Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL secured a huge win on Friday after latest report

We are finally going to hear about the NFL’s hiring practices in open court.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Jan 13, 2025; Glendale, AZ, USA; Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores against the Los Angeles Rams during an NFC wild card game at State Farm Stadium.
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores was fired by the Miami Dolphins after the 2021 season, and it didn’t take him long to file a lawsuit against the NFL and multiple parent clubs about their hiring practices.

On Friday, that lawsuit got significantly stronger, after an arbitrator ruled that Flores, along with Steve Wilks and Ray Horton, deserved their time in open court, and it will move from arbitration to open court.

“The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law,” said attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor and David E. Gottlieb. “It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed.”

Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL secures big win, will move to open court

This is a massive win for Flores, because the entire point of the lawsuit was to call them out for their hiring practices. If the case was kept in arbitration, it would have been a major win for the NFL, as none of the information would have become public. Because it is going to open court, it will go to the discovery phase, meaning both sides will have to share evidence, and it will become public record.

Part of the reason why Flores brought upon this lawsuit was from a text message that Bill Belichick sent him to congratulate Flores on getting the New York Giants job. He was about to go into his interview, and the text was not meant for Flores, but rather Brian Daboll, who was also a longtime assistant of Belichick.

Last January, his lawsuit got stronger from an Albert Breer report that the Jacksonville Jaguars hid the fact that they wanted to hire Liam Coen so they could “satisfy the Rooney Rule.”

“The Jaguars had emphasized to Coen’s camp how important it was that the visit stay under wraps, which could explain why the coordinator kept his plans from the Buccaneers,” Breer wrote. “In the wake of firing Baalke, and in addition to a healthy financial offer, the Jags offered Coen a chance to effectively pick his general manager—an opportunity exceedingly rare for a first-time head coach. In fact, one colleague told Coen that Kyle Shanahan’s hire in San Francisco was the only such offer for a first-timer he could remember like the one Coen had in front of him.

“The secrecy over the visit did serve two theoretical purposes. One, obviously, it would preserve the Tampa offer for Coen, which, again, was contingent on the OC not visiting Jacksonville. Two, it allowed the Jaguars to satisfy the Rooney Rule. Going into Thursday, the Jags only had one minority candidate in for an in-person interview—Saleh’s first was in-person. They needed two to comply, so Graham was slated to come Thursday for the other. But the Jags didn’t want word of their plans getting out, which could cause Graham to cancel.”

Now that it’s moving to open court, Flores is one step closer to both a semblance of closure and getting any kind of justice for coaches everywhere.

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