Giants respond to Brian Flores accusations, Bill Belichick leaked text

The New York Giants released a lengthy statement regarding Brian Flores’ lawsuit and the leaked texts from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

The New York Giants were one of three teams named in Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit. Flores alleged that the team had already made up their minds to hire Brian Daboll ahead of his scheduled interview. Flores provided text messages from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who congratulated him, thinking that he was speaking with Daboll.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the Giants released a short statement saying that they were “pleased and confident” with the hiring process.

But on Thursday, the team released a much lengthier statement, denying the accusations made by Flores and spoke on the alleged text messages from Belichick.

"The allegation that the Giants’ decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false. And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he “thinks” Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible. The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll’s in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point."

Giants release lengthy statement responding to Brian Flores’ accusations

In the statement, the team included an itinerary of Flores’ interview at their facility in East Rutherford, N.J., while also saying that they have “additional concrete and objective evidence” that they did not make a decision on hiring Daboll prior to Friday, Jan. 28.

Below is an excerpt from Flores’ lawsuit, regarding his interview with the New York football team, courtesy of Wigdor Law LLP:

"“…the New York Giants made the decision to hire Brian Daboll—and disclosed that decision to third parties—during a time when the Giants were scheduled to still interview Mr. Flores and when Mr. Flores was deceptively led to believe he actually had a chance at this job.“Thus, on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, Mr. Flores was forced to sit through a dinner with Joe Schoen, the Giant’s new General Manager, knowing that the Giants had already selected Mr. Daboll. Much worse, on Thursday, January 27, 2022, Mr. Flores had to give an extensive interview for a job that he already knew he would not get—an interview that was held for no reason other than for the Giants to demonstrate falsely to the League Commissioner Roger Goodell and the public at large that it was in compliance with the Rooney Rule.”"

Besides the Giants, Flores also named the Denver Broncos and the Dolphins in his lawsuit. Flores alleged that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him a $100,000 bonus for every game they lost in 2019. For the Broncos, Flores accused then-general manager John Elway and CEO John Ellis of showing up to his head coaching interview hungover back in 2019. The Broncos and Dolphins both released statements denying the allegations.

You can read the Giants’ full statement linked at the top of the article.