Brian Flores lawsuit against NFL, Dolphins, Broncos and Giants allowed to go to trial by judge
Brian Flores' racial discrimination case against the NFL and three of its teams will go to trial despite attempts by the league to undermine it.
Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York declined to alter her original ruling from March, which allowed Flores' lawsuit against the NFL, the New York Giants, the Denver Broncos and the Miami Dolphins to continue to trial.
The league claimed that Flores' decision to take an assistant coaching job with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022 prevented him from suing the NFL for racial discrimination, according to court documents. Caproni rebuked that effort because NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did not sign Flores' contract with the Steelers, meaning it was not considered "valid and binding." Caproni also denied the submission of a new version of the Steelers' contract with Goodell's signature because it was not provided "during the eight months that the motion to compel arbitration was pending."
Flores originally filed the lawsuit Feb. 1, 2022, less than a month after the Dolphins fired him following a three-year stint as the team's head coach. Flores alleged overarching racial discrimination by the league and some of its teams in how it hires head coaches and executives. Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks (now the San Francisco 49ers' defensive coordinator) and longtime NFL assistant Ray Horton (now the head coach of the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL) joined Flores' suit two months later.
Flores, meanwhile, is now the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.
He accused Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of offering him $100,000 for every loss in 2019, a claim that an NFL investigation did not find credible this past August. Ross was suspended for six weeks and the Dolphins did lose a first-round pick for tampering, though. Flores also provided text messages between himself and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick that attempted to show the Giants had already agreed to hire Brian Daboll despite interviewing Flores.
Caproni didn't side with Flores on all fronts, though. She denied Flores' lawyers attempts to alter arbitration agreements between the NFL and some of its coaches solely because of Goodell's role as league arbitrator.
"... Plaintiffs primarily base their arguments on their speculation that the NFL Commissioner will necessarily be biased as an arbitrator," Caproni wrote in her decision. "... Plaintiffs, in essence, ask the Court to fashion a specific rule out of whole cloth to protect them from potential arbitrator bias that may never manifest itself. To do so would be in direct violation of the FAA’s [Federal Arbitration Act] admonition against carving out rules disfavoring the enforcement of arbitration agreements from generally applicable contract law."
A pretrial conference is scheduled for Aug. 4 — one day after the Hall of Fame preseason game between the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns.
