Brian Flores’s Employment Discrimination Lawsuit Against the NFL : A Game Changer or Business as Usual?

On February 1, 2022, Brian Flores filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, and National Football League (NFL). This potentially landmark case was initiated by a scathing fifty-eight-page Complaint containing bold claims, such as how NFL teams are the equivalent of slave owners, that the New York Giants engaged in the “most insidious form of discrimination,” and that the NFL is “rife with racism.” Such hyperbolic claims risk being counterproductive in that they overshadow the more reasonable claims of systemic racism which are supported by the evidence.This Article examines the numerous legal issues implicated in the lawsuit. The Rooney Rule—which requires NFL teams to interview minority candidates for coaching positions—may do more harm than good. The plaintiff’s creative attempt to define the applicant pool as all former NFL players brings up issues as to what the correct applicant pool is for comparison purposes and problems inherent in inferring discrimination from small sample sizes. The accusation that Flores was discriminated against is difficult to prove given the infrequent hiring of head coaches and the subjective nature of the decision. Assuming that Flores did receive sham interviews with the New York Giants and Denver Broncos, it is unclear that this constitutes actionable employment discrimination—or deserves any legal recourse at all.Flores is represented by Douglas H. Wigdor, one of the nation’s top employment discrimination lawyers. This Article examines strategic decisions, such as filing the lawsuit while Flores was still under consideration for head coaching positions; using Section 1981 instead of Title VII as the cause of action; seemingly irrelevant information in the complaint, such as multiple references and quotes regarding civil rights leaders like Harriet Tubman; and the peculiar admission that the Miami Dolphins—named defendants in the suit—fired Flores not because he was Black but because he refused to throw games