Two Former NFL Coaches Join Brian Flores’ Lawsuit Against League

Two former NFL coaches have joined the lawsuit against the NFL alleging racial discrimination in hiring and workplace practices filed by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, according to CBS Sports. Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks and former defensive coordinator Ray Horton have filed their own claims against the league, Cardinals and Tennessee Titans according to Flores attorneys. Pro Football Talk was the first to report the news. 

Wilks, who is currently on the Carolina Panthers coaching staff, was the head coach of the Cardinals in 2018 and finished with a 3-13 record. He was fired after one season and replaced by Kliff Kingsbury. The lawsuit alleges that Wilkins was a “bridge coach … not given any meaningful chance to succeed.” It also says that Wilkins wanted to trade up in the 2018 Draft to select Josh Allen but ended up with Josh Rosen. 

“When Coach Flores filed this action, I knew I owed it to myself, and to all Black NFL coaches and aspiring coaches, to stand with him,” Wilks said in a statement via his lawyers. “Black coaches and candidates should have exactly the same ability to become employed, and remain employed, as white coaches and candidates. That is not currently the case, and I look forward to working with Coach Flores and Coach Horton to ensure that the aspiration of racial equality in the NFL becomes a reality.”  

Horton who last coached in the NFL in 2019, alleges the Titans gave him a “sham interview” for their head coaching job in 2016. The lawsuit refers to previous comments from Mike Mularkey who was hired as the team’s coach instead of Horton. “The ownership there, Amy Adams Strunk and her family, came in and told me I was going be the head coach in 2016 before they went through the Rooney Rule,” Mularkey said on the Steelers Realm podcast in 2020. “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 they were interviewing, knowing how much they prepared to go through those interviews, knowing that everything they could do and they had no chance of getting that job.”

When learning about Murlarkey statements, Horton said “was devastated and humiliated. By joining this case, I am hoping to turn that experience into a positive and make lasting change and create true equal opportunity in the future.” Wilks and Horton have teamed up with Flores lawsuit targeted the Dolphins and New York Giants in his lawsuit. He is currently on the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff.