NEW YORK — NFL coach Brian Flores can pursue some of his discrimination claims against the league and its teams in court rather than through arbitration, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The written decision by Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan was issued months after lawyers for the league tried to get the lawsuit moved to arbitration, citing contracts that coaches had signed.
Caproni ruled that the NFL, the Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Houston Texans must face Flores’ claims of systematic discrimination against Black coaches in the league. Flores formerly served as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
Caproni sent Flores’ retaliation claim against the Dolphins to private arbitration. The judge also ruled that the claims brought by Steve Wilks and Ray Horton, two other coaches who joined the lawsuit, must go through arbitration.
In her opinion, Caproni said the case had shined “an unflattering spotlight on the employment practices of National Football League” teams.
“Although the clear majority of professional football players are Black, only a tiny percentage of coaches are Black,” she wrote.
In deciding what claims in the lawsuit must go to arbitration rather than being litigated in court, the judge cited specifics about individual contracts and whether they were properly signed.
“We are pleased that Coach Flores’ class claims of systematic discrimination against the NFL and several teams will proceed in court and ultimately before a jury of his peers,” Wigdor Law LLP, which represents Flores, said in a statement. “We are disappointed the court compelled arbitration of any claims before Mr. Goodell as he is obviously biased and unqualified to rule on these matters. We expect him to delegate those matters to a truly neutral arbitrator as a matter of fundamental fairness. We look forward to pursuing all these claims to trial in their various forums.”
Flores sued the league and three teams a year ago, saying the league was “rife with racism,” particularly in its hiring and promotion of Black coaches. His lawyer said after the decision that Flores did not yet have a comment on the ruling.
He brought the lawsuit after he was fired by Miami after leading the Dolphins to a 24-25 record over three years. The judge noted that Flores was announced as the new defense coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings earlier this month.
The lawsuit said that Wilks was discriminated against by the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 when he was hired as a “bridge coach” but was given no meaningful chance to succeed and that Horton was subjected to discriminatory treatment when he was given a sham interview for the position of Tennessee Titans head coach in January 2016.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.