By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) – The general manager of the Houston Texans said on Tuesday that Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the National Football League and three teams over alleged race bias in hiring practices did not impact his team’s decision to name Lovie Smith as their new head coach.
Flores, who is Black, was fired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins in January and last week filed the lawsuit alleging discrimination against Black candidates for top level coaching and management jobs.
After the Texans announced Smith – a former Chicago and Tampa Bay head coach who is also Black – as their new head coach on Monday, attorneys for Flores said the lawsuit was the only reason their client was not selected for the Texans’ job.
But Houston General Manger Nick Caserio, speaking during Smith’s introductory news conference on Tuesday, disputed any suggestion that the lawsuit influenced his team’s decision.
“Didn’t affect us at all,” Caserio told reporters. “Speaking specific to Brian, I’ve known Brian a long time. Personally and professionally, I have a lot of respect for Brian as a coach and as a person. He was a part of this process. He’s been a good coach in this league for a number of years.
“Part of my responsibility was to spend time with as many quality candidates as possible, and Brian was one of those,” Caserio said.
“As it pertains to the individual lawsuit, I would say from the beginning of when we started our process … there was multiple conversations throughout the course of, say, the last few weeks with a number of different candidates.”
Miami’s decision to fire Flores was one of the more surprising head coach decisions following the 2021 NFL season, given the Dolphins won eight of their final nine games after a 1-7 start.
In addition to the NFL and the Dolphins, the Denver Broncos and New York Giants were named in Flores’ lawsuit, which contended his interviews for their vacant head coach positions were a sham aimed at satisfying a league rule that minority candidates must be considered for top coaching and staff jobs.
The NFL, Dolphins, Broncos and Giants have all denied Flores’ accusations.
Flores was replaced at Miami on Sunday by former San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, who is biracial and was the first minority head coach hire in the 2022 cycle.
The 63-year-old Smith, who spent nine seasons as head coach of the Bears and two with the Buccaneers, called his hiring by Houston “pretty special.”
“It’s not often you get a chance to lead three professional football teams,” he said.
“I don’t know if there’s a guy that looks like me that’s had an opportunity to do that.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
