number. We need to do a better job, but there are extenuating circumstances when you are dealing with a limited population base.

The NFL owners have no excuses. The have a pool of qualified candidates ready to interview. The have a rule, the Rooney Rule, which requires them to interview. It couldn’t be any easier. I wish I had had their problems.