Former NFL assistant coach Ray Horton joined Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL alleging discriminatory hiring practices on Thursday and Horton contends that a 2016 interview for the Titans head coaching job was a sham.
The Titans hired Mike Mularkey at that time and Horton’s allegation includes a segment of an interview that Mularkey gave in 2020. Mularkey said he was told that he would be hired as the team’s head coach as they were still conducting interviews to satisfy the NFL’s Rooney Rule mandating that minority candidates — Horton is Black — interview for head coaching openings.
“The ownership there, Amy Adams Strunk and her family, came in and told me I was going to be the head coach in 2016 before they went through the Rooney Rule,” Mularkey said. “And so I sat there knowing I was the head coach in ’16, as they went through this fake hiring process knowing a lot of the coaches that they were interviewing, knowing how much they prepared to go through those interviews, knowing that everything they could do and they had no chance to go that job. And actually, the GM Jon Robinson, he was in an interview with me. He had no idea why he is interviewing me, that I have a job already. I regret it.”
The Titans responded to the allegation in a statement to ESPN.
“Our 2016 head coach search was an open and competitive process during which we conducted in-person interviews with four candidates and followed all NFL rules,” the team said. “The organization was undecided on its next head coach during the process and made its final decision after consideration of all four candidates following the completion of the interviews.”
Mularkey told ESPN that “I believe you have the truth and what you need” and didn’t offer any other comment.
