Veteran NFL coach Anthony Lynn appreciates the league policy that requires teams to interview minority candidates for their top jobs and he has even benefited from it. Like many of his peers, though, the assistant head coach for the San Francisco 49ers believes the policy has fallen short of its good intentions.

There were three non-white head coaches when the Rooney Rule went into effect in 2003, and today, there are five. Skepticism about NFL hiring practices has remained steady among minority job candidates, who see parallels to the challenges corporate America faces.

A racial discrimination lawsuit filed this month against the NFL by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has magnified attention on the league's hiring practices.

Lynn said, “I really believe in the spirit of the Rooney Rule, but I just saw how people were abusing it and I didn’t want to be a part of that.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told teams recently that the league will look to improve policies meant to encourage the hiring of minorities, particularly as head coaches.

"We will reevaluate and examine all policies, guidelines and initiatives relating to diversity, equity and inclusion, including as they relate to gender," Goodell wrote in a memo to the league's 32 clubs. The commissioner added that the league's record on hiring minority coaches has been "unacceptable."

A lawsuit filed last week which alleges the National Football League has followed racist hiring practices has now shed light on allegations from multiple coaches that claim NFL team owners have offered incentives, or bonuses, to coaches to lose games.

Two teams and two coaches sit at the center of a related controversy.

Brian Flores, the former coach for the Miami Dolphins who was fired last month by the team, said in a lawsuit that he was offered $100,000 by owner Stephen Ross in 2019 for each loss he was able to complete, Reuters reported. Flores claimed in the recent filing that the offer was meant to help the Dolphins get a better draft pick in 2020.

Hue Jackson, the former coach for the Cleveland Browns, who was fired eight games into the 2018 season and lost all 16 games in 2017, said he was offered incentives to lose while he was the coach for the Browns, the Associated Press reported. According to Reuters, the NFL draft of college players gives the highest pick to teams with the worst records. When Jackson was a coach for the Browns, the team lost 36 of 40 games.

Legal experts say that if the allegations are determined to be true, possible class action lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars could be filed, or even criminal liability could be possible, as experts told Reuters.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell delivered remarks on the controversy the NFL has been going through at an annual Super Bowl news conference on Wednesday. The NFL commissioner was grilled on two hot topics that have put the league under heavy scrutiny: racism and discrimination in hiring as he sat under a baking sun during an unseasonable week of weather in Southern California.

There were other issues that don't shine a positive light on pro football, including threats to the integrity of the sport, and misconduct by players and team executives. A week after former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, who is Black, filed a lawsuit alleging both racism in the league and being offered money by team owner Stephen Ross to tank games, Goodell vowed action on several fronts.

As ESPN reported, Goodell said "We believe in diversity," during the news conference outside of SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the site of Super Bowl 2022. He said, "I think we have to continue to look and find and step back and say, 'We're not doing a good enough job here.' We need to find better solutions and better outcomes. Let's find more effective policies. Let's make sure everyone understands. Let's make sure that we're looking at diversity and incentivizing that for everybody in our building."

The commissioner said, "We're not having the success we want with head coaches. How do we evolve that rule, or do we have to have a new rule? Do we need to find some other way of being able to achieve that outcome? I think we're not going to rest until we find that until we get those outcomes that are mandatory for us to move forward and have an inclusive league."

The NFL commissioner appeared to have more questions than answers on Wednesday as the league is embroiled in multiple allegations including racism and discrimination among hiring practices for head coaches, but also within at least one lawsuit filed and other comments on social media alleging that team owners have offered payments to coaches to throw games.

A lawsuit filed last week alleges the National Football League followed racist hiring practices and has shed light on allegations from multiple coaches that claim NFL team owners have offered incentives, or bonuses, to coaches to lose games.

Two teams and two coaches sit at the center of the latest controversial claims, with both team owners denying the allegations.

Brian Flores, the former coach for the Miami Dolphins who was fired last month by the team, said in a lawsuit that he was offered $100,000 by owner Stephen Ross in 2019 for each loss he was able to complete, Reuters reported. Flores claimed in the recent filing that the offer was meant to help the Dolphins get a better draft pick in 2020.

Hue Jackson, the former coach for the Cleveland Browns, who was fired eight games into the 2018 season and lost all 16 games in 2017, said he was offered incentives to lose while he was the coach for the Browns, the Associated Press reported. According to Reuters, the NFL draft of college players gives the highest pick to teams with the worst records. When Jackson was a coach for the Browns, the team lost 36 of 40 games.

Legal experts say that if the allegations are determined to be true, possible class action lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars could be filed, or even criminal liability could be possible, as experts told Reuters.

While the allegations contain claims that the two teams wanted to improve chances that their teams could be awarded opportunities to pick top prospects in the NFL draft, they also come at a time of huge growth in the legal sports gambling industry.

