Frank Reich was fired by the Indianapolis Colts midseason after four-plus seasons. He has a 41-35-1 record as a head coach.
The Carolina Panthers announced Thursday that they were hiring him as their next head coach. Shortly after the team announced they’d hired Frank Reich as their new head coach, Wigdor Law—the legal representation for Steve Wilks—made a shocking announcement of their own.
Doug Wigdor, issued a statement on his client’s behalf Thursday saying, “There is a legitimate race problem in the NFL.”
“We are shocked and disturbed that after the incredible job Coach Wilks did as the interim coach, including bringing the team back into playoff contention and garnering the support of the players and fans, that he was passed over for the head coach position by David Tepper,” Wigdor said. “There is a legitimate race problem in the NFL, and we can assure you that we will have more to say in the coming days.”
Wilks was named the Panthers’ interim coach on Oct. 10th. Once that happened, he dragged a once 1-4 team to the doorstep of an improbable NFC South title. It appeared he had done enough to warrant him being named the permanent coach.
That coach, of course, eventually ended up being Reich.
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Back in 2022, Wilks joined fellow African-American coach Brian Flores in his discrimination lawsuit against the NFL after his one-year tenure with the Cardinals.
His complaint in the lawsuit reads as follows:
“Mr. Wilks was replaced by a white coach, Kliff Kingsbury, who had no prior NFL coaching experience and was coming off of multiple losing seasons as a Head Coach at Texas Tech. Mr. Kingsbury, armed with quarterback Kyler Murray, has been given a much longer leash than Mr. Wilks and, to his credit, has succeeded. That said, Mr. Wilks, given the same opportunity afforded to Mr. Kingsbury, surely would have succeeded as well.”
Wilks, per NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, plans on coaching elsewhere after losing out to Reich in Carolina.
