According to Jordan Schultz of FOX, the team might take a serious look at Brian Flores, who spent time with the organization in 2022. “That makes too much sense,” a high-level executive reportedly told Schultz, as the insider wrote on his X account.

Flores has drawn interest from multiple teams in the currrent coaching cycle, having recently interviewed for the head coaching job of Steelers AFC North rivals Baltimore Ravens. His lone experience as an NFL head coach with the Miami Dolphins didn’t end nicely, but the Steelers helped Flores rebuild his reputation.

Tomlin and Pittsburgh welcomed Flores with open arms despite his noisy departure from Miami in 2022, bringing him in as senior defensive assistant & linebackers coach.

However, Flores left the City of Bridges only a year later to join Kevin O’Connell’s staff at the Minnesota Vikings as defensive coordinator. Flash-forward to 2026, he might be facing a second chance at head coaching on a team he’s already familiar with.

Other candidates to compete with Flores for Steelers HC opening

Either way, Flores will not be the only candidate linked to this position. The Steelers now have one of the most exciting openings in the NFL, so they won’t be lacking in coaches interested to take over.

John Harbaugh would be an interesting target given his past as a division rival for nearly two decades, while Kevin Stefanski is another option with recent head coaching experience in the AFC North.

If the Steelers don’t mind about recent experience and prefer a stronger resume instead, Mike McCarthy might be a name to watch. We’re talking about a head coach with a Super Bowl ring under his belt — won with none other than Aaron Rodgers on the Green Bay Packers. With Tomlin’s departure probably affecting Rodgers’ future, perhaps a reunion with McCarthy could help the Steelers persuade the 4x NFL MVP to stay.

A big decision to make in Pittsburgh

What’s for certain is that the Steelers will make their due diligence before naming Tomlin’s replacement. Not only are they looking for a new head coach for the first time in almost two decades, but we’re also talking about a job that only a handful of people have held throughout history.

Tomlin has been only the third Steelers head coach since 1969, which is why the Rooney family will probably evaluate their next move carefully before deciding who’s worthy of joining the exclusive list of Steelers head coaches.

Brian Flores‘ defensive coordinator talent is well-known, and securing such a victory in Week 2 against a team as powerful offensively as Kyle Shanahan‘s squad is a double achievement.

After the game between the two franchises—likely to be a topic of discussion throughout the season—QB Brock Purdy approached the former Miami Dolphins head coach and offered his congratulations: “Your scheme is crazy,” said Purdy to Flores.

The Vikings limited the 49ers to just 2-for-10 on third downs and 1-for-3 on fourth downs. They also created two turnovers, had a chance for at least one more, and blocked a punt that effectively acted as a turnover. Additionally, they sacked Purdy a career-high six times

Brock Purdy has faced Brian Flores twice over the past two seasons, losing both matchups. Struggling to overcome Flores’ defensive schemes, Purdy is now 0-2 against the Vikings. However, he remains undefeated against the rest of the NFC.

Vikings main plan to stop 49ers

The game against San Francisco is one of those matchups where you start to get a glimpse of whether a team is poised for greatness or not. Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings excelled in this challenge and ended Week 2 with a strong 2-0 record.

After the game, amid the excitement of securing a significant victory, it was none other than safety Cam Bynum who revealed the game plan to stop Purdy and company in his statements to the press: “The gameplan was simple, believe it or not.

“We didn’t send a lot of pressure, we didn’t do a lot of stuff we normally do. It was really just a mindset. We know their resume. They have a big, physical team trying to run the ball and muscle their way through people. Our mindset was that we need to bring it to them.”, Bynum concluded.

San Francisco and the quest for a comeback

A strong start for the Bay Area team, with a notable victory over the Jets, hinted at a serious title contender. However, yesterday’s loss to the Vikings dampened the excitement, and the Shanahan-led squad will quickly aim to get back on the winning track.

Ahead, they face a series of games that will ultimately determine whether San Francisco can once again position itself as one of the top contenders for the Super Bowl.

• vs Los Angeles Rams, Week 3
• vs New England Patriots, Week 4
• vs Arizona Cardinals, Week 5
• vs Seattle Seahawks, Week 6
• vs Kansas City Chiefs, Week 7

The situation between BrianFlores and the NFL is not the best nowadays. The former Dolphins coach wants justice as he claims he was discriminated by multiple teams, including Miami.

It is clear that Brian Flores wants to take things until the end, no matter the cost. Now, the coach has summoned three NFL teams to court to prove they discriminated against him recently.

Brian Flores’ discrimination case: Three NFL teams will go to court

The NFL is facing huge problems. Brian Flores, who nowadays is working as defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, has sued the league and four teams for discrimination allegations.

