- Two Black
NFL coaches have joinedBrian Flores ' lawsuit against the league alleging discrimination in hiring practices. - Steve Wilks and Ray Horton laid out allegations against the Cardinals and Titans, respectively.
Brian Flores' lawsuit against the NFL alleging racial discrimination in the hiring and firing of Black coaches has added two new plaintiffs.
Steve Wilks, who served as the head coach of the Cardinals for the 2018 season, and Ray Horton, who has served as defensive assistant coach and coordinator for several teams across the league for nearly three decades, officially joined the complaint on Thursday.
Wilks alleges that he was not given a fair chance to succeed with the Cardinals, stating that Arizona hired him as a "bridge coach" that was meant to bear the brunt of a difficult season.
Wilks also said that he had wished to trade up in the draft that year to select Josh Allen, but was instead "stuck with an unready rookie quarterback drafted by [general manager Steve Keim] contrary to Mr. Wilks' suggestion," when the team drafted Josh Rosen.
Wilks went 3-13 as head coach of the Cardinals. He now works as the defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach for the Carolina Panthers.
Meanwhile, Horton described being put through a "sham interview" process, similar to that which Flores described when he first filed the lawsuit.
In 2016, Horton interviewed to become the head coach of the Tennessee Titans. The job eventually went to Mike Mularkey.
In an interview with the "Steelers Realm" podcast in 2020, Mularkey said that he was assured he had gotten the Titans job before the team had gone through the process of interviewing Black candidates for the position, as the league's Rooney Rule requires.
"The ownership there, Amy Adams Strunk and her family, came in and told me I was going to be the head coach in 2016 before they went through the Rooney Rule," Mularkey said.
"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 that they were interviewing — knowing how much they prepared to go through those interviews, knowing that everything they could do, and they had no chance to get that job.
"The GM Jon Robinson, he was in an interview with me. He had no idea why he is interviewing me, that I have a job already."
—Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) April 7, 2022
Mularkey's comments were not widely reported on at the time.
ESPN's Kevin Van Valkenburg reached out to Mularkey for a statement after becoming aware of the interview.
"I believe you have the truth and what you need," Mularkey told ESPN via email. "Prefer not to comment any further."
In their own statement to ESPN, the Titans denied Mularkey's claim that he was guaranteed the job before the interview process had been completed.
"Our 2016 head coach search was an open and competitive process during which we conducted in-person interviews with four candidates and followed all NFL rules," the team said. "The organization was undecided on its next head coach during the process and made its final decision after consideration of all four candidates following the completion of the interviews."
Mularkey's admission describes a similar situation to the one that prompted Flores to bring his suit against the league in the first place.
During the off-season, Flores was set to interview with the New York Giants for their head coaching job. Three days before his scheduled interview, Flores received a text message from Bill Belichick, congratulating him on landing the job. Belichick had meant to text Brian Daboll, who would ultimately be hired as the team's head coach.
"It was a range of emotions. Humiliation. Disbelief. Anger," Flores said in February. "I've worked so hard to get to where I am in football, to become a head coach. For 18 years in this league, to go on what felt like, what was a sham interview, I was hurt."