The case was filed on February 1, 2022. More than 27 months later, it’s in the federal appeals process on the question of whether and to what extent some of the claims will land in arbitration.
In recent months, the NFL (and several teams), former Dolphins coach and current Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores (along with Steve Wilks and Ray Horton), and a group of 12 law professors have filed lengthy briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on the arbitration issue.
The NFL’s brief was filed in early December. The Flores brief was submitted on July 11, and the brief on behalf of the independent law professors was filed on July 18.
The appeal focuses on the district court’s decision that Flores’s claims against the Broncos, Texans, Giants, and the NFL are not subject to the NFL’s internal arbitration system that puts final say in the hands of Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“To say Mr. Goodell is biased would be an understatement as: he is professionally and financially beholden to the NFL and its teams, he enjoys his job as NFL Commissioner — the pinnacle of power and prestige — at the leisure of NFL team owners, he is personally represented by the same attorneys representing Defendants, and he is paid tens of millions of dollars annually to act in their best interest,” Flores’s lawyers argue at the first page of their brief.
The final brief, for now, comes from a dozen “law professors and scholars who focus on dispute resolution.” They express concern that the potential outcome of the case, with the NFL permitted to control and resolve the claims made against it, “may undermine the equitable administration of arbitration and erode public confidence in arbitration.”
The appeals brings into focus the NFL’s long standing effort to force non-player employees to submit any claims to arbitration ultimately controlled by Goodell. The law professors argue that, if the NFL’s skewed, self-serving model is permitted to stand, other companies will do the same thing.
They’re absolutely right. It makes no sense for the person ultimately in charge of a given business to have the power to resolve disputes involving that business. No one should want to even be put in that position. Fair outcomes to spirited legal fights demand an independent party to ascertain the facts, consider the law, hear the arguments, and make a decision.
The mere fact that the NFL wants the ability to issue final, binding judgment as to disputes involving the various teams and/or the league office is a horrible look. It should be a P.R. disaster for the league, but few in the media ever explain in clear terms what a horrible look it is.
Hopefully, more will. Although life would be a lot easier if we all possessed total authority to resolve any and all arguments in which we were involved, no one should want that kind of power. Because it makes every outcome seem suspicious and, at some level, unfair.
Regardless of whether media (and, in turn, fans) wake up to the shameful way in which the NFL has handled its in-house arbitration procedures, here’s hoping the court system shuts down for good the NFL’s secret, rigged, kangaroo court. If not, it could soon become a staple of American business.