Belichick Texts Included in Brian Flores Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against NFL, Giants

Former coach of the Miami Dolphins Brian Flores has filed a race discrimination class-action lawsuit against the NFL in hopes to shine a light on alleged racial injustices. The suit comes after Flores was apparently inadvertently informed, via a text from Bill Belichick, that Brian Daboll was being hired by the New York Giants three days before Flores' scheduled interview.

The class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Brian Flores against the National Football League. Highlighted in the lawsuit is a piece of evidence that was seemingly inadvertently provided by head coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick.

The lawsuit says that the following text from Belichick was sent to Brian Flores three days prior to his interview with the New York Giants.

Sorry - I fucked this up. I double checked and misread the text. I think they are naming Brian Daboll. I'm sorry about that. - BB

More context via the Twitter post from @novy_williams with details here.

Apparently, the inadvertent congratulations text from Belichick should have gone to Brian Daboll and not Brian Flores. One report implies that the misunderstanding came from an error on Belichick's part, as he simply texted the wrong "Brian".

See that report from @alexweprin via the below Twitter thread.

Now, the actual text exchange between Bill Belichick and Brian Flores have been posted by @benbbaldwin and you can read them below.

From the context of this conversation, reports seem to be confirmed in the above exchange. Belichick seemingly texted the wrong "Coach Brian" and eventually informed coach Brian Flores that Brian Dabol was going to be hired. This is a problem from the league's perspective, as Flores hadn't even been interviewed by the Giants yet when Belichick accidentally leaked him the news.

Why do NFL teams have to interview black coaches for jobs?

The "Rooney Rule" was reportedly adopted by the NFL almost two decades ago and the rule requires teams to interview diverse candidates for open positions, such as a head coaching job. Other senior level roles also fall under this rule, with hopes that the league would become more diverse in its leadership.

More on the rule from @WidgorLaw on Twitter here.

Check out the statement from Brian Flores via @BleacherReport here.

More from @bkoo here.

@NFL_DovKleiman confirms in his report that Belichick thought he was texting Coach Brian Daboll in the exchange with Flores.

See the statement from the NFL via @NFL345 on Twitter here.

See a reported statement from the New York Giants via @RVacchianoSNY on Twitter here.