Flores' Case ~ Key Korn Ferry document made public
Smoking-gun document produced by Korn Ferry could shake up Brian Flores case
Civil lawsuits that require the plaintiff to crack the code on a corporate shell game often come down to finding a needle in the haystack of documents dumped during the discovery process.
The lawyers representing Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores in his discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and multiple teams apparently believe they’ve found one.
Korn Ferry, a search firm that has assisted multiple NFL franchises in head-coaching searches over the years, has produced documents to Flores’s lawyers that include a potential smoking-gun document that could shake up the entire case.
As one source with knowledge of the document described the document, “It is insane.”
But the document is currently subject to a broad protective order, which allows the parties to flag certain documents as confidential and, in turn, to keep them out of the public eye. The designation of this specific document as confidential currently is in dispute.
The document was nevertheless strong enough to get Flores’s lawyer to prepare another amendment to his initial civil complaint, first filed in February 2022.
The existence of the motion to amend, and the Korn Ferry document, was first reported by Daniel Kaplan. Per Kaplan, the document in question relates to an item generated by Korn Ferry in connection with a search conducted by the Raiders. (The precise Raiders coaching search isn’t specified; the Raiders have hired new coaches in 2026, 2025, 2024, 2022, and 2018.)
Flores has sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the Broncos, the Giants, and the Texans. Co-plaintiff Steve Wilks has a wrongful termination case against the Cardinals. Co-plaintiff Ray Horton has a failure to hire claim against the Titans.
Whatever the Korn Ferry document reveals, the fact that Flores’s lawyers have it speaks to one of the fundamental differences between litigation and arbitration. If the NFL had gotten its wish to refer the Flores case to the secret, rigged, kangaroo court of arbitration, it would have been difficult if not impossible to secure relevant documents from Korn Ferry, a non-party to the case that the NFL can’t require to produce evidence. With the case now proceeding in court, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allow for people and companies not connected to the case to be easily targeted to provide information in their possession, custody, or control.
The contents of the Korn Ferry document could grease the skids for a settlement — if Flores is willing to settle the case and to not see it through to conclusion.
At this point, a public trial and a jaw-dropping verdict in a race discrimination case may be the only thing that forces the NFL and its teams to address in a meaningful way a problem that has hidden in plain sight for decades.
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The key Korn Ferry document in the Brian Flores case becomes public. In it, a team executive says Flores was "the worst hiring decision we've ever made." https://t.co/LheZAD8YKL
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 13, 2026
Key Korn Ferry document in Brian Flores case becomes public
The document that the NFL and search firm Korn Ferry did not want the public to see has now been revealed.
The item is attached to a supplemental complaint filed by Flores against the Miami Dolphins, in his lawsuit that was first filed in February 2022.
The document in question, which is attached as an exhibit to the supplemental complaint, contains a summary of Flores’s “strengths and weaknesses,” as prepared by Korn Ferry.
The document includes this assessment as one of seven bullet points in the “weaknesses” category: “Needs someone strong at the top to reign [sic] in some of his worst behavior. He once threatened violence to his GM and made irrational demands during an ownership meeting. One long-time senior team executive said, ‘He may have changed since, but he was the worst hiring decision we’ve ever made.’ Another President of a club refused to talk about him.” (Emphasis added.)
Another bullet point says this: “Ongoing litigation may be a distraction.” (Emphasis in original.)
The Raiders, who received that assessment from Korn Ferry, did not interview Flores for the team’s head-coaching vacancy on which Korn Ferry was consulting.
The supplemental complaint filed by Flores accuses the Dolphins of making the statement calling him “the worst hiring decision we’ve ever made.”
Flores’s lawyers at the firm of Wigdor LLP and Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek issued a statement on Tuesday, a copy of which PFT has received.
“The recently unsealed documents demonstrate two unfortunate, but unsurprising, realities,” they said. “First, that Mr. Flores’ decision to hold the league and its teams accountable for systemic race discrimination has been met with unlawful retaliation. Second, discrimination continues to play a significant role in the hiring process for NFL Head Coaches, as evidenced by the fact that the candidate profile prepared for the Raiders leans heavily on racial stereotypes. We and Mr. Flores are committed to eradicating the institutional racism and retaliation that permeates the league, its teams and their partners.”
In our view, characterizing Flores as “the worst hiring decision we’ve ever made” makes it much more difficult for Flores to get a head-coaching job, and it opens the door to the question of whether that assessment was motivated in whole or in part by Flores exercising his prerogative to challenge the decision to fire him via the filing of a lawsuit.
Given the casual manner in which these statements appeared in a formal summary of Flores prepared by Korn Ferry, it’s fair to wonder how many other breadcrumbs his lawyers will uncover in the discovery process — especially once they get their hands (and eyes) on informal communications among owners and executives, such as emails and text messages.
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Recruiting firm's Brian Flores memo contains racial stereotypes, lawyers say
ESPN
Oct 13, 2026, 12:58 PM ET
A recruiting firm's report on Brian Flores contains multiple examples of what his lawyers say are racial stereotypes that NFL teams use when evaluating Black coaching candidates.
The memo from recruiter Korn Ferry, prepared for the Las Vegas Raiders during one of their recent coaching searches, was unsealed Tuesday as part of Flores' discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and three of its teams.
"The recently unsealed documents demonstrate two unfortunate, but unsurprising, realities," Flores attorney Douglas H. Wigdor told Front Office Sports, which also published a copy of the Korn Ferry memo.
