Brian Flores, former Miami Dolphins head coach who filed a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination from the NFL, has been hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an assistant coach.
The Steelers announced that Flores was the team’s new senior defensive assistant/linebackers coach on the staff of head coach Mike Tomlin on Saturday.
“I am excited about Brian Flores joining our coaching staff given his history of developing and teaching defensive players during his time in the NFL,” Tomlin said. “Brian’s resume speaks for itself, and I look forward to him adding his expertise to help our team.”
Flores’ attorneys, Douglas Wigdor and John Elefterakis, released a statement saying: “We congratulate Coach Flores on his new position with the Steelers and thank Coach Tomlin and the organization for giving him this great opportunity. While Coach Flores is now focused on his new position, he will continue with his race discrimination class action so that real change can be made in the NFL.”
Tomlin is one of two Black head coaches in a league that consists of nearly 70% Black players. The other is Lovie Smith of the Houston Texans and Mike McDaniel, who is multiracial and replaced Flores as head coach of the Dolphins after Flores was let go last month.
Flores, 40, who is Black, sued the Dolphins organization along with the NFL and two other NFL teams alleging racial discrimination.
The 58-page lawsuit details the NFL culture and cites the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview two external minority candidates for the head coaching positions. The lawsuit claims that the rule hasn’t worked to increase the hiring of coaches of color.
The NFL responded to Flores’s lawsuit by calling his allegations meritless and adding in a statement, “diversity is core to everything we do.”
