All Things 2025 Minnesota Vikings In-Season Thread

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Slim Tubby said:
What's really frustrating is that we might finish 9-8 this season even with all of the very winnable games we lost due to abysmal QB play.
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Yes. Bad QB play and also the free agent misses. Still 9-8 with a win Sunday. I know KOC took his lumps at times throughout the season, but he has to get some credit here when all is said and done.

Hearing speculation now regarding if Flores makes a lateral move to a team with a better QB situation. Gotta be frustrating for Flores at times that his side of the ball has to do all the heavy lifting.
 

Regarding Flores, I don’t foresee him being pursued as a HC, as his lawsuit against the NFL & three teams is still active, after the NFL’s request for arbitration was denied.

Here is an article from CBS Sports and also a summation with more details from Chat GPT, which is accurate, based on what I’ve read.

www.cbssports.com

Court of Appeals upholds ruling in Brian Flores' lawsuit vs. the NFL; three teams could go to trial

The court found insurmountable flaws with the NFL's arbitration process
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

——————

What the Lawsuit Is About

  • Brian Flores, a Black football coach and former Miami Dolphins head coach, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) and several teams, including the New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and Houston Texans.
  • He alleges that he and other qualified Black coaches were subjected to discriminatory hiring practices — including “sham” interviews where teams interviewed him to comply with the league’s diversity rules without serious intent to hire him.
  • The lawsuit claims systemic bias in hiring for head coach, coordinator, and front-office jobs, and seeks class-action status, unspecified damages, and changes to NFL hiring practices.

Background & Key Allegations

Some of the notable claims in the complaint include:
  • The Giants allegedly decided on another (white) coach before interviewing Flores for their head coaching job, and a text message from Bill Belichick was used as evidence showing the Giants’ intentions.
  • The Broncos interview in 2019 was allegedly perfunctory and insincere.
  • While coaching the Dolphins, Flores says he was pressured to lose games (“tank”) for draft advantages and to recruit a prominent quarterback, and was then fired after pushing back.
  • Other Black coaches — Steve Wilks and Ray Horton — later joined the lawsuit with similar allegations.
These allegations are rooted in claims that the league’s leadership and many teams systematically disadvantage Black coaches, despite NFL policies like the Rooney Rule meant to increase diversity.


Legal Battles & Recent Developments


Court of Appeals Says Case Can Go to Trial

  • In August 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals (Second Circuit) ruled that Flores’ lawsuit can proceed in open court, rejecting the NFL’s attempts to force the case into private arbitration under a process controlled by Commissioner Roger Goodell.
  • The appeals court agreed with a previous ruling that the league’s arbitration provisions were inadequate and could be invalid.

Ongoing Litigation

  • After this ruling, the case is moving toward trial, meaning Flores will argue his claims publicly in federal court rather than behind closed arbitration.
  • Flores’ legal team has also criticized the NFL-appointed arbitrator for delaying progress, saying the arbitration process has been slow and stalling.

Why It Matters

The lawsuit goes beyond just Flores’ personal situation — it addresses what he and others describe as systemic racial bias in NFL hiring practices, especially in high-profile leadership roles where Black representation has historically lagged behind the player base.

Should Flores prevail or reach a significant settlement, it could have wide implications for NFL hiring rules and diversity initiatives.


Where things stand
  • The lawsuit survived procedural challenges and is set to be tried in court rather than forced into private arbitration.
  • The NFL continues to defend its hiring practices and may seek further appeals or other legal maneuvers.
 

Flores got terrible awful legal advice in this situation, on whether or not to pursue this avenue. Likely pushed hard from outside sources, people around him, that this was a good idea somehow. I highly doubt it was solely his decision, he just doesn't seem that dumb.

The NFL has a long history of guys who were/are great Coordinators and just not good Head Coaches. Two absolutely completely different jobs. Spags in Kansas City, Josh McDaniels, Robert Saleh are just a few of the more recent ones.

