‘I Owed Him That’: Mike Tomlin Hired Brian Flores to Keep Him from Feeling Isolated

After former Dolphins coach Brian Flores sued the NFL for giving him an interview based on his skin color with no intention of hiring him, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin reached out with an offer.

That offer was to become the Steelers’ new senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach, a position well beneath Flores’ qualifications.

However, to Tomlin, the league’s only remaining black head coach, he felt he “owed” Flores that much.

“I wanted to stay close to Brian when his legal issues started,” Tomlin told Brooke Pryor of ESPN via Pro Football Talk. “I just didn’t want him to feel like he was on an island. From a coaching fraternity standpoint, I owed him that. . . . I was in position to provide that.”

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin (Joe Sargent/Getty Images)

The coaching fraternity is definitely a close one. Dozens, sometimes over a hundred coaches at varying levels, are fired in the NFL every year. No doubt there were several dozen other coaches known to Tomlin who were in need of a job at the time he reached out to Flores. Including plenty of coaches with less training and experience than Flores, who would have been better suited as a defensive assistant and linebackers coach.

However, as a black former head coach who was suing the league for racist hiring practices, what made Flores’ situation different is that he is black.

Mike Tomlin can hire anyone he wants for any reason.

Though, if you’re Flores, it may not do your lawsuit any favors when the NFL’s attorneys point out how it can be reasonably argued that Flores accepted an NFL job based on his skin color while suing the league for giving him an interview based on his skin color.