John Elway Blasts Brian Flores Accusations As Hurtful, Defamatory

DENVER, CO — Denver Broncos great and NFL Hall of Famer John Elway broke his silence Thursday and called recent discriminatory hiring allegations by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores "false and defamatory."

As Patch reported Wednesday, Flores accused the NFL and three teams —the Dolphins, Broncos and New York Giants — in a federal lawsuit of racist hiring practices for coaches and general managers. The lawsuit sought class-action status and unspecified damages from the league, the organizations named and unidentified individuals.

Among several claims in the lawsuit, was that Flores was forced in 2019 to undergo a "sham interview" with then Broncos' general manager John Elway, President Joe Ellis and others. Flores accused the team of interviewing him only to fulfill a racial quota imposed by the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head coaching positions.

Additionally, the lawsuit claimed the Broncos executives were an hour late to the interview and appeared hungover.

"They looked completely disheveled, and it was obvious that they had been drinking heavily the night before," the lawsuit said. "It was clear from the substance of the interview that Mr. Flores was interviewed only because of the Rooney Rule."

Flores was the linebackers coach and called defensive plays for the New England Patriots at the time. The Miami Dolphins hired him shortly after his interview with the Broncos.

On Thursday, Elway said in a statement he didn't plan to respond to the accusations publicly, but that he couldn't remain silent any longer, as the claims attacked his character, integrity and professionalism.

"I took Coach Flores very seriously as a candidate for our head coaching position in 2019 and enjoyed our three-and-a-half hour interview with him," Elway said. "Along with the rest of the group, I was prepared, ready and fully engaged during the entire interview as Brian shared his experience and vision for our team."

Elway said he gave Flores the same consideration and opportunity as their other candidates, and took particular issue with Flores' characterization of his appearance.

"For Brian to make an assumption about my appearance and state of mind early that morning was subjective, hurtful and just plain wrong," Elway said. "If I appeared 'disheveled,' as he claimed, it was because we had flowing in during the middle of the night — immediately following another interview in Denver — and were going on a few hours of sleep to meet the only window provided to us."

The Broncos eventually hired Vic Fangio as their head coach. He was fired last month after going 19-30 in three seasons, none of which ended in a postseason appearance.

The team said in a statement that Flores' allegations toward the Broncos were "blatantly false." The interview started on time with five team executives present and lasted 3 1/2 hours, the fully allotted amount of time, the team maintained.

Furthermore, the Broncos said pages of detailed notes, analysis and evaluations from that interview supported their case that the interview and consideration were genuine.

"Our process was thorough and fair to determine the most qualified candidate for our head coaching position," the team said. "The Broncos will vigorously defend the integrity and values of our organization—and its employees—from such baseless and disparaging claims."

When the Broncos hired general manager George Paton last year, Elway stepped away from day-to-day football decisions.