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Earlier this year, Brian Flores sued several teams and the NFL over his treatment during job interviews. He claimed they were conducted purely to satisfy the Rooney Rule. In other words, even though teams interviewed him, he claimed he was not considered as a serious candidate.
Speaking in an exclusive interview on the Inside the Huddle podcast, Giants insider Pat Leonard claimed the team strongly considered the head coach for the job. Of course, the team ultimately went with Brian Daboll, but Flores was essentially on the short list.
"So Brian Flores was a serious candidate for this job. I can understand why he thinks it was a sham interview based on the timeline of that week... The week of all the coaching interviews before Daboll was named head coach on Friday. As of that Wednesday, his interview was [Monday or Tuesday]."
He continued, claiming that Daboll had an opportunity to take Flores' job in Miami as well:
"That Wednesday, I had several people I trust in the league telling me they were hearing that Daboll was a leading contender to land the Dolphins job because he was a candidate there as well. From everything I understand at that moment, that Wednesday, it was possible that Daboll was going to Miami and/or wanted Miami and that Brian was going to get to the Giants job..."
He went on, claiming multiple front office members were pulling for Flores:
"I know that there were members of the Giants front office and ownership who very much did want Brian as a significant contender and and their head coach early in the process..."
Lastly, he expressed confidence that the team conducted the interview fairly:
"It was not made clear to me by anybody during that week that Brian was just being used as a sham interview, as a minority candidate to get to their end game of Daboll."
Brian Flores' career
The Dolphins head coach became a nationally known name in 2019, but his coaching career dates back to 2004. In 2004, he was hired as a scouting assistant and served in various assistant coaching roles through the 2018 season. Unlike most head coaches, who hold coordinator gigs before making the jump to head coach, Flores was a linebackers coach the season before going to Miami.
From 2018 to 2019, the linebackers coach transitioned to becoming the Dolphins' head coach. He stuck with the team for three seasons. In the first season, most agree the team tanked the season to get a high draft pick to land a new quarterback. In his second year, the team punted on expectations as it was Tagovailoa's first season.
In his third year, however, the team was expected to make an impact on the leaderboard. Instead, the team started 1-7. That said, the team miraculously played their way into playoff contention by the end of the season and finished 9-8. The head coach was fired and subsequently sued several NFL teams over their treatment of him in interviews.
He landed a job with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a linebackers coach, effectively coming full circle back to where he had been in 2018.
The episode will be out soon on Inside the Huddle.
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