Brian Flores’ suit against the NFL and six of its clubs is inching forward; sort of. Although the league is presently attempting to secure United States Supreme Court review of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that Flores’ claims against the Broncos, Giants, and Texans shall be heard in open court rather than remain in arbitration, the presiding trial court judge has denied the league’s request to stay the matter pending a SCOTUS resolution (per sports business reporter Daniel Kaplan). In other words, even as the “arbitration versus open forum” battle continues to play out, the underlying proceeding – which was filed over four years ago – has been allowed to continue into its next phases.
This represents another win for Flores, the current defensive coordinator of the Vikings, and co-plaintiffs Steve Wilks and Ray Horton. Successfully removing a lawsuit against the NFL from the hands of an NFL-appointed arbitrator and into the more objective purview of a trial court judge is obviously critical, and now the league will need to start defending the case on a more substantive level.
Of course, the NFL could still prevail on its last-ditch effort to keep the case in arbitration. In order for that to happen, however, SCOTUS would first need to grant the league’s pending petition to hear the appeal and would then need to rule in the league’s favor, both of which are far from sure things. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, a decision as to whether the highest court in the land will hear the appeal will be made within the next month or so (but that is only for the Broncos, Giants, and Texans portion of the suit; the league’s efforts to keep the Dolphins, Cardinals, and Titans portion of the claim in arbitration were denied more recently, and the NFL will likely try to obtain SCOTUS review of that decision as well).
This case has now officially evolved into a war on two fronts, and Flores & Co. have also made a potentially-significant addition to their request for relief. As Kaplan details, the plaintiffs are amending their complaint to include a count under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which banned discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
As sports attorney Chris Deubert explains, the Title VII count is significant because it allows a successful plaintiff to recover even if he cannot prove intent. Rather, recovery is still possible as long as the plaintiff can prove a policy that is race-neutral on its face has a discriminatory impact in practice.
The addition of the Title VII count was not made earlier in part because of the lengthy battle over the proper venue and in part because the plaintiffs had to receive a “right to sue” letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was not issued until June 2024. With hundreds of NFL head coaching hires having been made over the course of league history, Kaplan believes Flores will have a statistically-significant sample to draw from and will thus stand a good chance of prevailing on his “disparate impact” claim.
After interviewing for head coaching jobs with three different clubs this year, Flores will remain in Minnesota on a $6MM salary. That may make him the highest-paid coordinator in the league, but the former head coach of the Dolphins still wants another opportunity to run a team.
The NFL hoping its payoffs to Trump and SC will work, continuing to get special funds to Thomas and Alito and sending payments to the RNC. What a scum league.
lol that must be a fun world of delusion you live in
I don’t think that word means what you think it means
Payoffs?…Payoffs??
We are talking about Payoffs?
Does Jim Mora know about this?
He will get a head coaching job after all this. Nothing would make the NFL happier after losing this case then to have him go 3-31 as a head coach and a team like the colts or lions wouldn’t mind getting 2- 1st overall picks in a row for participating.
You are missing the point entirely. The commissioners office (and by extension, all team owners) don’t care about whether Flores succeeds or fails at coaching. They care about two things: Their ability to keep disputes in-house and under their control, and not allowing the spotlight to shine on the NFL’s continuing problem with racism within ownership ranks.
If they lose this suit, the NFL loses some/all of its ability to force disputes into arbitration. Arbitration heavily favors NFL ownership because they’re the ones who hire the arbitrator, which become especially ludicrous when the plaintiff is suing the commissioner.
And having the suit in open court means that all of the NFL’s dirty laundry gets exposed to the public light (as it should be), and shows that things aren’t rooted in fairness or meritocracy but just a modern good ol’ boys system. Perhaps not as pervasive as it was fifty years ago, but definitely not on its last legs, either.
