Pittsburgh Steelers coaching assistant Brian Flores and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick have not been in touch in weeks, not since Flores decided to use a text exchange with Bill Belichick as a piece of evidence in a lawsuit alleging discrimination and racist hiring practices in the NFL.
They haven’t spoken since the lawsuit, Flores told Bryant Gumbel on HBO’s “Real Sports.” Flores didn’t accuse Belichick of racist practices but rather used Belichick’s texts to show the New York Giants had made a decision to hire coach Brian Daboll before they’d even interviewed Flores. Flores believed that interview was merely a means to appease the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching openings.
In an interview with HBO's "Real Sports" that'll air tonight, Brian Flores said he never discussed a potential return to New England this offseason and that he has not spoken with Bill Belichick since his lawsuit was filed. pic.twitter.com/0e4FqxbjNb
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) February 22, 2022
Their lack of contact is interesting, especially given that Flores said he’s “not mad” at Belichick and still thinks the Patriots coach is the greatest of all time.
“He’s certainly that,” Flores said in an appearance on the YouTube show “I AM ATHLETE.” “I think the one thing people don’t know about Bill is that he listens. He listens, so if you have — and, again, you’ve gotta earn the right for him to listen — but if you have an idea, a thought, a person (or) there’s a matchup we can win, a part in the game, he’ll listen. He may add something to it. He may through it out. But he listens. I think that’s one of his greatest strengths. I try to take from him when I was in Miami.”
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