The NFL roundly rejected former Dolphins coach Brain Flores’ push to keep his racial discrimination lawsuit out of arbitration Friday night, arguing in a 14-page brief that the coach and his two co-plaintiffs had agreed to the dispute resolution process in their contracts.
In an argument sure to raise some eyebrows, the league’s lawyers wrote that just because the NFL initially responded that the lawsuit is without merit, that does not mean commissioner Roger Goodell, or his designee, would be unfair arbitrators. Flores contends the NFL can’t arbitrate fairly.
“While the NFL did state in a press release that it would ‘defend against [Plaintiffs’] claims, which are without merit,’ that statement represents the NFL’s position as a league,” the motion stated. “Any inference that the Commissioner himself has prejudiced this lawsuit is unsupportable.”
The league then argued that Goodell’s recent sanctioning of the Dolphins for tampering (an investigation that grew out of Flores’ allegations), is evidence that he can rule against the interests of member clubs.
“Further, the Commissioner and his designees have a long history of rendering decisions at odds with the interests of the NFL’s member clubs, thus rebutting Plaintiffs’ accusations of bias,” the league argued, listing player suspensions from Adrian Peterson to Tom Brady. “In fact, here, the Commissioner recently imposed serious sanctions on one defendant club and its owner.” A footnote highlights the member club is the Dolphins and owner Steve Ross.
The league also argues that it would be counterproductive for it to be biased against the plaintiffs in arbitration.
“The NFL has an overriding interest in combating racism, as it has repeatedly affirmed through its statements and actions,” the league’s motion said. “If the Commissioner showed bias against Plaintiffs, it would undermine not only that interest but also the League’s interest in upholding its system of internal dispute resolution.”
The racial discrimination lawsuit is brought by Flores, former Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks and former Tennessee Titans coach Ray Horton. The lawsuit alleges a pattern of racial discrimination in league hiring practices, especially for head coaches. Flores has urged the league in the interest of transparency to keep the case in open court.
In addition to the Cardinals, Dolphins, Titans and the NFL, three other teams are defendants for allegedly spurning Flores in head coaching searches: the New York Giants, Denver Broncos and Houston Texans.
While arbitration is included in every employee contract in the NFL, Flores argues that it certainly shouldn’t be affixed to his claims against the latter three teams because he was not employed by them.
The league contends that if Flores is arguing that the NFL has had a long history of racial discrimination, then that covers periods when Flores was employed as an NFL coach, and thus his employment agreement is in force. The NFL also points to the league Constitution, which calls for disagreements with two or more clubs, and between a coach and a club, to go to arbitration.
Flores is currently the senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
(Photo: Sam Navarro / USA Today)
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