Minority NFL head coaches hired to lose amid lawsuit over alleged racial discrimination

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

On Monday afternoon the Houston Texans promoted defensive coordinator Lovie Smith to head coach, a routine transaction if you focus on the merits.

Smith, 63, spent nine seasons as head coach of the Chicago Bears, compiling 81 wins and 63 losses, and leading the team to its first Super Bowl appearance since its mid-1980s glory days. The Bears fired Smith in 2012, after the team went 10-6. In 2014 he resurfaced in Tampa Bay, where he went 8-24 over two years with the rebuilding Bucs.

The other main candidate for the Texans' head coaching job? Recently retired quarterback Josh McCown, who has never coached in the NFL in any capacity.

A simple decision if you're seeking the best résumé.

Except McCown is white, and if you follow NFL head coach hiring patterns, you know that detail gives McCown more than an inside track in a job competition against a Black person. It gives him a head start, too. And sympathetic race marshals.

A week ago, McCown was the favourite to win the Texans' job, vacated when the club fired David Culley. Smith surfaced late in the coaching search, even though he was already on the Texans' staff. His name appeared in media reports last Friday, and by Monday the Texans had named him their new on-field boss. In promoting Smith, the Texans become only the second franchise in NFL history to hire two consecutive Black coaches.

If you're curious about who did it first — it was the Indianapolis Colts who replaced Tony Dungy with Jim Caldwell in 2009.

And if you're wondering how Smith went from afterthought to top candidate in 48 hours, credit the Flores effect.

That's Brian Flores, the former Miami Dolphins head coach who, after being fired, then enduring what he calls a sham interview with the New York Giants, sued the NFL and three of its teams for racial discrimination. Flores, who is Black, alleges that the Giants and Broncos interviewed him only to satisfy a league-mandated diversity requirement, and not to offer him a legitimate chance at their head coaching jobs. His class-action suit contends that Black coaches labour under systemic racism that limits head coaching opportunities, and double standards that threaten job security.

Flores, 40, also alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross tried to bribe him to lose games — $100,000 US per loss, the lawsuit says — hoping the team could finish last and get the top pick in the 2020 draft.

Soon after the lawsuit made news, the NFL published a statement saying Flores' claims, which haven't been proven in court, were "without merit," even though it hadn't investigated them, and even though the league implemented the Rooney Rule in 2003 hoping to jolt teams out of racially biased hiring patterns.

While Flores might have set his long-term head coaching goals aflame in taking the NFL to court, smart money said that in the short run, just to try to weaken his argument, one of the NFL's open head coaching jobs would go to a candidate of colour — a Black person, if possible.

Of course, it's always possible. Qualified Black coaches — paging Jim Caldwell — outnumber head coaching vacancies every off-season. This winter, Flores lost his job after leading a denuded Miami roster to its second consecutive winning season. The public pressure his lawsuit created possibly vaulted Smith past McCown for the Houston job, and helped get Mike McDaniel hired in Miami.