Nothing about those two things change whether Flores goes 17-0 or 0-17 as a head coach. These suits aren’t about his coaching ability; they’re about some coaches having less access and less opportunities than certain other coaching candidates, and a power structure that heavily favors NFL FO/ownership in disputes because they’re funnelled outside a court of law.
I agree they have an interest in keeping disputes in-house. Every major entity, company or corporation has similar policies.
However I’m confused about something else you said here. Racism issues within NFL ownership.. what issues are we talking about? Please be specific
Hi @bass86 – If you’re seeking examples and evidence of racism in the NFL, I urge you to read Flores & Co.’s suit against the NFL. I’m certain those docs will provide you all of the details you could want and more, and will do a lot more to provide insight on this topic than I could detail in the comments section here. Also, reading up on the history of the Rooney Rule would provide you some solid reading material, as would general perusals of NFL history going back to its inception. Cheers.
The history of the Rooney rule is irrelevant. We’re talking about what’s happening right now. Can’t go back to the 70s and use that to win this argument.
Also if you’re going to go online accusing institutions of racism you should be able to back it up with some facts. It’s a weak cop out to reply and say go look it up yourself. You’re making the accusations. Back them up
@bass86 Dude, the Rooney Rule wasn’t from the 70’s. It was instituted like twenty years ago. Furthermore, it is happening right now- Flores’s suit LITERALLY REFERENCES the Rooney Rule in its arguments. You’ve basically proven why you need to read that lawsuit and get yourself up to speed.
And, no, it’s not a weak copout to say read about the topic from the experts. I’m not going to litigate racism in the NFL with you, as if you were some expert on the subject (you DEFINITELY are not, that you are so oblivious to the history of racism in the NFL) and I were some ultimate voice of authority on the topic.
Think of it like this: I have high blood pressure. I know this because my doctor told me I do- he showed me test results and explained the reasons why I’m susceptible to it and filled me in with some background of how it manifests in my life. Because he’s an expert and in possession of all of this evidence/knowledge on the topic, I agreed to get on a medication to control it. But if I would not do a good job explaining all of the specific details to you in this comment section, because all I would be trying to do is repeat what the expert says but without all of the facts and knowledge at my disposal. I am not an expert in blood pressure. He is. You want me to prove I have blood pressure? Go talk to my doctor.
So when you want to know about the history of racism in the NFL and how racism still crops up today, then, yes, I’m going to send you to the experts, because that’s who you should be reading. But there are people on the internet- and I suspect you are one of them- who don’t want to actually become knowledgable about a topic and gain better insight, but instead want to argue their own personal biases at random people online… as if that were some sort of idealogical battlefield. But it’s not. If you truly care about the topic of racism in the NFL, then get off of these comments and go read up on it, like any honest, sincere adult would do.
In the scenario where you imagine Brian Flores leading the Lions to two straight number one picks, did Dan Campbell and all the Lions’ starters die in a plane crash?
Could be a train wreck. Slower, less dramatic.
This case will be resolved with a settlement and Flores will be given his choice of Flag Football League team to coach 🙂
Well, unless he’s also not qualified for that job.
Since his final two seasons in Miami he had a winning record, I’d say he is as qualified as any other coach.
So you just want to ignore his .490 winning percentage as a head coach and cherry pick the stats that make you believe he is worthy of being a head coach.
If he were worthy, guess what? He would’ve been hired. But once again, this year, he was passed up not once, not twice, but three more times.
Flores won 5 games his first year, when they had torn down the roster to the studs, then he rattled off 19 wins in two seasons before being fired. Now he’s been one of the best defensive coordinators in football. billj-2 responded to a comment where you suggested Flores isn’t qualified to be an NFL head coach and might not even be qualified to be a flag football coach.
.490 winning percentage says you’re cherry picking stats, as Oooof explained to you what’s behind those numbers. Flores is one of the better D coordinators in the league and was canned too early by the owner for MacDaniel. Flores certainly has a better resume than some of the other coordinators hired into HC positions, and I’ll bet that lawsuit is a big reason why no one wants him as HC, owners don’t want the baggage and distractions that come with it.
