NFL files motion to move Brian Flores' lawsuit to arbitration

The NFL on Tuesday filed a motion in federal court to compel Brian Flores' class-action lawsuit against the league and several teams, in which he and two other coaches allege racial discrimination in its hiring practices, to arbitration.

The filing was made in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and included redacted contracts for all the coaches who are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit — Flores, Steve Wilks and Ray Horton. The filing also includes a copy of the NFL's Constitution and Bylaws.

The NFL argued in its filing that all three coaches agreed in their signed contracts to arbitrate any claims against the teams that employed them and that «the NFL Constitution's arbitration provisions to which Plaintiffs agreed expressly cover claims involving two or more member clubs and claims between any coach and any member club — precisely the case here.»

The NFL also argued in its filing that those signed contracts also compel any claim against the league to arbitration and Supreme Court precedent requires each man to arbitrate their claims on an individual basis.

Flores, who filed his lawsuit in February, also alleged that the Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per loss during the 2019 season, his first with the team, to improve its draft position. In its motion filed Tuesday, the NFL stated that this also is not a matter for the federal courts to rule on, writing, «Courts are particularly hesitant to interfere in such matters, because the internal standards of professional sports leagues 'are not necessarily familiar to courts and obviously require some expertise in their application.' To support that argument, the NFL cited Charles O Finley & Co. vs. Kuhn (1978) and