PALM BEACH, Fla. — Giants co-owner John Mara twice called Brian Flores’ allegations of a sham coaching interview “false” on Sunday at The Breakers.
“The allegations are false,” Mara said. “We’re very comfortable with our hiring process, and it was a fair process, and we ended up making the decision we made based on a lot of factors, none of which had to do with race.”
The lawsuit alleges that Bill Belichick accidentally texted Flores the Monday before his Wednesday Giants head coach interview: “I hear from Buffalo and NYG that you are their guy.”
Belichick allegedly intended to text Brian Daboll and sent the message to Flores by mistake.
Mara unequivocally said that no one from the Giants, including Mara himself, spoke to Belichick about the hiring process.
“I haven’t spoken or communicated with Bill since we played them in the preseason last summer,” Mara said, “and to my knowledge, nobody in our organization communicated with him.”
So how can Mara explain that Belichick allegedly had heard that information from someone in the Giants organization?
“I have no idea. You have to ask him that,” Mara said.
Mara said he never reached out to Belichick since to clarify the situation.
“No, why should I?” he said. “We made our hiring decision and we’re happy with that decision. I think the truth will come out eventually. But he didn’t speak to anybody in our organization.”
Mara said he’s “not settling” the lawsuit. He said he’ll sit for a deposition if he’s called. “I don’t know if I’ll have the choice,” he said.
Mara said he “didn’t have much of a reaction” to Flores being hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers to Mike Tomlin’s staff.
“He’s a good coach,” he said.
“We made the decision we made but we obviously had significant interest in Brian [Flores] as well,” Mara said.
Mara reiterated that Flores’ lawsuit was baseless in his opinion.
“It’s false,” he said. “I’ve said over and over again we’ve had a very thorough process, interviewed great candidates, made our decision based on a lot of factors. Certainly Joe’s prior relationship with Brian certainly entered into it. But at the end of the day we thought Brian Daboll was the best fit for us.”
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