Using his career winning pct is cherry picking. I see.
Yeah it is. Flores inherited a bad team in 2019. They had winning records in 2020 and 2021. But that’s not important?
Definitely lazy and ignores context. But we live in a MAGA world where context is for losers.
I agree with you. He’s not a good coach and this is why he couldn’t get jobs. I don’t think there’s a single owner in the league that wouldn’t hire anyone, at any time, for just about any amount of money… If they believe that person can help them win games.
The last four coaches for the Houston Texans are all African-American. Some of them aren’t any good either. We still gave them jobs, mostly because we weren’t very good. Confuses me though why they are included in this.
Ultimately I find it extraordinarily racist that the league forces teams to interview coaches based upon their skin color. Good intentions, stupid idea
Two of those black coaches were one and done guys who were lame ducks from the minute they took the job, and they hired the first one when they were taking criticism while reportedly close to hiring Josh McCown, who had zero coaching experience.
Flores had three years as head coach and had winning seasons in the second two. He’s one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. The idea that he’s “not a good coach” is BS.
Let me correct my phrasing. He’s not a good head coach.
Again, he had two straight winning seasons on the heels of a scorched earth roster teardown. Not saying he was flawless or anything, but I think declaring he’s not a good head coach after that has always been silly.
We can agree to disagree on his quality as a head coach
I am very skeptical that racism has anything to do with him not getting another head coaching job. Which is why I think in part he is not a good head coach. He would have a job now if he was. These teams want to win and they don’t care what you look like. Those days have long gone. People that are still hanging on to it are people that have nothing else to hang on to.
I do think there are different standards, even if there isn’t fully conscious prejudiced decision-making.
I find it hard to believe that any team owner / GM would prioritize racism over picking a HC that would help them win. If Flores feels like he was used to satisfy the Rooney Rule, then it should go away. Personally, I would be insulted if the only reason I got an interview was because of the color of my skin.
I wud be insullted if da ownwe weasin I got an intruview wuz becuz of mi eksepshunul bokcabularie an spellung skills 🙂
You’d be even more insulted if your skin color were the only reason you were *denied* an interview. And if you found out others were denied jobs because of the color of their skin, too, you might all decide to sue and try to bring light to the injustice and cause a change for the better.
Or look around and see there are multi millionaires of different races employed by the team your bringing a lawsuit against.
Yes, see all of those players employed by the team and realize that some would want to enter coaching and front offices after they retire. I’m sure Flores sees them and doesn’t want them to have to face the same discrimination and barriers that he has faced. Thus, the lawsuit.
Where are you even coming from, dude? It’s okay that there’s rot and disease in this part of the garden because the plants are thriving in another part? That kind of reasoning doesn’t stand up to even a minimum effort of critical thinking.
The thing here that is interesting is that Flores’ case hasn’t even been heard yet. This is simply all about whether the NFL can shuffle it away in their arbitration room, not about the merits of Flores’ individual claims. I think that it’s a victory for everyone, no matter how you see it, to have suits actually be heard in court.
Forced arbitration is unfair in any arena, be it the NFL or consumer claims in other industries. The NFL has had a great and prolific run in exercising its arbitration directives in many matters over the years (such as its “discipline” apparatus), so this portion of Flores’ case is, in my mind, much more far reaching and impactful than his claims itself. If he succeeds, which it appears he may, the NFL will have to settle civil disputes the way that the rest of the country does-in open court.
Going to court is expensive and the system is already over loaded. Arbitration is a reasonable alternative provided impartial rulings can be assured.
Do you think that the NFL’s arbitration is impartial?
It’s not, but I don’t know if Flores winning his cases would change that. There are certainly enough coaches in the league to form their own union and that might be something they should consider.
Coaches would never form a union because they’re management level employees. Managers don’t unionize. There’s a reason for that.
Sctotus for sure.