Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is going back on the offensive in his class-action suit against the NFL and six of its teams. Per Daniel Kaplan of Front Office Sports, Flores and other members of the class allege that Peter Harvey, the arbitrator whom commissioner Roger Goodell appointed on September 17, 2024, is merely “sitting on his hands” in an effort to delay the proceedings.
Flores argues that Harvey has done nothing in the year since his appointment, including responding to requests regarding his own potential conflicts of interest. For instance, as Kaplan points out, Harvey has ties to the league thanks to his seat on the NFL diversity committee, which was formed in the wake of Flores’ suit. Harvey has also served as an arbitrator in other NFL matters, and Flores claims those appointments likely resulted in substantial compensation. In a December 2024 letter to Flores’ lawyers, NFL outside counsel Loretta Lynch said those types of conflict disclosures are not required by law.
In a recent motion that was filed in an effort to remove all of the Plaintiffs’ claims from arbitration and put them in court, Flores’ attorneys write, “[i]ncredibly, as of the filing of this motion for the court, Mr. Harvey has not issued any decision on the motion for arbitral disclosures, nor communicated with parties in any manner whatsoever regarding the proceedings. As such, the entire arbitration has been at a complete standstill and effectively stayed. Mr. Harvey effectively gave the NFL its desired stay through his inexplicable inaction.”
We heard last month that Flores’ claims against the league and three teams – the Broncos, the Giants, and the Texans – were allowed to proceed to court rather than remain in arbitration. In affirming that decision and ruling against the NFL, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reasoned that Flores never signed contracts with mandatory arbitration language with those clubs (the basis for his claims against those three teams is that they allegedly conducted sham head coaching interviews to comply with the Rooney Rule). On the other hand, because Flores and co-Plaintiffs Steve Wilks and Ray Horton had signed contracts with the Dolphins, Cardinals, and Titans, respectively, and because those deals included a mandatory arbitration provision, the claims against that trio of teams remain in Harvey’s purview for the time being.
That has set up a new battlefront of sorts: while the NFL is appealing the Second Circuit’s three-judge decision to the court’s full 13-judge panel, Flores’ camp argues in its above-referenced motion to the trial court that the Second Circuit’s ruling with respect to the Broncos, Giants, and Texans – in which the appeals court held that it would be unconscionable for Goodell or one of his designees to act as an arbitrator in a case against the NFL and its teams – should also apply to the claims against the Dolphins, Cardinals, and Titans (contract language notwithstanding).
Of course, the league prefers the more sheltered arbitration setting, whereas Flores & Co. are seeking the more objective arena of an open courtroom. That venue dispute has dragged on since the suit was filed three-and-a-half years ago, and it apparently will continue for at least a while longer.
In underscoring the amount of time that has passed with little by way of substantive movement in the litigation, Flores’ lawyers wrote, “[g]iven Mr. Harvey’s inaction and lack of communication, the litigations before him have not even moved to the very initial discovery stage. Mr. Harvey has completely abdicated and disregarded his responsibilities…and he has let the entire arbitration before him languish without any communication.”
The NFL has opposed the Plaintiffs’ motion but has declined public comment on it.
The league is dirty and shameless in it’s attempts to cover it up. The message is always the same. Don’t attempt to expose the establishment or we’ll bury you in a legal process you can’t afford to sustain.
There’s pain relief for headaches but there is no pain relief for lawyers 🙂
Jon Gruden approves this message.
Jon Gruden only approves half of it. He likes the half where Flores hits the NFL’s skewed arbitration process with a left hook, but Gruden definitely sides with the NFL in wanting to hide the systemic racism and the people who keep it locked in place.
Such a racist league, that 90% of the players are black and I’m guessing 40% of the coaches are as well.
Arty, your response shows you have no grasp of how racism works. It’s not about numbers, it’s about power and who holds it and what they’ll do to retain it, even if it goes against this country’s founding principles of equality. In the NFL, team owners didn’t want Black players, then later didn’t want them in particular positions like QB, and they didn’t want Black FO or coaches, and quashed efforts of Black players to bring light to social injustice because the owners felt it was interfering with their revenue streams. The importance of Flores’s lawsuit is that it exposes some of the ways that racism continues to linger in NFL operations.
Oh Good Lord, did you hurt yourself with those mental gymnastics? White racist are keeping black players on the plantation with $100M contracts, am I getting that right?
No, Chester, you’re not getting that right, not even close. In fact, your melodramatic response sails so far wide of the goal posts, it comes off as a troll comment. Not sure if you intended it that way, but it’s all the same to me in the end. And I don’t argue with trolls. I mute them.
So every pro league and NCCA team is racist even though 90% of the players are black? Go be a social worker that you claim to be.
Arty, your response shows you have no grasp of how racism works, nor any willingness to learn. And I never claimed to be a social worker, which makes it obvious you didn’t bother to read my response to you or spend a few moments really thinking it through. That, and the rest of your wildly spasmodic comment.
Also, your persistent statement that “90% of the players are black” is kind of revealing. What’s up with that?
Also, your persistent statement that “90% of the players are black” is kind of revealing. What’s up with that?
Facts: Google it. BTW, why are you using oil while crying about climate change?
Apparently in your racism, the victims are given lavish lifestyles by the oppressors?
“Such a racist league, that 90% of the players are black and I’m guessing 40% of the coaches are as well.”
Why do you think there’s such a disparity between the percentage of black players and the percentage of coaches?
Easy. Many choose other jobs or go into college coaching jobs. If you think the NCAA or pro sports discriminate, you don’t pay attention to sports.
This has to be the most pathetic excuse for a lawsuit in NFL history. Arguing the league is racist at this point is on the same level of arguing with the people who still claim the earth is flat🤣🤣🤣.