"First, that Mr. Flores' decision to hold the league and its teams accountable for systemic race discrimination has been met with unlawful retaliation. Second, discrimination continues to play a significant role in the hiring process for NFL Head Coaches, as evidenced by the fact that the candidate profile prepared for the Raiders leans heavily on racial stereotypes."
Flores' discrimination suit vs. NFL can go to trial
In its memo to the Raiders, Korn Ferry presented the headline "Brian Flores -- Strengths and Weaknesses" above two corresponding columns.
One of the "strengths" listed by Korn Ferry said that Flores is: "Polished and a good presenter despite growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn (same as Mike Tyson). He was able to build a strong friendship with a billionaire's son which gave him opportunities to socialize and learn how to build relationships with white-collar and upper-class individuals."
Some of Flores' "weaknesses," according to Korn Ferry, are:
• "He can fool you with his polish upwards. Has little people skills, lacks self-awareness and can sometimes exhibit erratic behavior. Tua's [Tagovailoa's] statements have opened the narrative that Brian was 'pessimistic and adversarial' and his style 'shattered his confidence.'
• "Chip on his shoulder -- can be a dictator with players, coaches, and can even be difficult with ownership. His personality is unpredictable -- not sure who is going to show up. Failed in how he hires coordinators and staff because he doesn't give second chances or see efforts to improve."
• "Needs someone strong at the top to reign [sic] in some of his worst behavior. He once threatened violence to his GM and made irrational demands during an ownership meeting. One long-time senior team executive said, 'He may have changed since, but he was the worst hiring decision we've ever made.' Another President of a club refused to talk about him."
Flores attorney Michael Willemin told Front Office Sports that the report portrays Flores as an "angry Black man." Willemin cited the "polish upwards" reference as a racial stereotype that diminishes Flores' intelligence as a Black man.
Willemin also pointed to the final item in the "weaknesses" column -- "Ongoing litigation may be a distraction" -- as evidence of leaguewide retaliation against Flores because of the lawsuit.
Flores, who is Black, sued the NFL, the Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Houston Texans in February 2022, alleging the league was "rife with racism" regarding its hiring practices when it comes to Black coaches. He was later joined in the lawsuit by fellow Black coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton.
Flores, who was fired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins shortly before the suit was filed, is now the Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator. He interviewed with the Broncos in 2019 and the Giants and Texans in 2022.
Tagovailoa, who was cited in the "Weaknesses" column, played his first two NFL seasons with the Flores-coached Dolphins in 2020 and 2021. The veteran quarterback called Flores a "terrible person" in 2024 and said he began to believe he didn't belong in the NFL under Flores.
Flores responded in August 2024 that he wished Tagovailoa well and acknowledged that he had "done a lot of reflecting on the situation, reflecting on the situation and communication."
Maybe....but I don't think so. If there are other Corn Ferry recruiting documents they can show as evidence of other HC candidates that have similar descriptions and breakdowns for white candidates, its not the smoking gun that Florio thinks it is. These are brutally honest reviews and I'll bet the others are just as direct. These are big time hires, well compensated hires and they need to show the cold truth for pros and cons after due diligence. They aren't meant to be seen by the candidates. I guarantee you that CEO search firm candidate overviews are just as brutal if not more so regardless of race. These are documents for big boy and big girl jobs and they don't pull punches. Too much is riding on it. White out BFlo's name and put in Michael Zimmer and they wouldn't have to change a word.
If there is racism tied to it, and there could be, it would be behind closed doors and undocumented. I guarantee you that.
I hope to hell there is more than this and not some woke nonsense that you can't call a black person angry with other negative factors without being labeled a racist. Change the specifics and this could easily be an evaluation of Zimmer's tenure as HC.
StickierBuns wrote:
Maybe....but I don't think so. If there are other Corn Ferry recruiting documents they can show as evidence of other HC candidates that have similar descriptions and breakdowns for white candidates, its not the smoking gun that Florio thinks it is. These are brutally honest reviews and I'll bet the others are just as direct. These are big time hires, well compensated hires and they need to show the cold truth for pros and cons after due diligence. They aren't meant to be seen by the candidates. I guarantee you that CEO search firm candidate overviews are just as brutal if not more so regardless of race. These are documents for big boy and big girl jobs and they don't pull punches. Too much is riding on it. White out BFlo's name and put in Michael Zimmer and they wouldn't have to change a word.
If there is racism tied to it, and there could be, it would be behind closed doors and undocumented. I guarantee you that.
Its unfortunate we didn't get a Korn Ferry report on the Zim Zam. I'm sure that would have been entertaining to watch lol
StickierBuns wrote:
Maybe....but I don't think so. If there are other Corn Ferry recruiting documents they can show as evidence of other HC candidates that have similar descriptions and breakdowns for white candidates, its not the smoking gun that Florio thinks it is. These are brutally honest reviews and I'll bet the others are just as direct. These are big time hires, well compensated hires and they need to show the cold truth for pros and cons after due diligence. They aren't meant to be seen by the candidates. I guarantee you that CEO search firm candidate overviews are just as brutal if not more so regardless of race. These are documents for big boy and big girl jobs and they don't pull punches. Too much is riding on it. White out BFlo's name and put in Michael Zimmer and they wouldn't have to change a word.
If there is racism tied to it, and there could be, it would be behind closed doors and undocumented. I guarantee you that.
Exactly.
Billion $ industry and these guys are being hired to guide and coach expensive rosters.
The upwards thing may be a bit of smoke, but the rest is brutally honest.
As I think you said elsewhere, he is a great defensive coach because of the aggression. Snowflakes at QB and WR cant handle that.
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