Flores declined a separation agreement to ensure he could speak about the team.

Last month, NFL coach Brian Flores was dismissed from the Miami Dolphins. At the time, he was offered a separation agreement by team owner Stephen Ross that would have given him several million dollars. In exchange, though, he would not have been permitted to speak about his time with the team, which is why Flores turned the agreement down.

In his dismissal by the Miami Dolphins last month, coach Brian Flores declined to sign a separation agreement presented by team owner Stephen Ross, Flores told Bryant Gumbel of HBO's "Real Sports." https://t.co/yALNp8e0j1

— ESPN (@espn) February 23, 2022

“Just signing that separation agreement would have really silenced me,” Flores said in an interview with HBO’s Real Sports. By maintaining his freedom to speak, Flores was able to file lawsuits against the Dolphins, as well as several other NFL teams he had coached for, on the grounds of racial discrimination.

“To Coach Flores’ credit, he wasn’t gonna sign that, because he wanted — it wasn’t about the money,” attorney Doug Wigdor added in the interview. “If it was about the money, he would have signed it. What he did instead was he filed this lawsuit so that he could help other coaches, now … and in the future.”

In response to the #Dolphins calling Brian Flores' assertion of an NDA "categorically false," below are screenshots from the draft agreement & payment termination notice.

If #BrianFlores had signed this, he would have been gagged and unable to talk about his experience.#NFL pic.twitter.com/rlEgTXsd4I

— WigdorLaw (@WigdorLaw) February 23, 2022

“If a coach is terminated with a couple years or a year left on their contract, they don’t get paid unless they sign a waiver, an NDA, confidentiality and non-disparagement. So they buy their silence.”