Judge Valerie Caproni from Manhattan ruled on Wednesday that Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL and three of its teams — the New York Giants, Houston Texans and Denver Broncos — can move forward and will head to trial.
The NFL had previously tried to move the claims to arbitration.
Flores filed his lawsuit a year ago, claiming the league and its hiring process is discriminatory and “rife with racism.” That came on the heels of the Giants passing Flores over for their head coaching job, instead opting to hire Brian Daboll, who went on to be named AP Coach of the Year.
The Giants, who were made aware that Flores’ lawsuit had been filed during their interview process, have vehemently denied his claims. They also rejected any notion that a decision had been made prior to Flores’ second interview with the team.
Brian Flores has raised serious issues in the filing of his complaint. The specific claims against the Giants and Mr. Flores’ allegations about the legitimacy of his candidacy for our head coach position are disturbing and simply false.
After we interviewed six exceptional and diverse candidates, the decision on who we would hire as head coach was made on the evening of January 28, one day after Mr. Flores spent an entire day in our offices going through his second interview for the position, meeting with ownership and other staff members, and receiving a tour of our facility. There is additional concrete and objective evidence to substantiate we did not make our decision until the evening of the 28th.
The allegation that the Giants’ decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false. And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he “thinks” Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible. The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll’s in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point.
Flores’ attorney, Douglas Wigdor, praised the judge’s decision.
“We are pleased that Coach Flores’ class claims of systematic discrimination against the NFL and several teams will proceed in court and ultimately before a jury of his peers,” he said.
Giants co-owner John Mara is also likely pleased with this decision, having previously stated he would not settle with Flores.
“I’m not settling,” Mara said last March. “Because the allegations are false and we’re very comfortable with our hiring process. It was a fair process and we ended up making the decision we made based on a lot of factors, none of which had anything to do with race.”
After being passed over by the Giants, Flores spent last season as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was hired as the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator in February.
