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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…
Source link : https://www.yahoo.com/news/arbitration-issue-brian-flores-case-203405598.html
Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-07-22 20:34:05
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