The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the National Football League's (NFL) effort to move a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a Black coach out of federal court and into an arbitration process controlled by the league.
The justices declined to review appeals from the NFL and three teams—the New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and Houston Texans—after a lower court ruled that the league cannot force Brian Flores, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins and now defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, to submit his workplace discrimination claims to arbitration supervised by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Flores, 45, has accused the NFL—America's most popular professional sports league—of systematic discrimination against Black coaches. According to his 2022 lawsuit, the NFL and several teams discriminated against Black candidates for coaching and management positions, violating federal and state laws. Flores filed the suit after being fired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins despite the team posting winning records in two consecutive seasons.
Flores alleges that during his career, he was required to participate in “sham interviews” with the Giants and Broncos solely to satisfy the NFL's 2003 Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching positions. The NFL adopted the Rooney Rule to improve the historically low number of minority head coaches.
Two other Black coaches, Steve Wilks (former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals) and Ray Horton (a longtime assistant coach), later joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. The suit seeks a series of changes from the NFL, including encouraging teams to hire Black coaches and general managers, and requiring teams to provide written explanations for hiring and firing decisions.
The NFL, which denies the allegations of racial discrimination, responded to the lawsuit by arguing that it should be dismissed for lack of legal merit or sent to arbitration. A federal judge in New York ruled in 2023 that the NFL and the Giants, Broncos, and Texans must face Flores's claims of systematic discrimination, while sending other aspects of the case to separate arbitration.
In its appeal, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the ruling in 2025, maintaining that some of Flores's claims fall under federal court jurisdiction. The appeals court stated that a clause in the NFL's constitution granting Goodell unilateral authority in arbitration was “plainly unenforceable” because it would deprive Flores of an arbitration “in any meaningful sense.” Judge Jose Cabranes wrote for the appeals court: “An arbitration agreement compelling a party to submit his dispute under the substantive and procedural jurisdiction of a senior executive of one of the opposing parties is an arbitration agreement in name only.”
