The lawsuit filed by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores has added two new coaches who also claim they experienced discrimination from the league.
On Thursday, former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Steve Wilks, and defensive assistant coach and coordinator, Ray Horton, joined the complaint. Wilks claims that he was only hired as a “bridge coach” to get his team through a difficult season. Horton says he was interviewed in 2016 for the Tennessee Titans head coach position. He says that the team owners assured him that he would be hired for the role, which eventually went to Mike Mularkey. He is accusing the league of taking him through a “sham” hiring process.
Mularkey, who is white, previously spoke on how the NFL conducted a “fake hiring process” despite having already told him that he’d landed the head coach position in 2016. During a 2020 interview with the Steelers Realm Podcast, he admitted that other coaches “had no chance to get that job.” Mularkey said in that interview that he regretted getting “caught up” in that situation.
These new claims are similar to those of Flores, who says that the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos only interviewed him to appease the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview candidates of color for head coaching and senior operation vacancies.
“I am proud to stand with coach Flores and coach Wilks in combating the systemic discrimination which has plagued the NFL for far too long,” Horton shared in a statement.
The NFL has denied all allegations of prejudice and Mularkey’s claims that he was guaranteed the job.
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