Ex-Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores is suing his former employers, as well as two other teams and the NFL itself, which he claims is "racially segregated" and "managed much like a plantation".
Flores led the Dolphins to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in almost two decades, but was still sacked last month.
His dismissal leaves only one black coach currently working in the league, with Mike Tomlin in charge of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
It highlights the long-running diversity issue within the NFL – a league which has so few black people in positions of power despite more than two-thirds of the players being black.
In a lawsuit filed with the Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, Flores described a worrying culture behind the scenes at the Dolphins.
In the lawsuit, Flores claims he was told owner Stephen Ross was "mad" when his side won matches towards the end of the 2019 season as those successes were "compromising [the Dolphins'] draft position".
Flores also alleges that he was offered a £74k bonus for every game his team lost during that season, in order to prioritise a favourable position in the 2020 NFL Draft over competitiveness on the field.
He went on to allege that he was painted as "an angry black man" who was "treated with disdain" after he refused to sign a "prominent quarterback" at the end of that season because it would have broken NFL tampering rules.
The other two teams named in Flores' lawsuit are the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants, both of which he accuses of interviewing him for their head coaching positions as a token gesture.
The suit alleges he was only offered a meeting to interview for each role because the league's Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least one candidate from a minority background.
In the lawsuit, he claims two Broncos representatives turned up an hour late for a job interview in 2019, looking "completely dishevelled, and it was obvious they had been drinking heavily the night before".
Flores claims the Giants interviewed him despite already knowing they would hire a white candidate for the head coach role, though the team itself has denied that claim.
"We are pleased and confident with the process that resulted in the hiring of Brian Daboll. We interviewed an impressive and diverse group of candidates," the Giants said in a statement.
"The fact of the matter is, Brian Flores was in the conversation to be our head coach until the eleventh hour. Ultimately, we hired the individual we felt was most qualified to be our next head coach."
Flores, who maintains his interview with the Giants was a 'sham', hopes his lawsuit will help to foster change within the NFL.
"God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goals," he said in a statement issued by his law firm.
"In making the decision to file the class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me.
"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."
The lawsuit says of the NFL: "In certain critical ways, the NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation.
"Its 32 owners – none of whom are Black – profit substantially from the labour of NFL players, 70% of whom are Black.
"The owners watch the games from atop NFL stadiums in their luxury boxes, while their majority-Black workforce put their bodies on the line every Sunday, taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries to their bodies and their brains while the NFL and its owners reap billions of dollars."
