PALM BEACH, Fla. — When Brian Flores filed his lawsuit against the NFL and three teams alleging racial discrimination in their hiring practices, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin felt it was his duty to stay close to the former Miami Dolphins coach.
«I just didn't want him to feel like he was on an island,» Tomlin told reporters Sunday from league meetings. «From a coaching fraternity standpoint, I owed him that. I was in position to provide that. I think that started our interactions and conversations.»
In quick succession, phone calls of advice morphed into a job offer, and Flores joined Tomlin's staff Feb. 19 as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach.
«Over the course of those discussions, particularly when it became evident he was not going to get a head job, then I think the natural discussion began,» Tomlin said. «It really ran its course rather quickly, to be quite honest with you. Because it doesn't require a lot of time to come to the realization that you can use a Brian Flores on your staff.»
Flores told HBO's Bryant Gumbel of «Real Sports» he talked with Tomlin on Thursday Feb. 17 and accepted the job Friday evening.
«I actually was calling Coach T. to really to get some counsel,» Flores told Gumbel. «I was thinking about, the next steps for me just from a coaching standpoint. And then that conversation turned into an opportunity there in Pittsburgh.
»… I'm a very capable coach in this league. But I do feel like he saw a situation where there was a very experienced coach who could help his staff, who was also a Black coach in the league."
Tomlin expressed pride in the Steelers' organization Sunday, praising team owner and President Art Rooney II for hiring Flores despite his pending lawsuit
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