Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit against NFL can proceed in court

A U.S. district court judge issued a ruling on Friday in favor of Brian Flores, Steve Wilks and Ray Horton that will allow their racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL to go to court after an initial motion to move some of the proceedings to arbitration was granted in 2023. 

District Judge Valerie Caproni in the Southern District of New York wrote in the ruling that “the NFL’s unilateral control over the dispute resolution process is the fatal flaw” in their argument that the matter should remain under the umbrella of the arbitration process. 

Given Flores, Wilks and Horton are suing the NFL and multiple teams for racial discrimination and retaliation, the judge ruled that the NFL’s arbitration process, which is controlled by commissioner Roger Goodell, “does not provide a forum in which Plaintiffs can effectively vindicate their rights.” 

Flores’ claims in the lawsuit are against the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants and Houston Texans, while Wilks’ claims are against the Arizona Cardinals and Horton’s are against the Tennessee Titans. 

Flores, the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, sued the NFL and those three teams in January 2022 after he had been fired as head coach of the Dolphins. He claimed the NFL is “rife with racism,” specifically in its hiring and promotion of Black coaches.

“The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law,” said attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor and David E. Gottlieb in a statement. “It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed.”  

As a result of the ruling, the case will now move to trial, with a pretrial conference scheduled for Friday, April 3 in New York.