Court rules Flores’ discrimination lawsuit vs. NFL will be heard in open court
Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores will have his day in court against the NFL.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Friday that the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator’s ongoing discrimination lawsuit will proceed in open court.
This comes a few years after a judge ordered that some of the case, which counts Flores as well as coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton as plaintiffs, against the NFL and several teams will shift to the league’s internal arbitration process. Attorneys have previously argued that the NFL’s process contains several flaws.
Ultimately, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York’s latest ruling means that all of Flores’ claims will be heard in open court.
“The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law,” Douglas H. Wigdor and David E. Gottlieb, the coaches’ attorneys, told ESPN in a statement. “It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed.”
In January 2022, the Dolphins fired Flores after he went 24-25 over three seasons. Despite the lack of postseason appearances, Flores did have back-to-back seasons with a record above .500. He subsequently sued the NFL as well as the Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Houston Texans.
Flores’ lawsuit claimed that the NFL was “rife with racism,” specifically when it came to Black coaches’ hiring and promotion. He previously interviewed with the Broncos in 2019 as well as the Giants and Texans in 2022.
The two additional plaintiffs, Wilks and Horton, had filed similar claims against the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans, respectively. Wilks, who most recently served as the New Jets’ defensive coordinator in 2025, alleged that the Cardinals had hired him as “bridge coach” in 2018. He was subsequently fired after one season in Arizona during which his team went 3-13.
Similarly, Horton alleged that the Titans failed to offer him a genuine interview during the franchise’s 2016 head coaching search. He has been out of the league since 2019.
What makes the trio’s claims particularly noteworthy, however, is the existence of the Rooney Rule, which designates that teams must interview at least two minorities for their top level openings. Enacted in 2003, the policy was designed to prevent that the very thing that Flores claims runs rampant in the NFL: racism.
The somewhat dubious nature of the Rooney Rule most recently reared its ugly head this offseason during which an NFL record 10 teams were in search of the next leader. Only one team — the Titans — hired a minority head coach in Robert Saleh.
In a recent interview with Pro Football Talk, DeMaurice Smith, the former executive director of the NFL player’s association, claimed that a lack of accountability has ultimately led what was originally a well-intentioned rule to somewhat dissipate in effectiveness.
“The Rooney Rule is the only rule that I have ever seen in the history of the National Football League that they don’t follow, and they don’t enforce,” Smith said. “They have nobody that they’re accountable to, nobody to answer to.”
Added Smith: “In a closed system where they are accountable to no one, these owners simply do whatever they want to do.”
Since the inception of the Rooney Rule, only once has a team received a fine for its violation. That unfortunate honor belonged to Detroit Lions whose team president Matt Millen incurred a $200,000 fine for the hire of Steve Mariucci without interviewing a diverse group of candidates.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 4:35 PM.
