Brian Flores sues NFL and New York Giants over 'sham' interview to comply with Rooney Rule

Ex-Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores is suing his former employers, as well as two other teams and the NFL itself, which he claims is "racially segregated" and "managed much like a plantation".

Flores led the Dolphins to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in almost two decades, but was still sacked last month.

His dismissal leaves only one black coach currently working in the league, with Mike Tomlin in charge of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It highlights the long-running diversity issue within the NFL – a league which has so few black people in positions of power despite more than two-thirds of the players being black.

In a lawsuit filed with the Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, Flores described a worrying culture behind the scenes at the Dolphins.

In the lawsuit, Flores claims he was told owner Stephen Ross was "mad" when his side won matches towards the end of the 2019 season as those successes were "compromising [the Dolphins'] draft position".

Flores also alleges that he was offered a £74k bonus for every game his team lost during that season, in order to prioritise a favourable position in the 2020 NFL Draft over competitiveness on the field.

He went on to allege that he was painted as "an angry black man" who was "treated with disdain" after he refused to sign a "prominent quarterback" at the end of that season because it would have broken NFL tampering rules.

The other two teams named in Flores' lawsuit are the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants, both of which he accuses of interviewing him for their head coaching positions as a token gesture.

The suit alleges he was only offered a meeting to interview for each role because the league's Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least one