Towards the end of January 2022, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) and three professional football teams. In the case, Flores alleges he was racially discriminated against during the hiring process with two separate teams, the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants, and in his firing from Miami.
Flores is one of only a handful of prominent black coaches in the NFL, a league in which more than half of the athletes are Black.
Flores had led the Miami Dolphins to their first back-to-back winning seasons in nearly two decades but was fired in January. Flores claims the team owner, Stephen Ross, encouraged Flores to intentionally lose games so that the team would receive a higher pick in the annual draft.
The draft is designed to keep teams competitive by giving the highest draft picks to the teams with the worst records. Flores alleges Ross was deeply unhappy when the team began winning games towards the end of the season.
Flores alleges the final straw came when he refused to participate in a meeting with Ross and a high-profile quarterback. Flores says that he thought the clandestine meeting aboard Ross’s luxury yacht amounted to tampering. Flores’ contract was terminated within weeks of refusing the meeting.
The Rooney Rule
Since being fired from the Dolphins, Flores interviewed for the New York Giants, who eventually went on to name Brian Dabol, former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator, to the head coaching position. Flores claims the meeting was a sham and had only been set up to satisfy the league’s “Rooney Rule.”
The Rooney Rule requires all teams to interview at least two minority candidates when filling coaching and coordinator positions. The intention of the Rooney Rule is to create more opportunity for minority coaches and coordinators, but Flores contends that the various teams may have adhered to the letter of the rule while ignoring the objective.
The lawsuit also claims Flores was party to another bogus interview in 2019, when he was asked to interview for the head coaching position with the Denver Broncos. According to Flores, during that interview, Bronco’s team owner and Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway arrived late and hungover after a night of heavy drinking.
Flores lawsuit alleges that both interviews were conducted only so that the teams could check the boxes and satisfy the Rooney Rule. He was never seriously considered for the positions.
Two More Black Coaches Join the Lawsuit
As of April this year, two more black NFL coaches have joined Flores in his discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and several teams. Steve Wilks is a Black head coach who was fired after a single season with the Arizona Cardinals, and Ray Horton worked as both assistant coach and defensive coordinator for many seasons with a number of teams. Both men agree with Flores that the NFL and its teams routinely discriminate against Black coaches.
Wilks contends that during his single season as head of the Cardinals, he served as a “bridge coach,” and he was never given the resources to have a reasonable chance at success. After she was fired from the Cardinals, the team went on to use their number one overall draft pick to hire a prominent quarterback, Kyler Murray. The team also replaced Wilks with former Texas Tech University head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Kingsbury is White and, up until his hiring by Arizona, had no professional football coaching experience.
All three plaintiffs agree that the NFL does not give black coaches and coordinators a fair chance to move up through the ranks. Additionally, coaching is a stepping stone to upper management and team ownership. These are both areas in which Blacks are grossly underrepresented. Of the 32 NFL teams, there are currently zero Black owners and only two non-whites. Kim Pegula is an Asian co-owner of the Buffalo Bills, and Shahid Rafiq Khan, an American born in Pakistan, owns the Jacksonville Jaguars.
NFL Seeks Confidential Arbitration
In June of this year, the NFL and six of its teams filed a motion in a New York court that would force the lawsuit filed by Flores, Wilks, and Horton to be settled in arbitration. The motion asks that Roger Goodell, the current NFL commissioner, serve as arbitrator.
The League and the six teams argue that Flores, Wilks, and Horton all signed agreements with the various teams stating that any disputes would be settled in arbitration. On the other hand, lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the lawsuit belongs in federal court because the contracts were signed with the individual teams and not with the League itself.
What Is Arbitration?
Arbitration is a legal process in which both parties to a lawsuit agree to settle their differences outside of a courtroom. When two or more parties enter arbitration, an arbitrator is selected. The arbitrator is generally a respected expert in the field and is meant to be a neutral party to the lawsuit.
Once an agreement is reached between the parties, the arbitrator decides the case. the arbitrator’s decision is legally binding and enforceable in a court of law.
Speed Versus Transparency
Arbitration is sold as advantageous because it supposedly takes less time to resolve a case than it would in the judicial system. However, arbitration, particularly a confidential arbitration like the NFL is seeking, is not a transparent process. Should the court rule that the case must be settled in confidential arbitration, the case would be essentially sealed and not part of the public record. Lawyers representing the three coaches maintain that because of the specific nature of the allegations, the public would best be served by a fully transparent process.
Can Goodell Serve as a Neutral Arbitrator?
Additionally, in this case, the defendant’s request that Roger Goodell serve as arbitrator raises questions. In the past, Goodell has expressed genuine concerns about discriminatory hiring practices in the NFL. He also possesses a unique set of skills and experience that would serve him well in his function as arbitrator. Still, it remains to be seen if he could objectively oversee the process. Goodell has served as the NFL commissioner since 2006; could he truly remain neutral and fair when he is so intimately involved in the overall image of the League?