A federal judge in charge of these claims hasrejected the option of arbitration, which was proposed by the NFL (presumably by Commissioner Roger Goodell). Now, the league and representatives of the Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Houston Texans will have to go to court to defend themselves against those claims.

A year ago, Flores sued the NFL and those three teams mentioned, saying the league was “rife with racism.” According to the coach, there’s a lot of discrimination in the hiring and promotion of Black coaches.

Judge Valerie Caproni, who’s in charge of this case, said it was“difficult to understandhow there was only one Black head coach at the time Flores filed his lawsuit in a league of 32 teams with Black players making up about 70% of the rosters.”

Those three teams are not the only ones in problems. Flores filed a lawsuit against the Miami Dolphins for asking him to “tank” during his first season and then unfairly firing him. According to the coach,Stephen Ross, the team’s owner, offered him $100,000 for every loss.

“Although the clear majority of professional football players are Black, only a tiny percentage of coaches are Black,” Judge Caproniwrote.

The New England Patriots head coach had accidentally congratulated Flores for getting the New York Giants job when he was apparentlytryingto write to other of his former assistants, Brian Daboll, instead.

What happened next is well known, Flores filed thelawsuit against the NFL and included Belichick’s messages as evidence. However, in an extensive interview withBrandon Marshall, Chad Johnson and Omar Kelly onI AM ATHLETE,the former Miami Dolphins head coach suggested that Bill had done nothing wrong and that he only has a lot of respect for him.

Brian Flores says he is “not mad” at Belichick

“He’s certainly that,” Flores said about Bill Belichick being considered the GOAT. “I think the one thing people don’t know about Bill is that he listens. He listens, so if you have — and, again, you’ve gotta earn the right for him to listen — but if you have an idea, a thought, a person (or) there’s a matchup we can win, a part in the game, he’ll listen. He may add something to it. He may through it out. But he listens. I think that’s one of his greatest strengths. I try to take from him when I was in Miami.”

“I’m not mad [at Belichick],” Flores said. “I mean, Bill did what a lot of us… He sent a text message to the wrong person. I mean, I’m certainly guilty of that before and, to me, I thought it was specific to the lawsuit in that, for me, 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 as far.”

Flores, who also claims that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him money to lose games on purpose in 2019, has recently joined Mike Tomlin‘s staff at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hopefully, he willbuild on what he learned in all those years under Belichick’s wing – and of course, on his own head coaching experience in Miami.

Brian Flores was fired just a month ago from the Dolphins after having a total record in the three seasons as coach of 24 wins and 25 losses. This was the first experience as aHead Coach for Brian Flores, who was on the New England Patriots coaching staff for 14 years in different positions.

After the announcement, the current Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin, was enthusiastic about the arrival of the former Miami Dolphins coach. “Brian’s resume speaks for itself, and I look forward to him adding his expertise to help our team”, Tomlin said about Flores‘ arrival.

What will be the position of Brian Flores?

The position that Brian Flores will hold as a new member of the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff will be Senior defensive assistant/linebackers coach. About this, Head Coach Mike Tomlin said that: “I am excited about Brian Flores joining our coaching staff given his history of developing and teaching defensive players during his time in the NFL”.

Even though the Dolphins were expected to take a step forward in 2021, theyfell incredibly short of expectations with a 1-7 start and not even their seven wins in a row were enough to save the season. And, in the end, it cost Flores his job.

However, a lot has happened since then, with the former Bill Belichick assistantsuing the NFL alleging discrimation ininterview processes and his firing by Dolphins. But many other things have been said about Flores’ departure from Miami, for instance, that one of the reasons behind his firing was a bad relationship with Tua Tagovailoa.

Brian Flores addresses rumors of bad relationship with Tua at Dolphins

One of the biggest complaints against Flores had to do with howhehandled the quarterback situation. In Tua’s rookie year, Ryan Fitzpatrick was named the starting QB before the Alabama Crimson Tide product was suddenly sent into the field halfway through the season and was benched again when things didn’t go well.

In the following offseason, rumors abouta trade for Deshaun Watson were all over the news. To make things worse, Tua got injured early in the season and the Fins got off to a weak start. In the days after Flores’ firing, it was said that he didn’t get along with the quarterback. However, the former Patriots assistantcleared the air on this matter in the next episode of I Am Athlete podcast.

“This is an interesting topic, because it wasn’t strained,” Flores said about his relationship with Tua in the episode’s trailer, as quoted by Pro Football Talk. “We had a good relationship. It was a player-coach relationship. And I think in a relationship like that, you know, the coach challenges the player. And oftentimes the player challenges the coach. And I think there was a great deal of respect between the two of us.

