Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores landed a new job with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday. It was announced that he is their new senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach.
“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,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said in a release. “Brian’s resume speaks for itself, and I look forward to him adding his expertise to help our team.”
The hiring of Flores significantly upgrades the defensive unit that recently promoted Teryl Austin as defensive coordinator after the retirement of Keith Butler, who also coached the Steelers outside linebackers.
Flores played at Boston College before moving into personnel roles with the New England Patriots. He went on to coordinate various positions for New England for over 11 seasons, including being their defensive play caller in Super Bowl LIII. This led to his hiring as head coach for the Dolphins in 2019. He led the Dolphins to a 24-25 overall record and guided the franchise to consecutive winning campaigns for the first time in nearly two decades. He was fired by the Dolphins in January.
Flores, who is 40 years of age, filed a class action lawsuit on February 1 against the NFL and three organizations, the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos. He alleged discrimination in the interview process with the Giants and Broncos and in his firing by the Dolphins.
Flores stated in the lawsuit that his interview with the Giants about their head coaching vacancy was a “sham” to satisfy the Rooney Rule that was implemented in 2003, that requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching positions.
Flores showed a text message from Patriots head coach Bill Belichick congratulating him on his hire to the Giants before he was even interviewed. The text was meant for former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who was hired to replace Joe Judge as the Giants head coach. Flores also had an interview with the Broncos that had a similar scenario in 2019, stating that they already had their minds made up and were just trying to comply with the Rooney Rule.
The lawsuit also stated the Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross, offered Flores incentive to lose games on purpose and would pay $100,000 for each loss that occurred during the 2019 season, to improve their draft position. He also alleged that Ross tried to pressure him to violate the NFL tampering rules at the end of the 2019 season. Both New York and Ross have denied the allegations levied against them.
“We didn’t have to file a lawsuit for the world to know that there’s a problem, from a hiring standpoint, in regards to minority coaches in the NFL,” Flores said at the time. “We filed a lawsuit to create change. We’re at a fork in the road.”
Flores also took interviews with the Houston Texans and New Orleans Saints after he was let go by the Dolphins and was not hired by either team.
