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Lawyers for three Black NFL coaches — Brian Flores, Steve Wilks and Ray Horton — alleging racial bias by the league fired their latest response at league commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday.
The lawyers filed the papers, in which they complained that having arbitration settle their dispute is wrong, in Manhattan federal court. They believe a jury needs to decide the outcome of the lawsuit that Flores, who was fired by the Miami Dolphins, filed in February. Wilks and Horton later joined it as plaintiffs.
“While the Supreme Court has approved arbitration for resolution of statutory disputes, it has not licensed employers to create unconscionably biased one-sided “kangaroo courts” that bear no resemblance to a neutral judicial forum and fail to comport with basic principles of fairness,” the preliminary statement read from the lawyers, which was obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Head coach Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins looks on prior to an NFL game against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Jan. 9, 2022. Flores was fired at the end of the season.
(Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The shots at Goodell stem from the commissioner being named as the one to oversee and rule on the dispute through the arbitration process. The lawyers feel his decision won’t be objective.
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during round four of the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 30, 2022.
(David Becker/Getty Images)
“Defendants have selected the NFL’s Commissioner as the person to oversee and rule on a dispute as to whether the NFL and teams have engaged in systemic discrimination,” they wrote. “Nobody could credibly argue that the Commissioner could somehow act objectively when he (amongst other things): (i) has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from the teams (and presumably will continue to do so); (ii) will be a witness in this matter; and (iii) has already issued a public statement that Plaintiffs’ allegations are without merit.
“If the Court compels arbitration, scores of employers following this case, and those who learn of it, will undoubtedly change their arbitration clauses to permit the appointment of an obviously biased decisionmaker.”
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Flores was fired by the Miami Dolphins at the end of last season.
(John McCall/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The six teams involved in the case are the Dolphins, New York Giants, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans. In June, they, along with lawyers from the NFL, said arbitration was required for this dispute because coaches had agreed in their contracts to arbitration provisions. They also claimed the coaches had to go to arbitration individually, not as a group.
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U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni will be ruling on whether the case must go to arbitration, saying the lawyers of the coaches could not gather more evidence until that call was made. The decision is expected to take weeks.
Lawyers for the league have not responded to Flores’ attorneys’ statements, according to The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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