Ross refutes the claims calling the allegations "false, malicious and defamatory" and said he welcomes an investigation, according to Reuters.

As the Associated Press reported, the Cleveland Browns deny the claims by Jackson saying he "completely fabricated" the accusations. Jackson, who offered support for Flores on Twitter said that he received bonus payments from Browns' owner Jimmy Haslam.

Haslam denied paying former coach Hue Jackson for losing games and said his one-time employee is only good at “pointing fingers” and needs to accept some blame for his dreadful NFL record. In an exclusive interview with the Knoxville News, Haslam called Jackson’s claims “an absolute falsehood” and said the coach needs to be more accountable for his 3-36-1 record with the Browns.

Jackson has said that he didn’t understand what Cleveland was trying to do during his failed tenure.

As the Guardian reported, Flores' claims his refusal to comply with an agreement to accept money to throw games was the beginning of his end with the Miami Dolphins.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told teams over the weekend that the league will look to improve policies meant to encourage the hiring of minorities, particularly as head coaches.

Goodell also pledged an investigation into tanking allegations raised by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores contained in his discrimination lawsuit against the National Football League.

"We will reevaluate and examine all policies, guidelines and initiatives relating to diversity, equity and inclusion, including as they relate to gender," Goodell wrote in a memo to the league's 32 clubs. The commissioner added that the league's record on hiring minority coaches has been "unacceptable."

The memo came just days after Flores sued the league and three teams over alleged racist hiring practices for coaches and general managers, saying the NFL remains "rife with racism" even as it publicly condemns it.

The NFL's main avenue for increasing diversity in its leadership ranks is the two-decade-old Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for jobs including head coach and general manager. Despite the rule, there is currently one Black head coach in the league: Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin.

There are no Black team owners, just a handful of Black GMs and relatively few Black coordinators in a league where more than 70% of players are Black or another ethnic minority.

Goodell said the league will include outside experts in its review along with "current and former players and coaches, advocates and other authorities in this area." He said, "Our goal is simple: make our efforts and those of the clubs more effective so that real and tangible results will be achieved."

In a statement, Flores' attorneys said that while Goodell's memo appears to be a positive first step in confronting systemic racism in the league, they "suspect that is it more of a public relations ploy than real commitment to change."

Flores, who is Black, was fired as Miami's coach last month despite back-to-back winning seasons. He named the league and three teams (the Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants) in a class-action lawsuit this week alleging unfair hiring practices in the NFL.

After the lawsuit was filed, the league said it would defend itself against claims it said were "without merit." The Dolphins, Broncos and Giants also denied Flores' allegations. Goodell took a softer approach to Flores' claims in his memo.

"We understand the concerns expressed by Coach Flores and others this week. While the legal process moves forward, we will not wait to reassess and modify our strategies to ensure that they are consistent with our values and longstanding commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion," the commissioner wrote.

Flores' most serious allegation is his claim that Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told him he would pay him $100,000 for every loss during the coach's first season because the owner wanted the club to "tank" so it could get the top draft pick.

The Dolphins went 5-11 that year. The Cincinnati Bengals went 2-14 and used the No. 1 pick on quarterback Joe Burrow, who led the team to this season's Super Bowl.

"We also take seriously any issue relating to the integrity of NFL games," Goodell's letter said. "These matters will be reviewed thoroughly and independently. We expect that these independent experts will receive full cooperation from everyone associated with the league or any member club as this work proceeds."

Ross pledged his team's full cooperation into an investigation on Thursday when he labeled Flores' accusations "false, malicious and defamatory."

Flores also contends that the Broncos and Giants conducted sham interviews, Denver's in 2019 and New York's during the current hiring cycle. Critics of the Rooney Rule have long contended that many teams complied with the rule by interviewing minority candidates they had no intention of hiring.

"There's a lot of work to do. I wish there was a quick fix. I wish there was a silver bullet for some of these things," Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, who is Pakistani-American, said Saturday. "But I think it says as much about America, frankly, as it does anything else."

The Jaguars had two interviews with Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, who is Black, for their head coaching job, but talks with him broke down and Jacksonville hired Doug Pederson, the fifth white coach Khan has hired.

Lawyers Douglas H. Wigdor and John Elefterakis, who represent Flores, said they were skeptical that Goodell's memo would lead to meaningful changes and called on a court or government agency to appoint a federal monitor to oversee the league.

"For too many years, the NFL has hidden behind the cover of foundations that were supposed to protect the rights of Black players and coaches, all while letting systemic racial bias fester in its front offices," the attorneys said in their statement. "The NFL is now rolling out the same playbook yet again and that is precisely why this lawsuit was filed."

This story was originally published by Jay Strubberg of Newsy, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.