After sending shockwaves through the NFL with allegations of racial discrimination in hiring practices and incentives to tank in a lawsuit against the league, longtime NFL assistant and former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores was looking at potentially giving up his carrer in the league as a coach to try and make a better league for his peers in the end.
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin made sure Flores didn’t give up his career while trying to create a better world inside the NFL for minority coaches. Seizing upon an opportunity, Tomlin added Flores to his coaching staff in February, giving the Steelers yet another great defensive mind with which to lean on in the coaching staff, making a strength that much stronger.
Now in his first training camp as the senior defensive assistant and LB coach in the black and gold, Flores is “grateful and fortunate” to be a member of the coaching staff under Tomlin within the Steelers organization, he said to 102.5 WDVE’s Mike Prisuta, according to audio via the iHeart Radio YouTube page.
“It’s awesome to coach football. That’s what I’m passionate about. That’s what I love to do, all aspects of it,” Flores said to Prisuta. “…That’s why that’s what I’m passionate about. It’s fun to be out here. I’m grateful and fortunate. I feel grateful to Mike T [Tomlin] and this organization. I’m fortunate to be here, and I’m just excited to get out here every day and do whatever I can to help this team win.”
Safe to say following the filing of the lawsuit against the NFL that teams weren’t knocking on the door to bring Flores into the fold. Tomlin ended up being that guy after speaking with Flores, offering support, according to his comments on The Pivot Podcast with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor.
In the end, the move to add Flores to the coaching staff made the Steelers better in the long run, which was Tomlin’s only goal. While Flores is grateful and fortunate to have a job with a stable organization like the Steelers under a future Hall of Fame head coach like Tomlin, the Steelers might be the ones in the end feeling grateful and fortunate to have a defensive mind like Flores in the fold, at least for the 2022 season.
