Curiously, when the Houston Texans began looking for a new head coach three weeks ago, one man was not on the wish list at all: an experienced football coach with excellent references and a long white beard, whom the franchise had signed on just a year earlier and who made number two.

Instead, it transpired that those responsible for the team had invited several aspirants from abroad to extensive job interviews.

Among them: a man with merits named Brian Flores, who, after solid development work with the Miami Dolphins, was fired for no apparent reason two years before his five-year contract expired.

But then, from one day to the next, unusual news ended all further advances: On February 1, the 40-year-old African American had filed a civil lawsuit in a federal district court in New York against the National Football League, the Dolphins and two other teams and gave them one accused of a number of labor law violations.

All indications of a long-held suspicion: that in the league, with a proportion of white players of just 25 percent, highly qualified black head coaches are persistently discriminated against and their career opportunities sabotaged, despite assertions to the contrary.

Goodell tries to smooth things over

At least the Houston Texans found a way to avoid that impression.

Because they promoted the previously ignored vice coach to the chief post on Monday.

His name is Lovie Smith, he's black, he led the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl more than ten years ago and he's not known for exposing himself socio-politically.

For Flores' lawyers, however, a transparent maneuver.

There was only one reason they did not oblige their client: "His decision to publicly oppose the unequal treatment of people in the NFL because of their skin color."

Since then, Roger Goodell, the NFL's powerful executive director, has been trying to steer the league out of the maelstrom of its recent image disaster.

Which isn't easy.

Because in the National Football League, the integration of black players had been deliberately made more difficult for decades.

For example, with a quota system that kept the proportion of African Americans as low as possible.

Or trying to keep talented black quarterbacks out of the prestige position.

Nothing demonstrated the ongoing resentment better than dealing with Colin Kaepernick, a representative of the new generation of playmakers who launched protests against American police brutality in 2016.

He has been labeled a pariah and has not been invited to a test training session by any club since 2017.

In a statistical comparison with their white colleagues, the impression quickly arises that skin color also plays a role for coaches and is a factor in their disadvantage.

The Flores lawyers documented in their lawsuit that black coaches are fired much more often than white coaches, even after a season with a positive result.