{"id":695882,"date":"2026-05-26T15:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T15:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:01:10","slug":"nfl-to-face-coachs-race-bias-lawsuit-after-high-court-snub-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695882\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL to Face Coach\u2019s Race Bias Lawsuit After High Court Snub (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Supreme Court denied the National Football League\u2019s effort to move a race discrimination lawsuit by Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores into arbitration, clearing the way for some of his claims to proceed.<\/p>\n

In declining to consider the case, the justices avoided delving into whether the NFL\u2019s arbitration agreements are unenforceable because of a designation that makes commissioner Roger Goodell the default arbitrator. <\/p>\n

An orders list issued by the court on Tuesday noted that Justice Brett Kavanaugh would have granted the NFL\u2019s petition to review the case. <\/p>\n

Flores in 2022 sued the NFL, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, and Denver Broncos, alleging systemic race discrimination that he claimed led to fewer opportunities for Black coaches. <\/p>\n

Flores 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 Broncos.<\/p>\n

He was later joined in the lawsuit by Steve Wilks and Ray Horton\u2014two longtime Black NFL coaches\u2014that included additional claims against the Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals, and Tennessee Titans.<\/p>\n

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in August<\/a> that Flores\u2019 employment agreements contained an \u201cunenforceable\u201d arbitration clause as it allowed some claims against the Giants, Texans, and Broncos to proceed. <\/p>\n

The NFL, along with those three teams, petitioned the court to review the matter by claiming that the decision \u201cis irreconcilable with the text and history\u201d of the Federal Arbitration Act. But the Supreme Court declined to intervene, meaning Flores\u2019s dispute with the league will move forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams,\u201d said David Gottlieb, an attorney for Flores. \u201cWe look forward to litigating these claims in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flores had accused the Giants of conducting a sham interview with him in order to comply with the NFL\u2019s \u201cRooney Rule,\u201d which requires teams to interview minority candidates for such positions as head coach and general manager.<\/p>\n

Flores joined the Vikings coaching staff in 2023 and remains the team\u2019s defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n

The case is New York Football Giants v. Flores, U.S., No. 25-790, 5\/26\/26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Supreme Court denied the National Football League\u2019s effort to move a race discrimination lawsuit by Minnesota…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,49076,339357,339358,593,339359,85],"class_list":["post-695882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-discharge-of-employee","tag-employment-agreements","tag-mandatory-arbitration-provisions","tag-nfl","tag-race-discrimination","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}