NFL to Face Coach Flores’ Race Discrimination Claims in Court (3)

Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ race discrimination claims against the National Football League will proceed in federal court, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday.

Flores’ employment agreements that he signed with various teams over the years contain an “unenforceable” arbitration requirement that relies on the NFL constitution. The NFL doesn’t provide an adequate forum in which to arbitrate claims, Judge José A. Cabranes said.

“While we have long recognized the unique ‘informalities’ of arbitral procedures and the ability of parties to construct arbitration agreements on their own terms, the NFL Constitution’s arbitration provision fails to bear even a passing resemblance to ‘traditional arbitral practice,’” Cabranes wrote.

Flores, who is Black, sued the NFL, the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and Houston Texans alleging the league and its teams discriminate against Black coaches in hiring and retention. He was joined on the suit by fellow Black coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton. The Giants, Broncos, and Texans interviewed but did not hire Flores for head coaching jobs.

An NFL spokesperson said the league will be “seeking further review” of the court’s decision.

Rooney Rule

Flores argues his interview with the Broncos in 2019 was a sham to satisfy the Rooney Rule, a long-standing NFL requirement that two opportunities to interview for each open coaching position be allotted to women or members of a racial minority group.

A federal district court in August 2023 allowed Flores’ employment discrimination claims against the NFL, Broncos, Giants, and Texans to proceed in court, while requiring arbitration for his claims against the Dolphins. The court also compelled arbitration for Wilks’ claims against the Arizona Cardinals and Horton’s claims against the Tennessee Titans.

During oral arguments in March, Second Circuit judges expressed concern that requiring Flores to arbitrate his claims could set a precedent that lets employers put the head of the company in charge of arbitrating employee claims.

The NFL argued that even though Flores didn’t sign a contract with any of the teams with which he interviewed but wasn’t hired, he was subject to employment contracts with the New England Patriots—where he worked from 2008 to 2018—and Pittsburgh Steelers, where he worked in 2022, both of which incorporated arbitration agreements as required by the NFL constitution.

‘Offends Basic Presumptions’

The Federal Arbitration Act deems arbitration agreements enforceable and says they can’t be reversed, but the Second Circuit said the NFL’s arbitration provision is “fundamentally unlike any traditional arbitration provision” protected by federal law.

The NFL constitution specifically gives the NFL commissioner full authority and final jurisdiction to arbitrate any disputes. It provides for no independent arbitral forum, no bilateral dispute resolution, and no procedure, Cabranes said. The requirement “offends basic presumptions of our arbitration jurisprudence by submitting Flores’s statutory claims to the unilateral substantive and procedural discretion” of the commissioner, the judge added.

But the only type of alternative dispute resolution the FAA protects “is arbitration, and neither a duel nor a game of ping pong is an arbitration, even if labeled as one. When statutory rights are at stake, such a vulnerability can turn fatal,” Cabranes wrote.

Judges Gerard Lynch and Raymond Lohier also sat on the panel.

The ruling “sends a clear message” that the NFL’s “fundamentally biased and unfair arbitration process” must end, especially in cases involving serious claims of discrimination, said Flores’ attorneys, Douglas Wigdor and David Gottlieb of Wigdor LLP and John Elefterakis of Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek. “This is a victory not only for NFL employees, but for workers across the country—and for anyone who believes in transparency, accountability and justice.”

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP represents the NFL.

The case is Flores v. New York Football Giants, Inc., 2d Cir., No. 23-01185, 8/14/25.