In keeping with the time-honored tradition of white people accused of racism turning to respected Black folk for cover, the NFL has tapped the nation’s first Black woman attorney general to defend the league against former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit. Bloomberg first reported that the league had hired former AG Loretta Lynch, now a partner at Big Law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind & Garrison, to work on the case along with Paul, Weiss chairman Brad Karp. Both lawyers had pre-existing relationships with the NFL, Lynch working on the investigation into discrimination and misconduct claims against the Washington [racist slur] Football Team Commanders back in 2020. That investigation uncovered a chain of racist emails which were ultimately leaked and led to the resignation of former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden. Separately, Karp has worked on the NFL’s concussion lawsuits and other cases in federal court. Flores filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL, the Dolphins, New York Giants and Denver Broncos on Feb. 1. It accuses the league of racial discrimination for maintaining a glass ceiling that keeps Black former players and coaches for ascending to head coaching and other executive positions, and calls out the “Rooney Rule”, which requires teams to interview nonwhite candidates for those roles, as an easily-manipulated farce. It was reported this week that Flores might add the Houston Texans, who recently promoted Lovie Smith to head coach after interviewing Flores, to the lawsuit. Flores’ attorney has said that Flores believes he was on the verge of being hired for the Texans’ gig but was nixed after he sued the league. This all comes against the backdrop of a debate over whether the NFL’s ultra-Black Super Bowl halftime show was a distraction from its troubles over race, and as two Black men–media entrepreneur Byron Allen and billionaire financier Robert F. Smith–are either rumored or confirmed to be in the mix to buy the same Broncos team named in Flores’ lawsuit.
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