“It’s rigged” - NFL Analyst hints that Brian Flores' case may fail if it goes to arbitration

The Brian Flores case against the NFL may not succeed should it go to arbitration, according to NBC Sports NFL insider and analyst Mike Florio. On the show Pro Football Talk, Florio said this case won’t be faced by a jury of people but in a different context with the NFL:

“Because again, you're not facing a jury of six average people who may get confused by the law and just decide to Robin Hood it and take from the rich and give to the poor, relatively speaking, that happens. But in this specific context with the NFL, it's not just referring the matter to the American Arbitration Association for a process that results in the two sides figuring out who the best arbitrator would be.”

Florio continued to assert that the system creates what he refers to as “secret rigged kangaroo courts” because the case is not in the court system and the media cannot follow it:

“This is a system where the NFL says, 'We'll handle this.' The commissioner, or whoever the commissioner designates, will be the one to decide whether or not the employee's rights were violated in some way. That creates what I have called a 'secret rigged kangaroo courts' ... a secret ... because it gets taken out of the court system, the media is not able to monitor it. The testimony doesn't happen in an open setting where owners may be grilled and forced to admit to things. They don't want to admit it all happens behind closed doors.”

He concludes his point by saying that the reason why the arbitration process is rigged is because the NFL commissioner or his designee is the arbitrator in the case and the Rules of Evidence isn’t applicable:

“It's rigged because it's the commissioner or his designee. The person, who is ultimately paid by all teams hired by all teams kept or not kept by all teams, is making these decisions. How was that not rigged in favor of the NFL and its teams? And it is a kangaroo court because it's not a real court. The Rules of Evidence don't apply. The rules of discovery don't apply. There may be information that is highly pertinent to whether or not discrimination occurred to what was actually going on. It's going to be easier to get that in court than it's going to be to get it from a process that's presided over by the commissioner. So a secret rigged kangaroo court is what the NFL is trying to push the Flores case into.”

The case of Brian Flores versus the NFL

Former Miami Dolphins HC Brian Flores

Flores, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, filed a lawsuit in January of this year, claiming racist hiring practices by the league, specifically by coaches and general managers. He claimed the league is “rife with racism” even as it openly denounced it.

Two other coaches, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks and former Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Ray Horton, joined Flores in the lawsuit.

In a letter released ahead of the initial hearing in front of a federal judge in Manhattan, New York, the NFL said it will either ask that the claims of Flores, Wilks and Horton be pushed into arbitration or be dismissed without trial because all three Black coaches lack merit from a legal standpoint.

The letter was prepared jointly by lawyers for the coaches and the NFL to inform the judge of each side’s arguments in advance of the hearing to be held later this month. We’ll see how this plays out as more details come out in Flores' case versus the NFL.