The Brian Flores v. NFL lawsuit is heading toward trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after the Supreme Court, on May 26, 2026, declined to hear the league’s appeal seeking to force the case into private arbitration. Flores’s claims against the New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and Houston Texans will now be litigated in open court. His claims against the Miami Dolphins, along with co-plaintiff claims against the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans, remain in arbitration under a 2023 ruling that split the case.1Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Flores v. The National Football League
What Flores Alleges
Flores filed the complaint on February 1, 2022 (Case No. 1:22-cv-00871), bringing claims under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and state anti-discrimination and whistleblower statutes in New York, New Jersey, and Florida. The complaint describes the NFL as “rife with racism” in coaching and front-office hiring, citing that at the time of filing only one of 32 head coaches was Black and only three of 32 quarterback coaches were Black, while Black players made up roughly 70 percent of league rosters.2Wigdor Law. Complaint Against National Football League et al.
The specific allegations are team by team. Flores says the Giants interviewed him in January 2022 only to satisfy the Rooney Rule and that Patriots coach Bill Belichick tipped him off by accidentally texting congratulations meant for Brian Daboll: “Sorry – I fucked this up. I double checked and misread the text. I think they are naming Brian Daboll. I’m sorry about that.”2Wigdor Law. Complaint Against National Football League et al. He describes a 2019 Broncos interview in which then-General Manager John Elway and team President Joe Ellis arrived an hour late, appearing disheveled and having “been drinking heavily the night before.”3Yahoo Sports. Supreme Court Denies NFL’s Appeal to Keep Brian Flores Discrimination Case Against League Out of Court The Broncos in 2022 called those allegations “blatantly false.”4Broncos Wire. NFL Supreme Court Allows Brian Flores Lawsuit
Against the Dolphins, Flores alleges that owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 for every game the team lost in 2019 to secure a higher draft pick, and that he was pressured to recruit a quarterback from another team in violation of tampering rules. He says his refusal led to him being labeled “difficult to work with” and eventually fired after back-to-back winning seasons.5Harvard Law School. Brian Flores vs. the NFL The amended complaint adds retaliation claims against the Texans, alleging they passed him over because he had sued.1Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Flores v. The National Football League
The Arbitration Fight, and How the Supreme Court Ended It
For more than four years, the biggest question in the case was not whether the NFL discriminated but where that question would be decided. The NFL argued that coaches’ employment agreements and the league’s constitution required disputes to be arbitrated by Commissioner Roger Goodell himself, who held “full, complete and final jurisdiction and authority” over such matters.1Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Flores v. The National Football League
On March 1, 2023, U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni split the case. She sent Flores’s claims against the Dolphins, Steve Wilks’s claims against the Cardinals, and Ray Horton’s claims against the Titans into arbitration based on signed employment agreements. But she allowed the claims against the Broncos, Giants, and Texans to proceed in court, finding the NFL Constitution’s arbitration provision “illusory and unenforceable” because the league and its teams could unilaterally change the constitution at any time.1Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Flores v. The National Football League
The NFL appealed. On August 14, 2025, a three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Judge José A. Cabranes wrote that submitting statutory discrimination claims to “the unilateral substantive and procedural discretion of the NFL Commissioner” produced “arbitration in name only” and lacked the “requisite independence between parties and arbitrator” required by the Federal Arbitration Act. He called the league’s process “unworthy even of the name of arbitration.”6FindLaw. Flores v. New York Football Giants Inc NFL DBA
The league petitioned the Supreme Court. On May 26, 2026, in New York Football Giants, Inc. v. Flores (No. 25-790), the Court denied certiorari, leaving the Second Circuit’s ruling in place. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the lone dissenter and would have granted review; no written opinion accompanied the dissent.7SCOTUSblog. N.Y. Football Giants, Inc. v. Flores
Flores’s attorneys said afterward: “The NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams. We look forward to litigating these claims in court.”8ESPN. Supreme Court Won’t Intervene in Brian Flores Suit vs. NFL NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said the league respects the decision and is “fully prepared to defend ourselves as this matter proceeds.”9The Athletic. Brian Flores NFL Discrimination Supreme Court Appeal
Where the Case Stands Now
Discovery is under way. Flores’s legal team has subpoenaed 25 NFL teams beyond those already named as defendants and served more than 1,000 discovery requests seeking 24 years’ worth of hiring and employment records. Only the Minnesota Vikings, Flores’s current employer, were excluded.10The Athletic. Brian Flores NFL Discrimination Lawsuit Team Subpoenas His attorneys argue the breadth is necessary to show that head coaching hiring operates within a “closed and highly interconnected ecosystem” rather than through independent team decisions.11Front Office Sports. Brian Flores NFL Suit New Filings Subpoenas
Defense attorneys have called the requests “punishingly overbroad” and a delay tactic. Judge Caproni approved a briefing schedule requiring the NFL to file its motions to dismiss by June 5, 2026, with plaintiff briefs due July 20 and defense responses due August 19.12USA Today. Brian Flores Lawsuit NFL Briefing Dates No trial date has been set.
