Court Unseals Korn Ferry Memo on Brian Flores Prepared for Raiders; His Lawyers Call It Racial Stereotyping

A Korn Ferry memo that the NFL and the search firm wanted kept private is now public. It was unsealed Tuesday, Oct. 13, in Brian Flores' discrimination lawsuit against the league.

The magistrate judge overseeing discovery had earlier rejected Korn Ferry's arguments for confidentiality. Korn Ferry had argued it is a third party to the lawsuit, that the memo is privileged work product, and that the memo does not say what Flores claims in any event. Those defenses were rejected, and Korn Ferry did not appeal to the district judge.

The one-page document was prepared for the Las Vegas Raiders during a recent head-coaching search. It is titled "Brian Flores -- Strengths and Weaknesses" and runs two columns: six points in his favor, seven against.

What the memo says

The passage Flores' lawyers have fixed on sits in the strengths column. Korn Ferry described Flores as "polished and a good presenter despite growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn (same as Mike Tyson)." It continued that he "was able to build a strong friendship with a billionaire's son which gave him opportunities to socialize and learn how to build relationships with white-collar and upper-class individuals."

The weaknesses column is blunter. It says Flores "can fool you with his polish upwards," has "little people skills," lacks self-awareness and "can sometimes exhibit erratic behavior."

It calls him someone with a "chip on his shoulder" who "can be a dictator with players, coaches, and can even be difficult with ownership." It says he "failed in how he hires coordinators and staff because he doesn't give second chances."

The memo also says he "once threatened violence to his GM and made irrational demands during an ownership meeting." Those are Korn Ferry's assertions. The memo does not name the general manager or the meeting.

It quotes a "long-time senior team executive" as saying: "He may have changed since, but he was the worst hiring decision we've ever made." It adds that another club president "refused to talk about him."

The memo also cites Tua Tagovailoa's public statements, which it says "opened the narrative" that Flores was "pessimistic and adversarial." The final weakness reads: "Ongoing litigation may be a distraction."

The lawyers' case

Flores is represented by Wigdor LLP and Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek. Attorney Douglas Wigdor said in a statement that the documents show two things. First, that Flores' "decision to hold the league and its teams accountable for systemic race discrimination has been met with unlawful retaliation." Second, that "discrimination continues to play a significant role in the hiring process for NFL Head Coaches, as evidenced by the fact that the candidate profile prepared for the Raiders leans heavily on racial stereotypes."

Attorney Michael Willemin told Front Office Sports that the write-up conjures the image of an "angry Black man." He said the "polish upwards" phrasing is a racially offensive way to comment on a Black man being articulate, as though that were surprising.

Willemin also argued that the Brownsville reference implies someone from that neighborhood could only succeed by meeting a billionaire's son. He pointed to the "litigation may be a distraction" line as evidence of retaliation across the league.

Those are the lawyers' characterizations. No court has ruled that the memo reflects bias or retaliation.

What the memo does not settle

Several items in the weaknesses column are not about race on their face. They are claims about conduct, management style and relationships, some attributed to unnamed team executives. The Tagovailoa material rests on comments the former Dolphins quarterback made publicly in 2024, when he called Flores "a terrible person" and said Flores shook his confidence that he could be an NFL quarterback.

Flores responded in August 2024. "Look, I'm human," he said, and he has said he used the feedback to grow as a leader.

Whether a recruiter's candidate profile of this kind amounts to stereotyping or to a standard, if blunt, scouting report is the kind of question the case will have to address.

One thing the memo does show is that the pending lawsuit was written into a candidate profile as a possible distraction. Flores' lawyers call that retaliation. Whether it is legally actionable is for the court.

The lawsuit and Flores' career since

Flores sued the NFL in February 2022, shortly after the Miami Dolphins fired him as head coach. He had coached Miami from 2019 to the end of the 2021 season. His complaint alleged the league's hiring practices were "rife with racism" toward Black coaches. Some accounts describe the suit as naming the Dolphins, Broncos and Giants, with the Texans also among the defendants. Black coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton later joined. According to Front Office Sports, the case names six teams: the Dolphins, Broncos, Giants, Texans, Cardinals and Titans.

Flores also alleges the Dolphins defamed him. If the "worst hiring decision" quote in the memo traces to a Dolphins executive, that could be used to support the defamation claim, though the memo does not identify the speaker. Truth can serve as a partial defense in a racial discrimination suit.

The Raiders never interviewed Flores. They hired Klint Kubiak, who was introduced at a press conference Feb. 10, 2026.

Flores has not been shut out of the league. He has been the Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator since 2023, and Minnesota is 5-0 this season. His defense leads the NFL in scoring defense at 12.8 points per game allowed. It also leads in quarterback pressure rate (46.4%), sack rate (9.8%), blitz rate (69.8%), completion percentage allowed (53.2%) and passer rating allowed (62.9).

The Vikings have scored the fewest touchdowns (9) through a 5-0 start since the 2003 Carolina Panthers.

What comes next

The memo's release adds to the discovery record in a case that is still being litigated. For much of the time since the suit was filed, the case was consumed by venue issues over whether it belonged in court or arbitration. It ended up in court, though three of the teams still have an appeal pending. The next legal marker will be the judge's decisions on motions to dismiss. Discovery may show whether Flores' lawyers can tie the memo's language to specific teams or executives, and whether the unnamed executive behind the "worst hiring decision" quote is identified.