The NFL has descended on Palm Beach, Florida, for the owners meetings. Giants owner John Mara was asked about the Brian Flores discrimination lawsuit in which his team was named. Mara said he has no interest in settling because the allegations of unfair hiring practices due to race are not true.
“We hired a new general manager, a new coach, (we’ve) been sued,” said Mara.
Mara said he has no intention of settling the lawsuit “because the allegations are false.”
“We’re very comfortable with our hiring process. It was a fair process, and we ended up making the decision that we made based on a lot of factors, none of which had to do with race.”
What else was Mara going to say? “Yeah, we planned on hiring Brian Daboll all along, but we had to adhere to the Rooney Rule”?
That’s the problem with the rule. Once you satisfy it, there is no recourse.
But the allegations made in Flores’ suit are supported by text messages Flores allegedly received from New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Messages that were sent by mistake to Flores congratulating him on getting the Giants head coaching position before it was announced.
The problem there is the text was meant for a different Brian. Daboll was also a former Patriots assistant, and he was whom Belichick meant to text. Flores decided to pursue legal action as he had not even completed his interview process when Belichick allegedly sent the text.
Belichick was a Giants assistant coach from 1979-1990 and has strong ties to the organization. Mara likes to think of the Giants as a family organization and many of the people on the inside have been there for decades. It’s not impossible that Belichick has sources inside the organization, despite Mara’s denials.
Read full story at The Shadow League here.