The claims Judge Caproni sent to arbitration in 2023 stay there. That includes Flores’s claims against the Dolphins, Wilks’s claims against the Cardinals, and Horton’s claims against the Titans. No public resolution of the arbitrated claims has been reported.1Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Flores v. The National Football League
The Class and the Co-Plaintiffs
Flores filed as a class action. An amended complaint in April 2022 added the Texans, Cardinals, and Titans as defendants and brought in coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton as additional plaintiffs. Wilks’s claims target the Cardinals; Horton’s target the Titans.1Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Flores v. The National Football League Flores’s legal team has also indicated an intent to add Title VII claims after filing with the EEOC.2Wigdor Law. Complaint Against National Football League et al.
What the NFL Changed, and Rolled Back
After the suit was filed, Commissioner Goodell told all 32 teams the league would “reevaluate and examine all policies, guidelines and initiatives relating to diversity, equity and inclusion” and bring in independent evaluators.13NFL.com. Brian Flores Lawsuit Reflects Widespread Discontent Among Black Coaches Over NFL In early 2022, owners expanded the Rooney Rule to cover quarterback coach positions, required each team to employ at least one minority or female offensive coach, and set up a league fund to pay those salaries.14Yale Law and Policy Review. Rooney Suggestion: How the Rule Has Failed to Defeat Institutional Barriers to Equitable Hiring Practices in the NFL
By 2025, the league had downgraded the offensive coaching mandate from a requirement to a “best practice” and ended reimbursements for those coaches’ salaries, saying it could not ensure teams were using the assistants in the intended manner.15ESPN. NFL Ended Minority Offensive Assistant Mandate for 2025 Season
Flores’s Coaching Status and the Retaliation Claim
Flores has kept coaching through the litigation. The Pittsburgh Steelers hired him as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach weeks after the suit was filed. In February 2023 the Minnesota Vikings hired him as defensive coordinator on a three-year deal, and he was a finalist for the 2024 Associated Press Assistant Coach of the Year.16Minnesota Vikings. Brian Flores When that contract expired in January 2026, he signed a new deal with Minnesota. He interviewed in person with the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers during that cycle but was not offered either job.17ESPN. Brian Flores, Head Coach Candidate, Gets New Deal With Vikings
His third amended complaint, filed in May 2026, adds the argument that his inability to land a head coaching job since suing is itself retaliation, “consistent with a culture of retaliation in which NFL teams close ranks against those who raise complaints of discrimination.”18NBC Sports. Recent Amendment to Brian Flores Lawsuit Accuses NFL of Culture of Retaliation
The NFL’s defense, previewed early in the case, is that its minority hiring can improve but does not amount to illegal discrimination, and that each challenged hiring decision had legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons behind it.19Sportico. NFL Hires Loretta Lynch for Brian Flores Case Those arguments will now be tested on the merits.