Giants legend Harry Carson has witnessed firsthand the heartbreak and frustration and anger felt across the decades by all the African-American and minority scouts, coaches and executives who have felt betrayed by NFL owners, and he cheers Brian Flores for taking his legal stand for all those left at the Rooney Rule altar.

Hall of Fame Harry, who served as executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance for 16 years before stepping down last year to serve as an adviser, told The Post: “I applaud it. I think what Brian Flores saw is exactly what we as the Fritz Pollard Alliance saw — it’s exactly what I saw when I was there. It didn’t take me long to understand that the Rooney Rule had really good intentions, but unfortunately, the rule that was created by and voted on by all of the owners at that time, the owners turned around and tried to find every way to circumvent that rule, to get around it.

“We saw it, the folks at Park Avenue saw it, but you cannot dictate to a billionaire who owns a team what he should and should not do, they’re gonna do whatever they want to do. [ESPN’s] Jeff Saturday has been echoing what I’ve been saying for the last couple of years — it’s not the NFL. It’s the owners.”

Carson would meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and key underlings Troy Vincent and Jeff Pash to discuss possible qualified minority candidates to fill expected head-coaching vacancies.

“We find that the owners, the ones who are in the position to make decisions, have a tendency to go in the manner in which they want to go,” Carson said, “and that is to choose someone who perhaps they have a relationship with, or look like them. It’s just the hesitancy to pull the trigger on bringing someone in of color to run your organization or be your head coach. They have found that to be very hard to do.”

It has always been as clear as black and white:

The white owner will prefer the face of his franchise to be a white face.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know what the solution is,” Carson said. “Because until you do have someone of color in the position of ownership to make decisions, they’re gonna do what they want to do. And they’re gonna live with it and they don’t care anything about diversity. … They may say and they may think it, but they’re very hesitant to put someone of color in the position of being either a GM or a head coach.

“The owners, they don’t mind for players of color to play, or assistant coaches to coach and prepare those players, but in terms of having that figurehead, that person who is going to be the face of the organization, they’re not about that. And they don’t necessarily want a person of color to be that representative who’s going to be the face of the organization.”

Jerry Reese was the Giants GM from 2007-2017, and won two Super Bowls as the franchise’s first African-American GM. The Giants have yet to hire a black head coach.

“The mere fact that the Jets can have two African-American coaches [Herm Edwards and Todd Bowles], and the Giants have not had one, that is disappointing,” Carson said. “It has not been lost on me that the Giants have not hired a minority [head] coach.”

Carson got tired of banging his head against the diversity wall. Which also includes women.

“What happened [Tuesday], was coming down the tracks, it was just a question of when that train was gonna pull into the station,” Carson said.

Carson believes a man of integrity was the engineer.

“Brian has ingratiated himself with so many individuals that he doesn’t know,” Carson said.

Colin Kaepernick took his political stand and never again played in the NFL. Flores’ stand is different … with the same risk.

“If he goes the same route as Kaepernick,” Carson said, “it would be for a good cause.

“It’s better than sitting back saying absolutely nothing, and letting this hamster wheel thing keep rolling along and nobody is speaking for those guys who aren’t necessarily getting a fair shake or fair opportunity.”