Dolphins Ex-Coach Flores Says Team Trying to Push Racism Case Out of Court
Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores says the team is trying to push the National Football League to have his racial discrimination claims heard out of court.
Flores, who is Black, sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos in federal court in New York last month, alleging the league actively discriminates against coaches of color and fails to live up to a rule that requires teams to consider minority candidates for coaching and executive positions.
Lawyers for Flores said on Wednesday that the Dolphins filed letters with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell last month asking him to force the league to require Flores’s claims to be heard in arbitration. His attorneys urged Goodell in a letter to reject the request, saying a closed proceeding “is contrary to all notions of transparency, accountability and fundamental fairness.”
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“If the league is genuinely interested in eradicating discrimination and ensuring the integrity of the game, the bare minimum that the league can do is reject Miami’s request to arbitrate these important claims,” Douglas H. Wigdor, a lawyer for Flores, said in the letter.
The skyrocketing use of arbitration clauses in employment contracts has drawn criticism that they allow companies to avoid public litigation over messy allegations. Under pressure from the #MeToo movement, Congress has banned mandatory arbitration for workplace sexual harassment and assault claims.
The league is also seeking to push a lawsuit by former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden into arbitration, saying his contract requires him to resolve any disputes through the process. Gruden, who resigned as coach of the Raiders last year over racist and homophobic emails, says the NFL waged a campaign to destroy his reputation and force him out of his job by leaking the documents to the press.
Gruden has asked a Nevada state judge to deny the request, saying arbitration clauses included in his contract with the Raiders are “unconscionable” and “inherently unfair.”
“This court should not empower Goodell to conceal the NFL’s wrongdoing by expanding the arbitration clauses beyond what any court has done before,” Gruden said in a court filing.
The NFL and the Dolphins didn’t respond to emails seeking comment on the letter.
The case is Flores v. NFL, 22-cv-00871, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)