Flores is going to have to show prospective employers that he learned something about how to treat subordinate staff when he was in Miami. Plenty of reports that he was an insufferable prick to most of the people in the building in Miami, staff walked around on eggshells hoping just not to be the one to set him off. The Tua reports certainly added to all of that after he left Miami, regardless of who was in the right or wrong.

Flores is a pretty damn good DC that makes reportedly around $4-$4.5M per year for a solid NFL franchise and pretty good owners. We should all be so disrespected and discriminated against.
 


Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Flores got terrible awful legal advice in this situation, on whether or not to pursue this avenue. Likely pushed hard from outside sources, people around him, that this was a good idea somehow. I highly doubt it was solely his decision, he just doesn't seem that dumb.

The NFL has a long history of guys who were/are great Coordinators and just not good Head Coaches. Two absolutely completely different jobs. Spags in Kansas City, Josh McDaniels, Robert Saleh are just a few of the more recent ones.

Flores is going to have to show prospective employers that he learned something about how to treat subordinate staff when he was in Miami. Plenty of reports that he was an insufferable prick to most of the people in the building in Miami, staff walked around on eggshells hoping just not to be the one to set him off. The Tua reports certainly added to all of that after he left Miami, regardless of who was in the right or wrong.

Flores is a pretty damn good DC that makes reportedly around $4-$4.5M per year for a solid NFL franchise and pretty good owners. We should all be so disrespected and discriminated against.
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Flores will be a tough sell for a lot of owners as HC. He is seen as both a liability in being too tough on support staff but also suing a former employer. It's really hard to hire someone you know might sure you if you ever fire them. I'm with you Ogie, I think he got some awful short-sighted advice and he is paying for it.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Flores got terrible awful legal advice in this situation, on whether or not to pursue this avenue. Likely pushed hard from outside sources, people around him, that this was a good idea somehow. I highly doubt it was solely his decision, he just doesn't seem that dumb.

The NFL has a long history of guys who were/are great Coordinators and just not good Head Coaches. Two absolutely completely different jobs. Spags in Kansas City, Josh McDaniels, Robert Saleh are just a few of the more recent ones.

Flores is going to have to show prospective employers that he learned something about how to treat subordinate staff when he was in Miami. Plenty of reports that he was an insufferable prick to most of the people in the building in Miami, staff walked around on eggshells hoping just not to be the one to set him off. The Tua reports certainly added to all of that after he left Miami, regardless of who was in the right or wrong.

Flores is a pretty damn good DC that makes reportedly around $4-$4.5M per year for a solid NFL franchise and pretty good owners. We should all be so disrespected and discriminated against.
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I'll agree with you on the legal advice. I also really doubt Flores could still be an insufferable prick and remain on KOC's coaching staff. I'm sure he's learned a lot since then.

Flores wasn't a bad head coach either. He was 24-25 overall and 10-6 in year 2. Despite starting 1-7 in year 3 and all the negativity that was reported about him, he never lost that team and went 8-1 down the stretch to finish 9-8. Then he was fired. He was a significantly better HC than Spags, McDaniels, or Saleh.
 

Slim Tubby said:
What's really frustrating is that we might finish 9-8 this season even with all of the very winnable games we lost due to abysmal QB play.
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Falcons we never had a chance that day, was not going to happen
Steelers was really bad then suddenly we almost came back, but it was too much to overcome
Eagles we had our chances, could have won that one
Chargers was horrific
Ravens not quite as close, but similar to the Eagles game?
Bears we had the game won
Pack wasn't close after the first quarter+
Seahawks obviously was a laugher


We just needed one, right? Assuming Pack without Love loses to Ravens, we'd be 9-7 and they 9-6-1 ... we beat them next week to take the 7th seed 10-7 while they're 9-7-1.

So, that's the Chicago game. Just an incredible ending.
 

golf said:
The Bears game was the killer. We had that game won. (We should have a 4-1division record). Pack loses tonight and we would've been playing next week to make the playoffs.
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You are correct that they had the game won.

Incredibly bad ending
 





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