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The New York Giants were one of three teams that were sued last Tuesday by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores for racist practices during the recruiting process for the position they had vacated after the dismissal of Joe Judge following the end of the last NFL regular season.
On Thursday, the Giants defended themselves against the allegations in an official team statement released by owners John Mara and Steve Tisch.
The New York Giants' arguments
"After we interviewed six exceptional and diverse candidates, the decision on who we would hire as head coach was made on the evening of January 28, one day after Mr. Flores spent an entire day in our offices going through his second interview for the position, meeting with ownership and other staff , and receiving a tour of our facility," the Giants wrote in the statement.
Thus, in the same statement, New York considered the allegations in the lawsuit against it by Flores "about the legitimacy of his candidacy for our head coach position are disturbing and simply false."
Flores argues that prior to his second job interview with the Giants, which occurred on Jan. 27, the team had already decided on former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who ended up taking the job.
Messages from Bill Belichick
The former Dolphins head coach presented evidence of text messages he exchanged with New England Patriots strategist Bill Belichick, in which the six-time Super Bowl champion congratulated him on getting the job with "Big Blue" but mistakenly mistook the conversation for his namesake with the last name of Daboll.
The Giants said Belichick "does not speak for and has no affiliation" with the Giants' organization and that for them that evidence is useless since it "(has) no insight into what actually transpired during our head coaching search."