August 15, 2025
The former head coach also included the Miami Dolphins, the Denver Broncos, and the New York Giants in the lawsuit.
After suing the National Football League for discrimination in 2022, Brian Flores’ lawsuit can proceed after the league tried to solve the litigation through arbitration.
According to ESPN, Flores sued the NFL and three teams, the Miami Dolphins, the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants. The Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator, who was dismissed from the Dolphins as a head coach, alleged discrimination based on his firing.
He also sued the Broncos and Giants, citing the interview processes there.
After receiving the suit, the NFL told the court that it would prefer to go to arbitration with league commissioner Roger Goodell as the arbiter. Flores and his attorneys would like a neutral person to settle the matter.
In March 2023, Judge Valerie Caproni ruled in favor of Flores, calling the NFL’s “long history of systematic discrimination toward Black players, coaches, and managers—are incredibly troubling.”
“Although the clear majority of professional football players are Black, only a tiny percentage of coaches are Black,” she said.
The NFL appealed Caproni’s ruling, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld it, deciding that the league’s constitution’s arbitration provision “contractually provides for no independent arbitral forum, no bilateral dispute resolution, and no procedure.”
“Instead, it offends basic presumptions of our arbitration jurisprudence” by forcing claims to be decided by the NFL’s “principal executive officer,” the appeals court added.
NFL spokesperson Brian McCarty said the league “respectfully disagree(s) with the panel’s ruling, and will be seeking further review,” according to ESPN. No further information has been released regarding what the next step is in the lawsuit.
Before heading to Minnesota, Flores previously worked as a coach for the New England Patriots from 2008 to 2018, the Miami Dolphins from 2019 to 2021 and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022. He joined the Vikings in 2023.
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