It's been nearly a year since former head coach Brian Flores filed his racial discrimination lawsuit against the National Football League, and sources around the league are tense that another hiring cycle could come and go with few -- if any -- Black men filling vacant head-coaching roles.The currently has five open head-coaching positions and it's likely to stay that way without a surprise firing or retirement after this weekend. Last year the league saw just three of its 10 open jobs go to men of color. And since the start of the 2012 regular season, 80 percent of all available head-coaching jobs have gone to white men.Despite the league's efforts to strengthen and promote the pipeline of diverse coaching talent and improve the Rooney Rule, many around the league are questioning whether the NFL is headed for another poor showing in the coming days when the first hires are likely to be made.An agent who represents coaches and Bernie Williams Jersey executives told CBS Sports one trying to fill a high-ranking position said it had done deep dives on only half the candidates for whom they requested to interview, making the agent wonder if some of the interviewees were box-checks. In an effort to bolster diversity in high-ranking positions, the NFL now requires teams to interview two external minority candidates during the search proce s. But the further requirement has made some around the league wonder whether their interview is legitimate."Is it Rooney?" a different agent asked when weighing whether to allow his client to take an interview for a high-ranking vacant position.One head coach looking to fill a vacant coaching position told CBS Sports he spent part of a day this past week a suring the minority candidates on his list that the Dellin Betances Jersey interest was legitimate and the interviews could be taken seriously. "These are viable candidates," the head coach stre sed.A lack of diversity at the league's top positions has long been an i sue for the NFL and, more specifically, of NFL team owners. The league has seen an increase in team presidents and general managers (both at eight, an all-time NFL high), but team owners have shown a resistance to hiring Black men as their head coaches.A report this week from that, since 2003, just four men have made up nearly a quarter of all publicly reported non-white interviews for head-coaching jobs. offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has unfortunately become the Reggie Jackson Jersey face of this, with his interview Thursday with the bringing the total of teams he's .Bieniemy only began interviewing for head-coaching jobs in 2019. Nine teams haven't had a head-coaching vacancy since then, meaning that he's interviewed with 15 of the 23 teams that have had an opening with no job offer. The NFL was put on notice last February when Flores, recently fired from the Dolphins and recently interviewed by the , filed a cla s-action suit against the NFL, Giants, and Dolphins, alleging, among other things, racial discrimination.Two months later, Ray Horton and Steve Wilks joined the suit. Horton, a longtime NFL coach, alleged he was intentionally put through a sham interview in Tenne see in 2016 when the job had already been handed to Mike Mularkey.Wilks served as head coach of the for just one year before owner Michael Bidwill fired him following the 2018 season "Like many situations when Black Head Coaches are hired in the NFL, in retrospect it is clear Mr. Wilks was hired as a 'bridge coach,' Thurman Munson Jersey " the lawsuit reads. "A 'bridge coach' is understood to be a coach who is not given a meaningful opportunity to succeed and is simply 'keeping the seat warm' until the team is better positioned to succeed, at which point a new coach is brought in."True to form, Mr. Wilks was not given nearly the time nor authority to develop the team or culture for the Cardinals -- certainly nothing at all commensurate with the time and opportunities afforded to white Head Coaches throughout the League Lou Gehrig Jersey ."Wilks served as Carolina's interim coach this season, going 6-6 after the fired Matt Rhule following a Week 5 lo s. Wilks came within a game of winning the NFC South while playing three quarterbacks and without , whom the Panthers traded at midseason. Still, he hasn't gotten a head-coaching interview request this cycle outside of the internal interview in Carolina.Flores, meanwhile, was able to latch on with Mike Tomlin's this past offseason. The have interviewed him for their vacant defensive coordinator position, and Thursday the Cardinals put in a request for Flores for their head-coaching job.Flores now has a decision to make: to decline the interview from a team his co-plaintiff is suing for racial discrimination, or to accept it and potentially become an NFL head coach once again. The lawsuit as both parties wait for the judge to rule on whether it heads to arbitration as the NFL wishes or open court.