Transcripts For CNN Early Start With Christine Romans and La

He was forced to hit for a Sham Interview for a new job even though a white coach had already been selected merely to satisfy league rules on interviewing minority candidates. His lawyers write this, quote, in certain critical ways the nfl is racially segregated and managed much like a plantation. 32 owners none of whom are black profit substantially from the labor of nfl players, 70 of whom are black. They watch from the boxes while their Majority Workforce put their bodies on the line taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries to their bodies and brains while the nfl and owners reap billions of dollars. Well talk to civil rights attorney. Cnn Sports Anchor andy scholes has more on the allegations in this lawsuit. Shock waves really says it. This is a bold and brave move by flores here. Yeah, it certainly is a big moment in nfl history. Brian flores taking a stand fully knowing this may cost him his career after being fired by the dolphins last month after three seasons, flores has been considered a candidate for many head jobs. On tuesday while the Class Action Lawsuit against the league, the dolphins, giants and broncos for Racial Discrimination and for his firing, flores alleges that the giants gave him an interview only to satisfy the rooney rule which requires the team to he meant to send the text to brian dable who used to be one of belichicks assistant. The texts came three days before flores interviewed for the job. Belichick texts are one of the key pieces of evidence in the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims in 2019 john elway showed up to an interview with flores an hour late and looked, quote, Completely Disheveled and hung over. Flores also alleges that Dolphins Owner steven ross offered him 100,000 for every loss during the 2019 season so that the team could get a higher draft pick. Flores says when he refused that, ross then treated him with disdain and as someone who was difficult to work with. All three teams in the nfl put out statements refuting floress claims. With the suit flores also releasing a statement saying god has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football but the need for change is bigger than my personal goal. And making the decision to file a Class Action Complaint today i understand that i may be risking coaching the game that i love and that has done so much for my family and me. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the nfl others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come. So, guys, there is a powerful statement. This is a significant moment. How many open coaching jobs are there right now . There were nine Head Coaching Job Openings to start the season. I believe four of those have now been filled. None of them by black coaches. Hes actively interviewing. He is in the Prosets Cess Of Th hes making all of these allegations. Great reporting. Joining us to help break down all of this in a legal sense. A Arriva Martin joins us. Flores is suing the nfl, this goliath of an organization, essentially blowing the whistle on it and its hiring practice. The organization, the league didnt hire a single Black Head Coach for over 60 years and now only has one. The u. S. Supreme court is about to have more black people than the nfl. What is he going to have to prove to win this . Pretty explosive allegations. The numbers that you just cited dont look good for the league. The fact that only one out of 27 head coaches is africanamerican and given that the league is 70 black as it comes to players, he has to prove a case. He has to prove he was a member of a protected class as an africanamerican, he was qualified to do this job and he will meet that standard and that he was denied Employment Opportunities and that opportunity was given to someone outside of the protected class. This text message from Bill Belichick is going to be a huge piece of evidence, you know, that will be favorable to flores as he moves forward with respect to this lawsuit. If, in fact, the giants had already hired a white coach three days before they were interviewing flores for this job clearly establishes that the interview was a sham as he alleges in the lawsuit. Part of the lawsuit focusing in on this rooney rule, that is this nfl policy from back in 2003. It requires that teams have to interview a certain number of minority candidates in connection with senior positions. Hes saying theyre treated as essentially jokes. Theyll have to legally try to prove that. Yeah. Absolutely. And, again, that text message that says that the job was already assigned to someone before the interview just, you know, gives more justification and more weight to his claim that these interviews are a joke. That rule was put in place to bring diversity to the league, but when you look at what happened in the league since 2003 when that rule was implemented, not much has changed. You still only have one black coach out of 27. So the nfl is going to have to give some justification for why he wasnt given the job specifically with the giants when clearly he was qualified, he was interviewing for a job that had apparently already been filled. Explosive allegations that will require a lot of explanations, depositions under oath by League Officials and team owners. I think were going to be seeing a lot with respect to this. If he makes it to discovery, that could be eyebrow raising. Hes putting his career on the line with this. As we mentioned, hes actively interviewing to be head coach of multiple teams right now. What do you make of his decision to bring this suit forward . Do you think other people might come forward now that hes taken the first step . First of all, i want to commend brian flores for coming forward. It takes a lot of courage. When you file a discrimination based on race, age, even gender, you are often ostracized by that particular field. A lot of teams arent going to want to touch him. We saw what happened with respect to colin kaepernick. Its unlikely any team is going to want to hire brian flores. If no one comes forward and calls out racism, if you dont do this, nothing ever changes. Very bold move on his part to do so, as you said, during the time when hes still interviewing, but i think you have to give him a lot of courage give him a lot of credit for having the courage to stand up to the league because hes going to face a tremendous amount of opposition as the league has already come forward and called his allegations meritless. Arriva martin, thank you very much. Well hear from brian flores will tell Husband Story live on new day in the 8 a. M. Hour. Whoopie goldberg off the view for two weeks. Abc has suspended goldberg one day after she said this about the holocaust. The holocaust isnt about race. No . No. Maybe no. Different race but its not about race. Its not about race. What is it about . Because you its about mans inhumanity to man. Those remarks drew widespread outrage and so goldberg apologized on twitter on monday night and again she went further on tuesdays show. I said something that i feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. It is, indeed, about race because hitler and the nazis considered jews to be an inferior race. Words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments as i said and i stand corrected. Abc news president said in a statement here, she suspended goldberg for her wrong and hurtful comments. While whoopie has apologized, ive asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. Dramatic video of the final moments of a manhunt for the accused killer of two Police Officers on a Virginia College campus. You can hear officers shouting for the suspect with his hands up to stop and turn around. He slowly lies down on the ground as instructed. Bridgewater College Officers were shot and killed in a brief interaction with that suspect. The school says they were a dynamic duo as Close Friends and colleagues. Police have identified the suspected shooter as 27yearold alexander campbell. He has been charged now with multiple counts of murder. More than 20 states from the rockies to new england as far south as texas are under Winter Storm Watches and warnings. Some parts of the midwest could see the heaviest snowfall in a century. