Brian Flores on whether lawsuit is keeping him from head-coaching job: "There's no way to know"
Last year, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores dramatically improved one of the worst defenses in the league. Flores, who previously served as head coach of the Dolphins, received no interviews for any of the eight head-coaching vacancies in 2024.
On Tuesday, Flores confirmed to reporters that he received zero interview requests.
"And I don’t really have control over that situation," Flores said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. "I will say that I'm very happy where I am. It's been a great offseason. I haven't spent this much time with my family in a while."
Flores was asked whether his pending race discrimination lawsuit against the league and multiple teams (Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, Texans) is keeping him from getting fair consideration.
"There’s no way to know," Flores said. "It's not really something I'm spending a lot of time thinking about. I try to be where my feet are, and that's here with the Vikings. I try not to worry about things I have no control over."
It's strange, to say the least, that Flores didn't even get one interview. It's very tempting to think he's being frozen out because he dared to force the NFL's owners to confront decades of systemic discrimination with an unprecedented civil complaint.
Of course, they haven't had to confront it yet. The case is still caught in the preliminary question of whether and to what extent the claims will be referred to the league's secret, rigged kangaroo court of arbitration.
Flores surely knew the sacrifice he was making when he dared to do battle with Big Shield. It's admirable that the Vikings gave him a defensive coordinator job. Their reward might be that he'll be sticking around for a while, if the owners of other teams won't risk getting the cold shoulder from Club Oligarch by hiring Flores to be the head coach.
