By John Byrne
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has sued the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, NFL, and Jon Doe teams 1-29 in federal court in New York. Read the lawsuit here.
It’s a class action asserting, among other claims, race discrimination under Section 1981. Pretty explosive allegations, including that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered Flores $100,000 for every game lost during Flores’s first year as head coach (with the goal of securing the #1 pick in the draft, which the Bengals ultimately used to select Super Bowl-bound Joe Burrow) and that, after the 2019 season, Ross pressured Flores to “recruit a prominent quarterback in violation of League tampering rules” (appears to be referring to Tom Brady). Lots of fallout to come from this.
Not many lawsuits begin with the first sentence reading:
ReplyDelete"Sorry – I f#$%d this up."
Typically, those are famous last words, although not as typical for famous last words as "Hey, check this s$%^ out."
The language quoted on the first page is sanctionable. What purpose is served by printing F bombs on a complaint? The rest of the complaint is farcical. Flores is asking a district court to oversee the management of the NFL so that there are more black NFL coaches ane personnel. It is a rhetorical diatribe meant not to prove a case in court but a PR stunt designed to whip up public oppositon to the NFL.
ReplyDelete"Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, NFL, and Jon Doe teams 1-29"?? Did he forget the names of all the other NFL teams?
ReplyDelete"44. However, the reentry of Black players into the League was not the result of introspection and a commitment to equality. Rather, when the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles, the publicly funded playing venue, the Los Angeles Coliseum, forced the Rams to integrate at least one Black player in order to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that banned segregation in places of public accommodation."
ReplyDeleteI'm no constitutional scholar, but I don't think Plessy v. Ferguson stands for what they think it does. Oy.
Complaint fails on its face. He admits in para 14 that he was fired for not following the boss's instructions to lose games. He wasn't discriminated against - he is insubordinate. Don't get me wrong, as a Dolphons fan I'd rather have Flores than Ross. But this complaint is garbage.
ReplyDeleteI gather that there are not many crits among the silk stocking "litigators" who follow this blog. If there were, they would point out that one of the best examples of structural racism is the NFL and the college plantation system where erstwhile professionals toil with inadequate compensation? What sort of second-rate educations do you guys and girls have? Didn't they teach CRT in Florida law schools?
ReplyDeleteThe NFL is an anti-competitive cartel extracting the excess value of the labor of the workers while inflicting upon them a 100% permanent injury rate. Thus, it is hard to fell sympathy for a black man who chooses to work in an industry founded on the exploitation of black men. The black overseeer got screwed over by the plantation owner. Well, duh.
Regardless of whether you are generally pro-choice or pro-life, I think we can all agree that that abortion of pleading should be illegal.
ReplyDeleteHe gives examples where he insubordinate, difficult to get along with, and clashed with the owner.
ReplyDeleteOwner fires him and he says the owner's explanation for firing him - that he was insubordinate and difficult to get along with - is pretextual.
That complaint is an embarrassment.
I find it hard to believe that this will survive a 12(b)(5) motion. Sort of like throwing a tantrum at my ex wife for divorcing me and sending an email to eveyone cataloging every embarrasing detail of our marriage. No thanks. Get on with your life.
ReplyDelete11:12, it seems as if such an instruction (to throw games) would probably be an instruction to commit fraud-type crimes against many victims. Disobeying an order to commit a crime is not valid cause for termination.
ReplyDeletePara 58 "Now, 76 years following integration, there has never been . . . a Black majority owner of an NFL team." How many have tried to buy a team? Or is it his position that private property should be stripped from current owners and redistributed to others based on skin color?
ReplyDeleteThe Plessy v Ferguson citation at para 44 is really a classic. Yikes.
This complaint is a clown show. It's the Rudy Guiliani hair dye of written pleadings. I have rarely cringed so often at a complaint that wasn't pro se.
Six lawyers signed this complaint - all 6 are white men. LMAO!!!!
ReplyDeleteThere is a reason the greatest team in the NFL wears black and gold and it’s fans are Yinzers.
ReplyDeleteI remember back in the day when the great rivalry existed between the Steelers and the raiders. The Steelers would beat the raiders in the playoffs every year ( except 76 when we lost our two running backs, starting hall of fame QB and our kicker and still almost won the AFC championship game) and Raider thugs like Jack Tatum would headhunt Swann and Stallworth as they came over the middle. Steelers head coach Chuck Noll (4-0 in Super Bowls btw) said there was “a criminal element “ in the NFL and Tatum sued him. That was a lawsuit that was fun.
Post script. Noll won two more Super Bowls after that.
I think Flores was a great coach and it’s outrageous he wasn’t immediately hired.
@414, a fraud against who? Not the ticket purchasers - unless you believe that the fans of professional wrestling are being defrauded too. Also, "criminal fraud" is a big word. Explain how this is a crime? I don't see it. Was the government being defrauded? How?
ReplyDeleteThe dolphins are a privately held for-profit entertainment business operating as part of a cartel of similarly situated cooperating businesses who make money by hosting spectacles that revolve around, but are not exclusively, a staged show in which one set of players "wins" and another "loses." Every ticket holder at each individual game still got that. Every broadcast partner still got that. Every cartel partner still got that. Who was defrauded and how?
To 9:24. You nailed it. To add a little spice to your position. Would the average Dolphin fan accept a few thrown losses for the chance to draft Joe Burrow? YES
ReplyDelete9:24 and 3:21, it's me, 4:14 again! Let me say you have a point although you probably both were shrugging your shoulders on January 6, because the voters would still get a winner and loser. Seriously, I think there are salaries paid based on the statistics of the game, there is some kind of relationship with gambling companies now that I don't understand, autographs and things sold. I think all those people would be victims of a team's false claim that they are trying their best to win.
ReplyDelete