“So you hear these crazy kind of — this narrative that’s out there. But this is a young man who works, who developed and got better over two years and, you know, I think he’s got, you know, a bright future. I wish him all the best…So the world can think what it wants to think. I think — ask Tua, you know? I’m here to say what I gotta say, and you can ask him. So, I think he’d say the same thing.”

Flores‘ exit from Miami has been quite problematic, not only he sued the NFL for alleged discrimation in the hiring processes and his firingbut he also said that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered himmoney to lose games on purpose. It remains to be seen how the investigation unfolds, but he made clear that his problem was not with Tua Tagovailoa as many people said.

Flores shared proof of how his interview was nothing more than a ‘box check’ over the league’s Rooney Rule, claiming that they had already made up their minds long before bringing him in.

Moreover, the former New England Patriots’ assistant recently claimed that Bill Belichick influenced the New York Giants’ decision to hire Brian Daboll as their new coach instead of him.

Brian Flores Says Bill Belichick Influenced The Giants To Hire Brian Daboll

“I think there are back channel conversations and back channel meetings that are had that oftentimes influence decisions,” Flores told Jay Williams. “I think [the Giants hiring process] is a clear example of that. Bill Belichick is a clear example of that. His resume speaks to that. It was clear to me that decision was made with his influence. That’s part of the problem. That needs to change. There needs to be a fair and equal opportunity to interview and showcase your abilities to lead and earn one of those positions.”

Giants Deny Belichick’s Influence

The Giants were quick to dismiss that narrative and deny every single one of Flores’ accusations. Per the team, Belichick didn’t have any say in their decision and Flores was a legit candidate for the job:

(Statement via Giants)

“Brian Flores has raised serious issues in the filing of his complaint. The specific claims against the Giants and Mr. Flores’ allegations about the legitimacy of his candidacy for our head coach position are disturbing and simply false.”

“(…) After we interviewed six exceptional and diverse candidates, the decision on who we would hire as head coach was made on the evening of January 28, one day after Mr. Flores spent an entire day in our offices going through his second interview for the position, meeting with ownership and other staff members, and receiving a tour of our facility. There is additional concrete and objective evidence to substantiate we did not make our decision until the evening of the 28th.”

“(…) The allegation that the Giants’ decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false. And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he ‘thinks’ Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible. The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll’s in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute Zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point. (…) It has been well documented how much research and due diligence we did on Mr. Flores as it related to his candidacy.”

This story isn’t going to go away any time soon, as Flores has repeatedly stated that he won’t back down in his fight against systematic racism within the NFL. Now, we’ll have to wait and see how this unfolds.

But, to be fair, the ‘alleged’ part of his lawsuit is just there for politically correct purposes.It’s not a secret that the league has had issues trusting black people with positions of authority in the past.

That’s why Los Angeles Lakers legend and social justice activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had one thing to say about Flores’ decision and one thing only: Why did it take anyone so long to do it?

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Says The NFL Is Just Like America

(via Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

“Brian Flores issuingthe National Football League and the only question I have is “What took so long?” I’m not referring specifically to Flores’ lawsuit, but to making public the racism inherent in the NFL like a vestigial limb.

(…) The alabaster ceiling stifles Black ambition and sends a clear message that “your kind” aren’t good enough. Let’s look at thenumbers. Despite nearly 60 percent of the NFL players being Black, at the beginning of the 2021 season only three of the 32 head coaches were Black: Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, Houston Texans’ David Culley and Miami Dolphins’ Brian Flores. At the end of the season, Culley and Flores have been fired leaving only Tomlin as the single Black head coach.

We like to think of sports as the embodiment of America’s best intentions: a level playing field in which merit is the only standard of judgement. As goes sports, so goes America. Unfortunately, the NFL is an$8.78 billionindustry and the people who control the money prefer the people who run their business to look more like them. In many cases, it’s probably not even conscious racism, just an unconscious comfort level based on what’s familiar. Mashed potatoes over chitlins. As goes sports, so goes America.”

This will of course depend on where you stand and you may or may not agree with Kareem’s take on racism in sports and in America. But numbers don’t lie and the stats are out there for everyone to see.

The 41-years-old coach has exposed in his lawsuit that he pretends to “shine a light on the racial injustices that take place inside the NFL.” He shared he has suffered discrimination among the hiring practices he has had with the already mentioned Broncos and Giants.

Brian Flores pointed out in the filing that he was “humiliated in the process as the New York Giants subjected him to a sham interview in an attempt to appear to provide a Black candidate with a legitimate chance at obtaining the job.” Regarding the accusation against Denver, Flores singles out that a similar situation occurred in the hiring process he had with Broncosashe “was interviewed only because of the Rooney Rule, and that the Broncos never had any intention to consider him as a legitimate candidate for the job“.

