#Curt flood made agency other pro professional#

How Curt Flood Influenced the Entire Sports LandscapeĬurt Flood wasn’t a star on the level of players like Henry Aaron or Willie Mays. Tragically, he did not get to enjoy the fruits his case helped to cultivate.

#Curt flood made agency other pro professional#

His case helped transform the professional sports landscape as we know it. In that fight, this ‘David’ lost but so many won because of him.

Yet, his fight recalls a similar one that took place over 50 years ago when a Black baseball player sued Major League Baseball because he did not want to be traded to a particular team. “This is where I’m going to make an impact for Black, and Brown, and women, and minorities, so that they’re not dealing with unfair practices and situations…,” said Flores in a recent interview on the I Am Athlete podcast show.įlores also said he declined to sign a two-year separation agreement from the Dolphins, which would have paid him millions but also restrict him from suing the team and the NFL due to a non-disclosure agreement included with that contract.īecause of the lawsuit, Flores may never have another opportunity to become an NFL head coach again. Among the 32 NFL team owners, only two are persons of color: Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, who is Pakistani-American, and Buffalo Bills co-owner Kim Pegula, who is Asian-American. Make that 26 if we count Mike McDaniel, who was hired to replace Flores as the Dolphins new head coach and classifies himself as biracial. Of that number, only 25 or 5% have been Black. In over 100 years, the NFL has had 511 head coaches. In a league where over 70% of the players are Black, there remains a glaring lack of representation at those positions.īrian Flores, when he was the Head Coach for the Dolphins in 2021. Make no mistake, what Flores is doing is critical, pushing for opportunities for people of color to get hired for senior-level NFL positions like head coach, general manager, offensive and defensive coordinator. I am reminded of Civil Rights activists who dared to stand up, but were mercilessly crushed by racist power structures. History is filled Black ‘Davids’ who look like Flores who not only lose, but suffer harsh penalties for daring to stand up – for their community, more opportunity, or simply their own dignity. The experience, evidence, and accolades that ‘Davids’ bring mean little in a battle where the victor is the one with more power and resources. What’s right and what’s fair don’t matter in the David and Goliath battles of today.

One man taking on the world’s richest professional sports league. Still, I was heartened when former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a class action lawsuit against the National Football League and three of its teams for racial discrimination in their hiring practices. In the modern world, ‘Davids’ rarely triumph over ‘Goliaths’.