Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores can take his discrimination instances in opposition to the NFL, Giants, Denver Broncos and Houston Texans to an open federal court docket in entrance of a jury, a federal appeals court docket reaffirmed Thursday.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals upheld a March 2023 ruling by U.S. District Choose Valerie Caproni that rejected the NFL’s try to power Flores’ civil claims into arbitration overseen by league commissioner Roger Goodell.
The choice written by Circuit Choose Jose A. Cabranes mentioned the NFL structure’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 determined by the NFL’s “principal executive officer,” the appeals court docket mentioned.
Attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor, David E. Gottlieb and John Elefterakis mentioned “the significance of the Second Circuit’s decision cannot be overstated.”
“For too long, the NFL has relied on a fundamentally biased and unfair arbitration process — even in cases involving serious claims of discrimination,” the attorneys mentioned. “This ruling sends a clear message: that practice must end. 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.”
NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy mentioned: “We respectfully disagree with the panel’s ruling, and will be seeking further review.”
The NFL is having a tricky week in court docket. The Nevada Supreme Court docket simply dominated in opposition to the NFL’s effort to power former coach Jon Gruden’s claims in opposition to the league and Roger Goodell into arbitration, as effectively.
Flores initially sued the NFL and a number of other groups in Feb. 2022, alleging that the league was “rife with racism,” notably in its hiring and promotion of Black coaches. Two different coaches later joined the lawsuit, which sought to proceed as a category motion, however Caproni dominated that their claims may go to arbitration based mostly on the language in contracts they signed with groups.
Particular to the Giants, Flores’ lawsuit alleges that the Giants gave him a sham interview for his or her head teaching emptiness in Jan. 2022 previous to saying Brian Daboll as their head coach.
Flores alleges that then Patriots head coach Invoice Belichick despatched him a textual content message two days earlier than his Giants interview that was actually meant for Daboll that learn: “I hear from Buffalo and NYG that you are their guy.”
Giants co-owner John Mara mentioned “the allegations are false” in March 2022 on the NFL house owners’ conferences in Palm Seashore, Fla.
“We’re very comfortable with our hiring process, and it was a fair process, and we ended up making the decision we made based on a lot of factors, none of which had to do with race,” Mara mentioned in 2022.
Mara additionally mentioned nobody from the Giants, together with Mara himself, had spoken to Belichick in regards to the hiring course of.
“I haven’t spoken or communicated with Bill since we played them in the preseason last summer,” Mara mentioned in 2022, “and to my knowledge, nobody in our organization communicated with him.”
Wealthy Hernandez, Esq. is the Giants’ present senior vp and common counsel. He was promoted to exchange former common counsel William Heller in March 2023.
Initially Revealed: August 14, 2025 at 12:42 PM EDT
