Steve Wilks Comments on Why He Joined Brian Flores’s Lawsuit

Steve Wilks, an assistant for the Panthers, kept it brief with reporters Wednesday when asked why he joined former Dolphins coach Brian Flores’s racial discrimination lawsuit in April.

“I’m all about change,” Wilks said. “And, I’ll leave it at that.”

On Feb. 1, Flores, who is currently a Steelers assistant, filed a lawsuit against the league, three of its teams–the Giants, the Broncos and the Dolphins—and 29 “John Doe” teams, accusing the NFL of racial discrimination within its hiring practices. Currently, there are six minority head coaches in the NFL, a league predominantly composed of Black players.

Wilks previously served as the Cardinals head coach in 2018 but was fired in December 2018 and replaced by Kliff Kingsbury, a coach who had no NFL coaching experience at the time of his hire. When Wilks joined Flores’s lawsuit, he documented his own involvement with the league regarding its hiring practices.

According to The New York Times, Wilks argued in an amended lawsuit that Arizona hired him as a “bridge coach” and that the Cardinals did not have long-term plans for him as the team’s leader. He also stated in the complaint that Cardinals general manager Steve Keim made “poor personal” decisions, noting Keim was charged and pleaded guilty to a DUI in 2018. Instead of getting fired, Keim remains in his role as the franchise’s general manager.

The Cardinals later released a statement saying the allegations of the amended complaint were “untrue.” Arizona added its decisions from 2018 were “difficult ones” that were driven by the “best interests” of the franchise.

Flores’s lawsuit also stated that he was involved with two sham interviews with the Giants and the Broncos. However, both teams denied the allegations. Flores also stated in the lawsuit that Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross, offered him a $100,000 bonus for each loss during the team’s 2019 season, hoping Miami would record the league’s worst record to get the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft. Ross denied those claims, saying they were “false, malicious and defamatory.”