Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’s discrimination lawsuit against the NFL just got plenty of new receipts after a recently unsealed memo from search firm Korn Ferry, written for the Las Vegas Raiders, reveals the use of explicit racial tropes and stereotypes, treating Flores’s professionalism as a fluke of his ethnic “background.” According to ESPN, the complaint includes an attached Korn Ferry exhibit summarizing Flores’s strengths and weaknesses in seven controversial bullet points.
“Polished and a good presenter despite growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn (same as Mike Tyson),” the memo read. “He was able to build a strong friendship with a billionaire’s son, which gave him opportunities to socialize and learn how to build relationships with white-collar and upper-class individuals.” The memo also advised management looking to fill a coaching position with the Las Vegas Raiders to “rein in” his volatile personality.
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”Chip on his shoulder – can be a dictator with players, coaches, and can even be difficult with ownership. His personality is unpredictable – not sure who is going to show up,” the memo stated. “Failed in how he hires coordinators and staff because he doesn’t give second chances or see efforts to improve.”
In response to the stunning memo, Douglas H. Wigdor, Flores’ attorney, said that the unsealing of the document is proof positive of the NFL’s discriminatory hiring practices.
”The recently unsealed documents demonstrate two unfortunate, but unsurprising, realities,” Flores’ attorney Douglas H. Wigdor told Front Office Sports. “First, that Mr. Flores’ decision to hold the league and its teams accountable for systemic race discrimination has been met with unlawful retaliation. Second, discrimination continues to play a significant role in the hiring process for NFL Head Coaches, as evidenced by the fact that the candidate profile prepared for the Raiders leans heavily on racial stereotypes.”
Wigdor added that by shedding light on the issue, Flores is “committed to eradicating the institutional racism and retaliation that permeates the league, its teams and their partners.”
In 2022, Flores filed a landmark class-action lawsuit against the NFL and several franchises, alleging systemic racial discrimination in their hiring and employment practices. The complaint details accusations of sham interview processes used merely to comply with the league’s Rooney Rule, a policy established in 2003 that requires teams to interview ethnic minority and female candidates for top operational positions.
Most notably, it cites a leaked text message from Bill Belichick that revealed the New York Giants had chosen their new head coach days before Flores was scheduled to interview. Flores also alleged that Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him financial incentives to intentionally lose games to secure better draft positioning.
Beyond shedding light on the stark disparity between the majority-Black league roster and the scarcity of Black head coaches and top executives, the lawsuit gained further traction after federal courts rejected the NFL’s bid to force the dispute into private arbitration, clearing the path for the case.
Flores built his NFL career through a steady rise in coaching ranks, starting in 2004 as a scouting and defensive assistant for the New England Patriots, where he contributed to four Super Bowl titles over 15 seasons. He earned his first head coaching role with the Miami Dolphins in 2019, steering the team to back-to-back winning seasons in 2020 and 2021 before a surprising dismissal. Following a stint as a senior defensive assistant for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022, Flores was hired as the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings in 2023, where his aggressive scheme earned him a contract extension through the 2026 season.
Ultimately, the Korn Ferry memo strips away the NFL’s favorite excuse: that diverse hiring is merely a matter of subjective fit. Filled with coded language and racial stereotypes, the document turns Flores’s suit into an undeniable confrontation with structural bias. For all the league’s talk of progress, this newly unsealed evidence proves the game behind closed doors remains rigged.
