At times during the 2023 season, it seemed inevitable that Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores would get multiple head-coaching interviews in the 2024 hiring cycle. At one point, it looked like he’d potentially become a head coach again.
Ten days into the current coaching carousel, Flores’s name has yet to come up.
It didn’t help that the Vikings, who were at one point likely to make the playoffs, cratered down the stretch, losing six of seven games. The bigger problem could be that, on February 1, 2022, Flores sued the NFL for decades of systemic discrimination.
The law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who pursue legal rights under federal discrimination statutes. Good luck, however, getting your friendly neighborhood oligarch to overlook the decision of Flores to file suit against Big Shield.
An amazing number of non-lawyers think it’s perfectly fine for an employer to shun an employee who has dared to pursue his or her legal rights in court. It’s definitely not. In many cases, the retaliation lawsuit is easier to prove than the original one, because most people understand the natural inclination to not want to do business with an employee who is giving the employer the legal business.
Responsible businesses find a way to overlook protected activities like the filing of a discrimination lawsuit. It requires a clear commitment to doing what’s right. That starts with getting people to understand it’s wrong to hold the filing of a lawsuit against an employee.
The Steelers did the right thing in 2022 by hiring Flores even after he filed his lawsuit. The Vikings took things another level higher last year, by making Flores the defensive coordinator. The fact that Flores has been ignored when so many other candidates are getting interviews (many of whom have no head-coaching experience, unlike Flores) is concerning.
Whether Flores and his lawyers challenge his failure to be considered remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen whether and when the pending case will move past square one.
Nearly two years after the case was filed, a final decision as to whether the various claims will be resolved in court or in the NFL’s preferred forum of arbitration has not yet been reached.