Lots of people said this wouldn’t go well for Flores.
Flores is arguing that the NFL’s systemic racism has hobbled his career. Not by any measure is that pathetic. The dude is standing up for himself and others, even knowing that the same people he’s suing can submarine what’s left of his career. That’s courage.
Its BS. It hasn’t hurt his career. Hes a great coordinator. He was mediocre as an HC. Nobody is in search of mediocrity.
No owner or gm is going to say, that black HC could definitely win us an SB but I only like whites, so Ill hire the worse candidate.
Then turn around and pay that same man or other black people millions to be on the coaching staff.
If theyre racist, theyre racist. Flores wouldnt be a DC if the league was against him.
Some people just aren’t meant to be HC’s. It has nothing to do with skin color.
We heard for years it was a joke that Eric Bienemy hadn’t gotten a HC job yet. It was because of he was black, some said. Once he left Andy Reid, hes been terrible. Teams see these things in interviews.
Flores is paid as one of the better DC’S in the game. There idea that the league is hold him back is ridiculous.
It’s not ridiculous, rd42, and the lawsuit intends to prove it. And Flores’s lawsuit isn’t just about his own career, but about how Black coaches have been treated vs. White counterparts.
Your premise that a team owner wouldn’t fire a qualified Black coach and replace him with an inferior candidate has been proven wrong by history. I mean, even the most recent Texans coaching situation was a prime example of this. You’ve got team owner Cal McNair who has already hired former pastor (lol) Jack Easterby as his VP of football ops despite having no experience and not even being a football person, but then after firing Lovie Smith- a solid coach who miraculously took a sad Bears squad to the Super Bowl- after just one season, wants to hire Josh McCown, a person who had never coached at the pro or college level, but Mcnair and Easterby had some weird infatuation with the guy that probably had to do with the same sketchy reasons Mcnair hired Easterby in the first place. I am looking forward to the day when it comes out that the NFL swooped in and said, dude, Brian Flores *just* filed a lawsuit because of this kind of thing happening and if you hire McCown it will prove his case conclusively, so either hire DeMeco or they’ll be consequences. That’s purely conjecture, but I doubt none of it.
Also, that’s a flawed premise about Flores not even being allowed to be a DC if the were racism in the NFL. The NFL has a history of being more selective about their racism as the country attempts to move away from it. Maybe you have a team owner who doesn’t care if the coaching staff has Black coaches just as long as the head coach isn’t Black, because the team owner wants to be able to meet regularly with the HC. Also, the racism that exists in the NFL isn’t spread evenly across all teams- some owners are probably very racist, some just a little, some not at all. But there shouldn’t be any racism in the NFL, especially seeing how the NFL has a stranglehold over pro football, so it’s not like players can just go get a football job somewhere else.
Ultimately, rd42, you might be correct about Flores being one of those coaches that thrives as a coordinator and not as an HC. Ironically, we may be learning that Flores’s replacement in Miami is exactly that kind of situation. But what Flores’s lawsuit is arguing is that he and other Black coaches aren’t given the same opportunity to prove otherwise. His lawsuit has some compelling evidence this is true, and having it debated in a court of law will bring some important facts and perspectives to light. That’s a good thing.
Honestly, get help, for every Americans sake.
The NFL is not racist. Any assertion suggesting that, is laughable on its face.
NFL cannot be racist in any measure but the people running it have practiced systematic racism at its worst. Whether those individuals are racists is unknown and besides the point.
Surprised that an honorable league with such a fair and unbiased commissioner and lovely owners would ever even consider anything not above-board. We are all shocked by these allegations.
Are you calling Roger Goodell racist? Haha! Are we still doing this?
I feel like, at this point, the number one thing hobbling his career, and chances as a Head Coach hire, is this lawsuit.
If I was an NFL owner it wouldn’t matter to me if he was 100% right. Im not hiring someone I believe will sue me when the time inevitably comes to move on. I wouldn’t hire him to be a parking lot attendant.
I can’t believe team’s are still hiring him. Who hires someone that is suing you? Even more so when there is zero proof. I don’t know anyone who would hire someone who is suing them.
I hope the judge rules at 50% of the players have to be white
The only way to end this BEYOND ridiculous argument, is just say teams can only have all their players and coaches have to be within 5% of their statistical race in this country, at least for the top 3-4 races. Do I believe they should do this? Absolutely not, but it is the only way to get the “flat earthers” argument to go away. Granted, teams are really going to be scouting Latin and Asaian talent to fill these gaps. This is your basic proof that if the league is racist, it is racist by over favoring African American players and coaches.
“I hope the judge rules at 50% of the players have to be white”
Players get into their positions because of merit. If you’re talented and can perform, you’re in. If not, then you’re not.
Coaches have less of a tangible skill set and are frequently selected based on who they know, word-of-mouth, and nepotism. It’s less a meritocracy and more like real jobs like we have.
You’re making a poor comparison here because you’re offended by the mere notion that race could potentially be a factor here.
Regardless of anyone’s other positions on the issue, rct does raise a valid point that I think we can all see about connections and the tangibility (to some extent, at least) of a coach’s skillset. How that affects the racism element is a separate discussion, but I do think that we can all at least agree that there is some measure of networking that goes on here with staff hiring (and, to some extent, player signings). Some is actually even kind of excusable-you may know someone’s character or what scheme they have experience with based on mutual connections-but it becomes negative when that connection itself is what gives a contender an advantage over a similarly qualified person, if that happens to occur in a scenario.
Racism is not systematic. Look at the definition
That is bull. Third Reich was the definition of systematic racism.
Wtf are you on. America is nothing like the third Reich