The reality is that Flores isn't a rat, and he wasn't railroaded. The Giants knew who they wanted to hire but had to satisfy the requirements of the Rooney Rule. What Flores did make himself into is a distraction, and right or wrong, the NFL doesn't have time for distractions and media circuses that they can avoid.
Honestly, Flores is a great coach and would likely have gotten another crack at a HC position. But now the media are going to turn him into a martyr and his career path has been altered forever. As a Bostonian, I'd take him back on the Pats staff in a heartbeat and with McDaniels gone he'd be in the conversation for eventual successors to BB.