Brian Flores, who was just hired as the senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, claims he is not upset with his former head coach, Patriots’ Bill Belichick, for the mistaken text messages Belichick sent him back in January.
Flores is currently suing the NFL, three franchises, including the Dolphins, and unidentified individuals, in regards to alleged racism in league hiring practices.
In his lawsuit, Flores has Belichick’s texts as evidence for showing discriminatory hiring practices. In the text messages, Belichick thought he was talking to now-Giants head coach Brian Daboll. Belichick congratulated Flores (who he thought was Daboll) for getting the job, which happened to be three days before Flores even interviewed for the job.
Flores spoke on the “I Am Athlete” podcast about his feelings towards Belichick following the text situation.
“I’m not mad,” Flores said. “Bill did what a lot of us—he sent a text message to the wrong person. I’m certainly guilty of that before. To me, I thought it was specific to the lawsuit in that it confirmed a lot of the things that I thought were going on—that I think a lot of Black or minority coaches think are going on, it kind of confirmed it for me. As far as having a fair and equal opportunity to go and interview and show your acumen, show your intelligence, show your ability to lead, show your willingness and your leadership. Often times, it’s not a fair and equal playing field.”
Flores coached under Belichick from 2008 to ’18 before being hired as the Dolphins head coach in 2019.
In regards to Flores thinking Belichick is the “GOAT” of NFL head coaching, he agrees.
“I think the one thing people don’t know about Bill is he listens,” Flores said. “He listens. So if you have—and again, you’ve gotta earn the right for him to listen—but if you have an idea, if you have a thought, if you have a person or there’s a matchup you think that we can win, a part in the game, he’ll listen. He may add something to it. He may throw it out. But he listens. I think that’s one of his greatest strengths.”
