JRN 589 - Brian Flores and Eric BIeniemy

Critical Issues in Sports
JRN 589
Brian Flores & Eric Bieniemy
Prof. Hanley

• Brian Flores, Steve Wilks and Ray
Horton sued the NFL in February
2022 over what they claimed
was discrimination against Black
candidates for head coaching
positions.

• On March 1, 2023, federal judge
Valerie Caponi assigned the
cases of Wilks and Horton to
arbitration, agreeing with the
NFL’s motion.
• However, Caponi determined
that Flores’ case must go to trial
for a decision on whether the
Broncos, Giants and Texans
conducted “sham interviews” of
him under the Rooney Rule.

• The Rooney Rule, approved by
the NFL in 2003 and named after
Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney, was
designed to increase the hiring
of Black coaches.
• It initially required teams to
interview at least one minority
candidate but was changed in
2009 to include consideration of
two head coaching candidates
and Black front office
candidates.

• In 2021, the NFL approved
changes requiring every team to
interview at least two external
minority candidates for open
head coaching positions and at
least one external minority
candidate for a coordinator job.

• In 2022, the NFL required teams
to conduct outside interviews
with a minority and/or female
candidate for vacant QB coach
positions to reflect the
contemporary path toward head
coaching positions

• Each of these revisions reflected
the reality that the original
Rooney Rule was not working as
designed.
• And in Flores’ lawsuit, the idea
of “sham interviews” is critical to
his case and stands as a reason
why the judge wants the case to
go to trial.

• “Of course , non-compliance
with the Rooney Rule is not,
itself, actionable,” wrote Caponi
in a footnote in her decision.
“Nevertheless , Plaintiffs
allegations that teams
conducted sham interviews , if
proven, could undercut any
defense predicated on the teams
showing that Black candidates
were considered for all open
positions.” (Caponi 3)

• Flores alleges he suffered
discrimination on four separate
occasions beginning with the
Denver Broncos in 2019.
• He alleges that the Broncos
interviewed him to satisfy the
Rooney Rule and had no
intention to hire him.

• Flores claims the Miami
Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross
sought to bribe him to lose
games to enhance the team’s
chances of picking first in the
NFL Draft.

• “When Mr. Flores refused both
requests, he was stigmatized as
an ‘angry black man’ and
ultimately fired,” Caponi wrote
in a summary of Flores’ lawsuit.

• Flores further alleges the New
York Giants invited him to
interview for the position of
head coach in January 2022 but
had already selected Brian
Daboll.
• Finally, Flores argues that the
Houston Texans retaliated for his
lawsuit by removing him from
the interview process.

• “Despite the long historic
narrative in the Amended
Complaint reciting historical
racism in the NFL, the gravamen
of Mr. Flores's claim is not that
the NFL is generally racist.
Rather, Mr. Flores claims that
specific adverse employment
decisions were driven by
discriminatory animus harbored
by the NFL and member teams.”
wrote Caponi.

• Caponi ruled that Flores’
contract with the Dolphins was
subject to NFL arbitration rules
as stipulated in the contract.
• But because Flores was not
under contract with the Broncos,
Giants and Texans, his case can
continue in federal court.

• The matter of Eric Bieniemy,
meanwhile, continues to baffle
long-time NFL observers.
• “Many media members were
perplexed that the 2019, 2020,
and 2021 NFL seasons began
and Chiefs-offensive-coordinator
Eric Bieniemy still had not been
given a head coaching
opportunity,” wrote a team of
scholars in a study of Bieniemy.

• “Despite these accolades,
Bieniemy … had yet to receive a
head-coaching job at the
beginning of the 2021 NFL
season. By comparison, two of
the previous three offensive
coordinators for Chiefs-head-
coach Andy Reid, Matt Nagy and
Doug Pederson who are both
white, were given head-coaching
jobs,” the scholars wrote.

• The scholars, headed by Joshua
D. Pitts, concluded that
Bieniemy did not have the key
resume pieces that is statistically
relevant to the selection of head
coaches.
• Black head coaching
appointments would increase if:

• “The number of black
coordinators who played
quarterback in college increases,
the number of black
coordinators who played tight-
end in college increases, the
number of black coordinators
with experience coaching the
tight-end position in the NFL
increases, …

• “(4) the number of black
coordinators with experience
coaching the wide-receiver
position in the NFL increases …

• “ … (5) the racial difference in
the marginal impact of NFL
playing experience on the
probability of becoming a head
coach is eliminated, and (6)
recent discrimination against
black coordinators is eliminated
...

• “… our data showed that black
coordinators were extremely
overrepresented among those
coordinators who played running
back in college and among those
coordinators with experience
coaching (that) position in the
NFL. However, we found no
evidence that NFL teams valued
those characteristics in head
coaches over the time-period
examined. “

• The conclusion? “… Bieniemy is a
former Black player [a running
back; Anthony Lynn, who was
the Chargers’ head coach from
2017 to 2020, is the only black
NFL running back to become a
NFL head coach] and his entire
career as a coordinator has
occurred during a period in
which we found that NFL teams
were significantly less likely to
promote black coordinators.

• “Thus, while our findings do not
suggest that Bieniemy’s race is
the only reason he has yet to
become a head coach, they are
consistent with his race being
one of the reasons.”

JRN 589 - Brian Flores and Eric BIeniemy

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