The bribery attempt Brian Flores allegedly suffered in Miami Dolphins

Furthermore, the racist behaviors Flores says he has suffered fromNFL and 3 of its teams, the former Miami coach alleges that during his employment with Dolphins, the team’s owner, Stephen Ross tried to convince him to purposely lose games.

According to ESPN, the “reward” offered by Ross to Brian Flores was $100,000 for each loss he could help to occur during his first season in 2019. The main reason for the unethical practice was not to compromise Dolphin’s draft position.

As Flores refused to be part of this kind of demand, he expressed in his lawsuit that hewas “treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with.” Despite Brian’s winning records in two of the three yearshe has coached Dolphins, the first ones of the franchise since 2003, he was fired on January 10.

The awkward moment Brian Flores had with Bill Belichick

The lawsuit filed by Flores also leaked the uncomfortable moment he passed by after the job interview he had with New York Giants. New England Patriots coach and Brian’s former 10-year boss Bill Belichick text him to congratulate him for supposedly having a chance to coach Buffalo or Giants. However, Belichick made a mistake and confused him with Brian Daboll, who was also a candidate for the job.

Brian Flores’ profile

Flores is the son of immigrants who arrived in Brooklyn directly from Honduras. He played football atBoston College but an injury did not let him turn into a professional in the NFL. Brian was part of the New England Patriots from2004 to 2018, in which he worked as a scout, special teams, offense, and defensive assistant, and also as Safeties and Linebackers coach. He won 4 Super Bowls with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady:XXXIX,XLIX,LI, and LIII.

The suit was filed in the Southern District of New York and claims that the Giants made an interview with Flores for the head coach position, despite having already chosen Brian Daboll for the job. According to Flores, his interview was a “sham” to make it seem like the team complies with the ‘Rooney Rule’.

This rule compels teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and General Management jobs. While the Giants already denied the allegations in a statement, saying that Flores was “in the conversation to be our head coach until the eleventh hour”, the suit cites text messages from New England Patriots coach Belichick to support the claims.

What did Belichick say to Flores in the text messages?

Flores previously worked with Belichick as a defensive coordinator in New England. According to screenshots of the SMS, publishedin the complaint document presentedto the Court, Belichick congratulated Flores for getting the Giants job, but he hadn’t been interviewed yet. The following day, Belichick corrects himself, saying he meant Daboll.

“Got it – I hear from Buffalo & NYG that you are their guy. Hope it works out if you want it to!!”, Belichick said to Flores, who replied that that was “definitely” what he wanted. However, he then asked Belichick if he was sure he was talking to him or Brian Daboll. To that, Belichick replied: “Sorry – I f***** this up. I double checked and I misread the text. I think they are naming Daboll. I’m sorry about that. BB.”

Flores, 40, was fired as head coach of the Dolphins this offseason, which was a surprise to many. Besides being interviewed by the Giants, he also has had interviews with the Chicago Bears (who hired Matt Eberflus) and Houston Texans, who haven’t named a new head coach yet.

The Chiefs’ defense has held its own for most of the year. Then again, it’s been their historically great offense led by Patrick Mahomes the main reason why they’ve been almost unbeatable to start the year.

That’s why Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores knows that his team’s defense must be perfect if they want to stand a chance to upset the defending Super Bowl champions when they visit South Beach on Sunday.

Brian Flores Says He Needs 14 Defenders To Stop Patrick Mahomes

So, when asked about how he plans to slow down Mahomes and the Chiefs, Flores admitted that he had finally cracked the code. However, he’d need a bit of a rule change: “I wish we could have 14 defenders. That’d be nice,” Flores joked.

Truth be told, I’m not sure that the Dolphins – or any other team, for what it’s worth – could stop Mahomes even if they had three extra defenders on the field. But hey, it would be an interesting experiment, that’s for sure.

Brian Flores Says The Chiefs Have A Killer Instinct

Flores went on to laud the Chiefs’ team and its ‘killer instinct’, claiming that there’s just nothing you can do against that kind of mindset. Moreover, he acknowledged that is hard to plan vs. a team with so many weapons:

“They’ve got a little bit of a killer instinct. [Patrick] Mahomes has got it. [Travis] Kelce’s got it. [Tyrann] Mathieu, defensively, [Chris] Jones. When they smell blood in the water, they go after you. (…)Who do you want to put on [Sammy] Watkins? Who do you want to put on Mecole Hardman?” the Dolphins coach furthered. “Who do you want to put on [Demarcus] Robinson? We’ve got to handle the backs, too. [Clyde Edwards-]Helaire’s a good back; Le’Veon Bell’s not a slouch, either.” the coach concluded.

At the end of the day, the Dolphins have one of the best defenses in the league so if anyone can put some pressure on Mahomes and the Chiefs, that’s them. It’ll be easier said than done, though.