March has been dominated by the flurry of free agent moves taking place around the league, but it has also seen an important development in the ongoing lawsuit led by Brian Flores. The ex-Dolphins head coach saw mixed results in a ruling on the matter of arbitration being used to settle his claims against the league and a number of its teams. 
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled that Flores can pursue his racial discrimination suit against the NFL and the Broncos, Giants and Texans in open court, as detailed by Larry Neumeister of the Associated Press. The NFL had attempted to keep the matter an internal one, and handle Flores’ claims through arbitration.
That will be the route taken to determine his case against the Dolphins, however. The same is also true of co-plaintiffs Steve Wilks and Ray Horton, who joined the suit last April. The latter two added complaints against the Cardinals and Titans, respectively, for decisions affecting them in the past. Wilks argued in the suit that Arizona hired him in 2018 as a “bridge coach” with no long-term prospects of retaining the position. Horton has alleged that Tennessee conducted a “sham” head coaching interview with him in 2016.
Per the judge’s ruling, Wilks’ and Horton’s claims (as well as Flores’ outstanding ones against the Dolphins) will be handled through arbitration owing to their respective contractual statuses at the time the alleged malpractices took place. In a statement, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league will “move promptly with arbitrations… and seek to dismiss the remaining claims.”
He added, however, that the NFL “recognize[s] there is more work to be done” on the matter of diversity and inclusion. The judge’s decision was based in part on her concern about the hiring practices in the league, and added that this case has shined “an unflattering spotlight” on the NFL in this regard. Flores, who drew head coaching interest from the Cardinals before being hired as defensive coordinator of the Vikings, is now clear to test most of his claims in front of a jury.
No decision has been announced regarding whether or not NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will personally oversee the arbitration cases. It is expected he will do so, although the judge also noted she will have the authority to review his findings if he does not delegate to another member of the league. With a path now cleared to have elements of this case heard in open court, it will remain a storyline to watch in the near future.
Why hasn’t the NFL just give Flores go away money?
More money if it lingers
Because you think this would be the end of the lawsuits if they did?
Because it would open the floodgates to other suits if they just settle. You can’t settle cases like this unless there is a full NDA as well as “the NFL is innocent” clause and there’s no way Flores would agree to that requirement.
I’d pass the hat if I thought we could raise enough money to make Goodell go away.
If any commissioner had a bag, there would be no need for nutless unions.
Because they gave it to Kaepernick and he still didn’t go away.
How is it background and why should he go away. His allegations sound legit and should be investigated honestly by an independent party and not swept under the owners’ rug as usual when issues of racism and cheating come up. Real dedicated fans should care about how the league treats its personnel, but some want to ignore it or pretend it doesn’t exist because they’re at least disingenuous and more likely racist.
Or maybe he was just bad at his job?
So sick of people making uneducated comments based off of a few scraps of information they read here or there.
No one should be hired nor should there be incentives to hire any one based off the color of there skin. If a person is the best for the job, or perceived as such by the hiring manager, so be it. White, black, brown, green or purple. Does not matter.
Some say racism won’t end until all people feel being treated equal. Others believe that as long as there is an excuse to cry racism, it will never end.
I say my Marine Corp drill sergeant said it best – there is no such thing as black folk or white folk or brown folk or yellow folk. We are all green. Some maybe be lighter or darker shades of green. But we all are green
OORAH!!!
My man
Calling people and assuming people are racist as a response to most situations is usually an unintelligent cop out from those lacking critical thing skills.
Only a SYMPATHETIC third party could truly find justice. maybe someone from the NAACP or the SLPC or the ADL or the US state department or the SDNY or the attorney general of California or New York or maybe the investigative teams at ABC NBC CBS PBS NPR ESPN Disney MSNBC CNN Harvard Stanford NYU Google Apple all of Silicon Valley the UN NATO Vladimir zelensky or brittney griner
The SLPC is a terrorist org
Only racists bring up race.
More work to be done- like requiring teams hire minority applicants tied to draft compensation. Guaranteeing outcomes. Which is still discrimination but it’s against the people that’s it’s socially acceptable to discriminate against. So it’s fine.
