Giants say they have proof their interest in Brian Flores was real

The New York Giants are responding vigorously to Brian Flores’ accusations that he was racially discriminated against when the team hired Brian Daboll as their head coach.

Flores received text messages from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick days prior to his interview with the team that were intended to congratulate Brian Daboll on getting the head coach job, even though the Giants hadn’t made any announcement and were still interviewing candidates. Flores filed a lawsuit alleging those messages were proof the Giants did not intend to hire him as head coach and that his interview with them was a sham to satisfy Rooney Rule requirements.

The Giants on Thursday added yet another response to Flores’ allegations. In their statement, the Giants called out Belichick over his text messages. They said that whatever Belichick said did not reflect the organization’s stance.

Further, the Giants say that their owner, John Mara, first reached out to Flores to express interest in him two days after he was fired by the Dolphins.

From the Giants’ statement:

“John Mara called Mr. Flores two days after he was dismissed in Miami. Mr. Mara expressed to Mr. Flores in that January 12 call that once we had our new general manager in place, we would begin the process of hiring our head coach and we wanted to meet with Mr. Flores because we considered him a serious candidate for the position. Mr. Mara and Mr. Flores then had their first formal conversation in a 25-30 minute zoom call on January 18 (at Mr. Flores’ request) to further discuss his candidacy.”

The Giants likely would argue that expressing interest in Flores almost immediately after he was let go by Miami indicates they were genuine about hiring him, and that he wasn’t some afterthought brought in later on just to satisfy a rule.

The Giants even contend in their statement that their interest in Flores was “serious” and “genuine.” They even included the agenda of Flores’ in-person visit with the team on Jan. 27.

Flores was surprisingly fired by the Dolphins on Jan. 10 despite being their first coach since 2002-2003 to lead the team to back-to-back winning seasons. The Giants fired Joe Judge as head coach the following day. They didn’t hire their new GM, Joe Schoen, until Jan. 21. Daboll was officially hired on Jan. 28.

You can see a full timeline of events here.

Photo: Dec 29, 2017; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants president and chief executive officer John Mara holds a press conference introducing New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman (not pictured) at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports