Disheveled, perhaps. Drunk, no.
Former Denver Broncos General Manager John Elway fired back at a claim from a head coach candidate he interviewed who claimed in a lawsuit that the Hall of Fame quarterback was recovering from “drinking heavily” when an interview was held.
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit earlier this week alleging he was discriminated against during the hiring process of many NFL teams, including the Broncos.
In his complaint, Flores said Elway and other Broncos’ brass showed up an hour late to the 2019 interview and “looked completely disheveled and it was obvious that they had been drinking heavily the night before.”
Flores said the interview was a sham and there was never “any intention to consider him a legitimate candidate.”
Elway, in his response, said if he was disheveled it was only because of the overnight trip to get to the interview location.
“For Brian to make an assumption about my appearance and state of mind early that morning was subjective, hurtful and just plain wrong,” Elway told 9 News in Denver.
“If I appeared ‘disheveled,’ as he claimed, it was because we had flown in during the middle of the night—immediately following another interview in Denver—and were going on a few hours of sleep to meet the only window provided to us,” Elway said.
Elway also disputed the charge that the interview wasn’t meaningful, saying that he considered Flores “very seriously” as a candidate for the head coaching position.
The Broncos organization on Tuesday said the allegation that Elway and others were late to the meeting was also false.
“Our interview with Mr. Flores regarding our head coaching position began promptly at the scheduled time of 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2019, in a Providence, R.I., hotel,” the organization said.
“There were five Broncos executives present for the interview, which lasted approximately three-and-a-half hours—the fully allotted time—and concluded shortly before 11 a.m.”
