NEWSLETTER
Brian Flores, who is suing the NFL alleging racial discrimination in its hiring practices, has a new job in the league.
A coach with a winning record in head-to-head matchups against Bill Belichick will be teaming up with Mike Tomlin:
We have named Brian Flores as our senior defensive assistant/linebackers.
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) February 19, 2022
Of course the Steelers hired Brian Flores to be a Senior Defensive Assistant and Linebackers Coach. This is who they are and have always been — a gold-standard NFL franchise. And the Rooneys continue to be what family-owned NFL franchises should be striving to be, if you catch my drift. At the end of the day, I think NFL Network reporter Judy Battista nails it with this sentiment: “There are valid questions about whether the Rooney Rule has to be adjusted to be more effective. No such questions about the actual Rooneys.”
A Steelers-Flores partnership seemingly fits like a glove. Who wouldn’t want to sign on and work with Tomlin? An already solid résumé will soon add a co-sign from another great NFL coach. And if you’re Tomlin, why wouldn’t you want to hire Flores? He has head coaching experience and has long been widely revered as a good coach. And assuming Flores wants to be a head coach again, having Belichick and Tomlin as coaches who employed you should look darn good to future employers.
On that note, as PFT’s Mike Florio notes, Flores’ lawsuit will continue. As it should. Flores has said he was still planning to go through with his suit even if he got an NFL coaching job. Maybe this makes things awkward, especially among teams he is suing (particularly those who have issued statements in rebuttal to Flores’ allegations). But if sunshine as a disinfectant is “awkward” then so be it.
Then again, Flores should’ve been someone’s head coach in *THIS* hiring cycle. The Bears had the first confirmed interview with the former Dolphins coach back in January. There were even reports that the team was “very smitten” with Flores. And frankly, we thought there was a fit in Chicago because Flores checked a lot of boxes. The Bears went in a different direction. And while we hope that turns out well for all parties, the thought remains in the back of my mind that not hiring Flores could’ve been a missed opportunity.
