Lions assistant coaches Duce Staley, Aaron Glenn describe their past interview experiences

This week, coach Brian Flores shocked the NFL world by filing a lawsuit against the league and its teams alleging racial discrimination. In the lawsuit, Flores makes the case that he was put through “sham” interviews where organizations were allegedly interviewing Flores just to adhere to the Rooney Rule.

Flores and his legal counsel hope others will join their class action lawsuit, but not every Black coach feels the same way he does about the interviews they have taken part in. Two Black Detroit Lions assistants in defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and assistant head coach Duce Staley told USA Today that they didn’t want to comment on Flores’ lawsuit, but that their interview experiences were legitimate. 

“For me personally, I thought all my interviews were really good interviews,” said Glenn, who has interviewed for multiple head coaching positions over the past two years. “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.”

Staley, who interviewed for the Philadelphia Eagles job last year, also said his interview experiences were fair. 

“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 seat and go through the process. So I can only speak about my situation and what I’ve been through.”

Both coaches did not share their thoughts to discredit Flores’ claims or his lawsuit, because they both believe more diversity is needed when it comes to the power structure of the NFL. The league currently has just one Black head coach in Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

“Obviously, we want to see those things change, we want to see those things happen,” Glenn said. “Listen, I’m not going to be the one to sit here and say that, ‘Man, we got to hire all Black coaches.’ The thing is, we got to hire the right coaches. I do think there are some Black coaches or any other race that are really good coaches and we got to, at some point, see that happen. But right now I just want to see the right guys get the job.”

Teams directly named in Flores’ lawsuit, the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants, all issued statements addressing Flores’ claims. The NFL did as well, calling the claims meritless: 

“The NFL and our clubs are deeply committed to ensuring equitable employment practices and continue to make progress in providing equitable opportunities throughout our organizations. Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time. We will defend against these claims, which are without merit.”