U.S. Supreme Court
SCOTUS allows coach’s race discrimination suit against NFL to move forward
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores (left), who’s among the coaches suing the NFL for discrimination, celebrates a win against the New England Patriots in 2019. The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing his discrimination lawsuit against the NFL to move forward. (Photo by Ryan Kang via the Associated Press)
The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings to pursue some of his claims of racial discrimination against the National Football League, rather than move them into arbitration, Bloomberg Law reports.
In denying the NFL’s effort to go to arbitration, the high court avoided the question of whether the league’s arbitration agreements are unenforceable because of a designation that makes commissioner Roger Goodell the default arbitrator.
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores sued the NFL, the New York Giants, the Miami Dolphins and the Denver Broncos in 2022, alleging systemic race discrimination that he claimed led to fewer opportunities for Black coaches. He claimed that racial bias was tied to his firing as a head coach in Miami and his failure to be hired by the Giants or the Broncos.
He was later joined in the lawsuit by Steve Wilks and Ray Horton—two longtime Black NFL coaches—that included additional claims against the Houston Texans, the Arizona Cardinals and the Tennessee Titans. The NFL, along with those three teams, petitioned the Supreme Court to review the matter by claiming that the decision “is irreconcilable with the text and history” of the Federal Arbitration Act.
Coverage of the suit was featured in an ABA Journal story in 2023.
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