The NFL is in hot water right now. Brian Flores, the recently fired head coach of the Miami Dolphins, accused multiple teams (and the league itself) of discriminatory practices regarding race. Aside from this, the Dolphins are accused of incentivizing coaches and players to lose games on purpose by paying them for every loss.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the greatest NBA players of all-time, spoke out about this current issue. In a Substack post of his, Abdul-Jabbar slammed the NFL for failing to recognize discrimination and only acting on it now.

“Brian Flores is suing the National Football League and the only question I have is ‘What took so long?' I’m not referring specifically to Flores’ lawsuit, but to making public the racism inherent in the NFL like a vestigial limb.”

Abdul-Jabbar would then go on to point out that diversifying the coaching ranks is possible, and points to college basketball and the NBA. He calls NFL fans to action and says that the fans themselves need to demand change from their owners.

After Flores and David Culley were fired from their respective jobs, the only Black head coach in the NFL was Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers. There were multiple rumors of popular Black candidates being interviewed by organizations (such as Byron Leftwich, Flores, and Todd Bowles), but ultimately, none of these coaches were hired.

Coupled with Flores' accusations that he was merely brought in to interview to comply to the Rooney Rule, this seems bad. The Rooney Rule was the NFL's way of trying to promote diversity in the coaching ranks, but as it turns out, it's not doing a great job at it, if Flores' claims are to be believed.