Will NFL, Broncos, Giants seek to compel…
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On Wednesday, former Dolphin coach Brian Flores disclosed that the Dolphins already have asked Commissioner Roger Goodell to convene private arbitration of the claims Flores has made against the team he coached for three seasons. The question becomes whether the other parties sued by Flores — the NFL, the Giants, and the Broncos — will make a similar move.
The Dolphins’ argument is the simplest one. It flows from his Miami contract, which contains a clause requiring all disputes to be submitted to arbitration over which the Commissioner or his representative presides. It’s a take-it-or-leave-it term of employment to which all head coaches agree. Who in their right mind will pass on the chance to coach an NFL team over the question of whether an eventual legal claim would be resolved by someone who has a clear bias in favor of the teams?
The letter to Goodell means the Dolphins undoubtedly will file a formal motion to compel arbitration of the case, when its response to the Flores lawsuit is due. And the broader question now becomes whether the other defendants will eventually file similar motions.
For the non-Dolphins defendants, it becomes a little trickier, since Flores never worked for any of them. However, the NFL has attempted in its defense against former Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit to invoke a broad arbitration agreement in the NFL’s Constitution and Bylaws (more on that to come). A similar argument can be made by the NFL, the Giants, and the Broncos in the case filed against them by Brian Flores.
Hopefully, all of the claims made by Brian Flores will be handled by a truly independent tribunal. The NFL, as it always does, wants to remove the controversy from the court system, sending it to a secret process that entails a stacked deck for the league and its teams. If the NFL is truly serious about solving the issues raised by the Flores lawsuit, it will embrace — not shun — independent oversight.
But the NFL never wants independent oversight. Ever. Because the NFL never wants anyone to tell it how to do its business. It wants to run the game unrestricted and unfettered, with no accountability for any behavior that violates the law or any socially-accepted norms.
It has every right to try. And others have every right to push back. To do so, it’s important to understand when it’s happening. In the Brian Flores lawsuit, it already is.
Will NFL, Broncos, Giants seek to compel arbitration of the Brian Flores claims, too?