Not choosing to violate people’s rights by incentivizing minority hiring is literally killing people
Wilks is still such a weak example to back you up. Unless you’re Urban Meyer bad, I generally think a HC should get 2 years, but cutting Wilks loose after one year was hardly outrageous. Then in Carolina he had Rhule set the bar on the floor for him, and pretty much proved he’s just a cool guy you want to play hard for, but not a great HC mind.
Wilks is such a brilliant defensive minded HC that he made one of the worst Brady offenses we ever saw look like one of the dynasty Patriots teams with the season on the line.
Arizona was right about him.
Where’s fat Jimmy tomsulas lawsuit
Wilks was a foolish hire in Arizona. The Cardinals should’ve hired an offensive coach if their plan was to draft a franchise QB. Then Wilks doubles down on his unsuitability as head coach with his choice of Josh Rosen to be that franchise QB – a guy that has proven in three different places that he never had NFL starter talent to begin with.
That sounds like 20/20 hindsight to me. Arizona drafted Rosen at #10 when he was considered the “most NFL ready” of the bunch including Mayfield, Darnold, Allen, and Jackson. He was proven to be a bust after he left Arizona, not based on one season with a team with inadequate support.
What a disaster Rosen and darnold and mayfield were. Jeez
Wilks wasn’t the GM.
No – but choosing players in the draft is a collaborative effort.
That picture isn’t of Flores.
Wondering why Hue Jackson wasn’t mentioned. Wasn’t he part of the Flores contingent claiming the Browns done him wrong?
Only card in the deck…
I’m of the mindset that most teams know who they are going to hire before they start interviewing. If you really like the first candidate you interview and want to hire him, the rest are a sham in nature if you know someone is not going to get hired. The process needs to be fixed, you can’t fault clubs for following the process.
I’m sure teams start with a general wish list but you have to do the interviews to see exactly what the candidate can offer and what his intended approach will be. Several co-ordinators and assistant coaches will be seeking interviews with multiple teams not necessarily interested in any of them but knowing the increased exposure will aid their negotiating position when they are ready to make a commitment.
Horton contends his interview was a sham interview. TOf cpurse it was, that’s the nature of and fault of the Rooney rule, not the team forced in compliance; which like many things was a nice idea met with bad results that should have been foreseen if the crafters of the rule were genuine in their purpose of the rule to begin with.
To end all controversy over this, the NFL has to sit back, do nothing, and farm out the crafting of a list to the Fritz Pollard Alliance and have the Fitz Pollard Alliance delegate who gets interviewed and by what team. End of discussion. NFL needs to just do the bidding of an outside group and leave all accountability to that group and just do as told. Eliminate as many moving parts as possible, and keep it simple as possible by getting out of it. Don’t try to placate people who hate you because they will always hate you. So, make yhe make the decision for you
If you are always blamed for never getting something right, by those who can never be satisfied, leave it 100 to those groups and just do as instructed.
3/4 of the league is black so why is this a race issue??? Isn’t the goal in any job to hire the best qualified candidate regardless of what they look like?
the Rooney Rule in its true form ultimately causes people to judge people based on their skin color, not their character…we create these rules to prevent racism but only end up actually promoting it….Idiotic isn’t it?!
No reward to be loyal.
Bias is deeply embedded, for many aspects of identity. People often make choices even unconsciously on what feels familiar, or what reflects themselves or their values. If this bias exists at all levels, then there are fewer ways to get a chance to gain experience, earn respect, and become a “qualified candidate”.
No one is born qualified, you have to get a chance to learn and earn. Some people get the equivalent of qualified by birth because their families or contacts give them that first (or series of) chance. Education, internships, mentoring.
If we had a truly unbiased situation, then the demographics should play out statistically, but they don’t. The existing system had a chance for all that time to hire people by their skill alone and still the jobs were given at a dramatically skewed rate. The Rooney Rule is a corrective course because the evidence shows that bias likely is present. It gives a chance that has rarely been there for non-white people historically.
The Rooney rule is a bad idea. It perpetuates discrimination because it flat out encourages judgement by skin color. Didn’t get a job? You must play the race card!
Affirmative action in of itself encourages discrimination and is an awful idea. And this is someone who is married to a minority who made sure the kids are registered as minorities in school so they can take advantage of the lower standards and extra opportunities available to non-white students. I have long lobbied for job candidates to be identified simply by a candidate #, no name, nothing, to remove any “bias” from the equation.