This Closer Look expands on the case description Kelsey wrote for her article on recent petitions for review involving public figures.
Can the NFL grant its own commissioner complete authority to determine if a coach’s claim against it is successful? That’s the question at the center of a petition for review in a case pitting the NFL and three of its teams against one of its most prominent Black coaches.
The petition stems from a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores in 2022 against the NFL, Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos. Flores alleged that his status as a Black man had played a role in the Dolphins’ decision to fire him and the Giants’ and Broncos’ decisions not to hire him, and he accused the league of failing to address “a pattern of racist hiring practices.” “I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me,” Flores said after filing the class-action lawsuit, according to NFL.com. “My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.”
Two months later, Flores’ lawsuit expanded to include two other Black coaches as plaintiffs and three more NFL teams. One of those teams was the Houston Texans, whom Flores alleged had removed him “from consideration for a head coach position after the lawsuit was filed.”
Citing the NFL Constitution and team-specific arbitration agreements, the league and teams moved to compel arbitration, contending that Flores, who is currently the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, and the other coaches had accepted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s authority over employment disputes when they signed their various coaching contracts. The NFL Constitution states that “[t]he Commissioner shall have full, complete, and final jurisdiction and authority to arbitrate … [a]ny dispute between or among players, coaches, … or clubs of the League.”
In March 2023, a federal district judge “compelled arbitration as to the claims in which there was a specific employment contract between the respective coach and team,” but did not compel arbitration of Flores’ claims against the Broncos, Giants, Texans, and NFL. The decision cleared the way for those claims from Flores to move forward in federal court, rather than in the league’s internal arbitration process.
The NFL, Broncos, Giants, and Texans appealed the district court’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which affirmed Flores’ victory in August 2025. Specifically, it held that the league’s arbitration agreement was an arbitration agreement “in name only” and is therefore unenforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act. The “provision fails to bear even a passing resemblance to ‘traditional arbitral practice,’” according to the 2nd Circuit’s decision. “Instead, it offends basic presumptions of our arbitration jurisprudence by submitting Flores’s statutory claims to the unilateral substantive and procedural discretion of the ‘principal executive officer’ of one of his adverse parties, the NFL.”
In January, the three teams and NFL asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the case, contending that the 2nd Circuit claimed an authority to subjectively determine whether an arbitration agreement is enforceable that it doesn’t actually have. “The text and history of the Arbitration Act make clear that the Act protects not only the parties’ decision to arbitrate but also their chosen arbitration procedures, including their choice of arbitrator,” the petition said. Moreover, the league and teams continued, the ruling was “contrary to decisions from numerous other courts that have rejected arguments that the arbitration provision in the NFL Constitution, and similar provisions of other professional sports leagues, are unenforceable because they designate the league commissioner as the arbitrator.”
In his response to the petition, Flores asserted that the 2nd Circuit’s decision will not, as the league and teams predicted, send shockwaves through the legal landscape by weakening the Federal Arbitration Act. “The Second Circuit’s decision is consistent with all other circuit courts in holding that an employer—whether a professional sports league, restaurant, retail store or otherwise—cannot force employees to arbitrate statutory employment discrimination claims before the employer’s own chief executive,” Flores wrote.
New York Football Giants, Inc. v. Flores will be considered by the justices at their private conference on Friday.