On Tuesday, news broke that former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is suing the NFL and multiple teams, alleging racial discrimination by the hiring practices around the league.
In his lawsuit, Flores called his “interview” with the New York Giants a “sham” that was only held to satisfy the Rooney Rule, which mandates that NFL teams interview minority candidates for top positions in their organization, including the head coach position.
Following that news breaking, Detroit Lions coaches Duce Staley and Aaron Glenn were asked if they have ever been a part of an interview that they suspected to be “fake.”
Here is what Staley and Glenn had to say.
Duce Staley
“I just know when I had a chance to interview it was awesome,” Staley said. “Awesome experience for me, just to be able to sit in that sit and go through the process. So I can only speak about my situation and what I’ve been through.”
“No, I’m not going to say that,” he said. “I know that everything that was done in Philadelphia when I was there, it was fair, it was an awesome opportunity. I took advantage of it. I learned from it. And if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it all over again.”
“There’s some guys out there that’s overqualified, and we all know that,” he said. “There’s some guys out there that’s been coaching in this league for a while that are outstanding coaches. And I can’t speak of the process. I can’t speak of what they went through as far as interviewing or anything like that. I just know I can speak of the man and the coach and they’re overqualified, so hopefully, still got a couple openings, right? Hopefully one of those guys will get a job.”
Aaron Glenn
“For me personally, I thought all my interviews were really good interviews,” Glenn said. “And the way that I look at it, I get a chance to get in front of these GMs and other high-level people in the organization, just express my thoughts on how to be a head coach and how to run an organization. That’s the only way I look at it.
“So I don’t look at it as they’re fake interviews or anything like that. If that was to happen, that’s a shame for the league but I just haven’t experienced that, just to be honest with you.”
