It's been a rough week for the NFL's legal team with another loss coming Thursday, as a federal appeals court ruled the league cannot force Brian Flores into closed-door arbitration but instead must fight the Minnesota Vikings coach's lawsuit at a trial open to public scrutiny.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a lower court's ruling that Flores can proceed with his racial discrimination claims against the NFL and three of its teams -- the Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Houston Texans.
This is not a ruling on Flores' lawsuit itself. It is a ruling that allows him to avoid closed-door arbitration that the NFL was demanding with NFL Roger Goodell in charge as the potential arbitrator or having selected the arbitrator.
The appeals court said the NFL’s arbitration rules forcing Flores to submit his claims to arbitration before Goodell do not have the protection of the Federal Arbitration Act because it "provides for arbitration in name only."
The court's decision is not final. OutKick has been told by the league that it is appealing the ruling.
"We respectfully disagree with the panel’s ruling, and will be seeking further review," an NFL spokesman said.
This is the second time this week the NFL has lost a case in which it was seeking to push legal proceedings out of court and into arbitration.
Former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden beat the NFL on Monday at the Nevada Supreme Court.
That court ruled the NFL's decision to force arbitration, again overseen by Goodell, in Gruden's leaked email lawsuit against the league and Goodell, was "unconscionable."
Thursday's decision in the Flores case is significant because it opens the door for some transparency that the NFL hasn't been forced to withstand in years.
It provides a rare chance for owners, executives, and Goodell to be questioned under oath about hiring and diversity.
It would also force those same parties to submit to depositions that could eventually find their way into the public record.
The NFL, a private enterprise, hates this possibility.
But the Second Circuit said the NFL constitution’s arbitration provision "contractually provides for no independent [arbitration] forum, no bilateral dispute resolution, and no procedure."
"Instead, it offends basic presumptions of our arbitration jurisprudence," the court added, because the league's "principal executive officer" would be the one deciding Flores' claims against, of course, the league itself.
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