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is live at the cnn weather center. Good morning. Who is going to feel the brunt of this storm most . It sounds bad. You know, its such a mixed bag of wintry weather. Not only are we talking about significant and historic snowfall. Significant portions of ice in the south stretching from the Upper Midwest to portions of the great lakes as well. Notice this again, parts of 21 states spanning over 2,000 miles upwards of 90 Million People impacted across this region. Even an Ice Storm Warning for the National Weather service into arkansas and missouri. If you are going out on the roadways, pack water, pack food, pack a flashlight. Theres a high likelihood youll be stuck in your car. This is a multiday event shaping up over the central u. S. And the ohio valley. Notice by 7, 8, 9 p. M. Youll see the rain, Ice Accumulations in northern texas. Includes dallas areas of missouri. I noticed again into areas of the ohio valley. This continues into thursday morning before conditions begin to improve. Widespread power outages, major Travel Disruptions as a result of this before conditions improve going into friday and saturday. One storm on top of another. I am ready for spring. Pedram, thank you. Take this job and shove it. A Record Number of americans quit their jobs last year and u. S. Employers now have more open positions than ever before. Another 4. 3 million, million workers quit their jobs in december. The total for the year an astonishing 47. 4 million. Its been called the great resignation. People left for better paying jobs, they retired or they stayed home to take care of children and relatives. Another way to look at these figures, there are 1. 7 open jobs for every job seeker. We have never seen that before. The biggest sector to quit, education workers. The Wall Street Journal Reports Teachers are quitting and companies are hot to hire them. Workers have the upper hand and Companies Know it. Home depot is promising speedy job offers the next day after applying. Dominos is so short of Delivery Drivers its now going to pay you 3 bucks to pick up your own pizza. And wages are rising just about everywhere. Its economics 101. When something is scarce, it becomes more valuable. Thats the american worker. As Jpmorgan Chase Ceo Jamie Dimon put it, ceos shouldnt be cry babies about it, they should just deal with it. What do you make of those teachers quitting . I think teachers are exhausted, theyve been under valued. And underpaid. And the Health Care Crisis has shone a light. Theyre working jobs theyre underpaid for. Theyre in this environment not going to take it. Housing market equity is high. People in their mid 50s can afford to retire. Thats a lot of teachers who are now looking for something else. Its interesting that theyre going somewhere else. Yeah. Up next for you, Vladimir Putin breaking his silence and not mincing words. As people say, they screwed us over. More from moscow in just a moment. Later today republicans in congress turning on two of their own. And just in to cnn, the new Biden White House plan so ambitious theyre calling it a moon shot. A powerful. 05 retinol thats also gentle on skin. For Wrinkles Results in one week. Neutrogena®. For people with skin. Want fresher drives every day . Get febreze car vent clips. Just click, install and febreze steady release Technology Uses your fan to circulate freshness throughout your car. So, you can enjoy up to 40 days of consistent scent. Febreze car. Okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete balanced nutrition for strength and energy. 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Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. What happens when we Welcome Change . We can make Emergency Medicine possible at 40,000 feet. Instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. We can create new ways to connect. Rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. With app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps Companies Navigate change. Faster. Vmware. Welcome change. Frank is a fan of fast. Hes a fast talker. A fast walker. Thanks, gary. And for unexpected heartburn. Frank is a fan of pepcid. It works in minutes. Nexium 24 hour and prilosec otc can take one to four days to fully work. Pepcid. Strong relief for fans of fast. Russias Vladimir Putin speaking out about rising tensions. He says hes being ignored and deceived by nato. Translator we were given promises not to push the infrastructure of the nato bloc to the east one inch. Everyone knows this well. Today we see where nato is located. Poland, romania, the baltic countries. They said one thing, they did another. As people say, they screwed us over. We have two live reports on the growing crisis. Melissa bell is in ukraine. Nic robertson is in moscow. We turn to another leader. Reporter yeah, Emmanuel Macron said he hoped he would meet with him soon. Putin had a phone call with macron monday, had a phone call a few days before. Interesting as well last night Emmanuel Macron had a phone call with the canadian Prime Minister justin trudeau. This was a reminder for the french president if he gets deeper into a conversation, maybe a meeting with putin, he goes there as a representative of nato and not of his own nation. You know, of course everyone is trying to scratch their heads and figure out what did putin really mean . What was he trying to do . These pronouncements yesterday, the State Department saying theyll wait for the written response. They wont try to read the tea leaves. This is very much putins negotiating style to turn up the talks. You can look at his position yesterday as part of his very aggressive diplomacy but he is standing there at the door wanting to get wanting to have a conversation whereby he gets something he wants. What hes doing is saying dont look at me. Dont look at my previous invasions. Look what youve done. Look at the time youve broken international agreements. It will be to nato to maintain its unity on responding to that. The macron we heard from the president a few minutes ago, potential diplomacy. The kremlin is saying a potential light for diplomacy. Nic, thank you so much for that. Boris johnson with some of his own words for putin. What i think President Putin is trying to achieve here. I think that he is trying by holding a gun, as it were, to the head of ukraine by intimidating ukraine to get us to change the way we look at something that was absolutely fantastic. Cnns melissa bell joins us live from kyiv, ukraine. What was behind johnsons meeting with president zelensky . Reporter whats interest