The Biggest NFL Lawsuits of the Last Decade

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It’s been an eventful year on and off the field for the NFL, which is preparing to put its 2021 season in the rearview mirror when the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals face off in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Sunday.

With the Super Bowl fast approaching this weekend, Top Class Actions decided to look at lawsuits involving the NFL that made the biggest impact in the news over the last several years.

We didn’t even have to look very far — two lawsuits against the NFL have been in the news since December.

Here are the six most impactful lawsuits the NFL has faced in the past decade:

Former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores Sues NFL, Alleging Racial Bias In Hiring Process

Just this month, Brian Flores, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL and the Dolphins, the New York Giants, and the Denver Broncos, arguing a culture of racial discrimination is evident in their hiring process.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 1 in federal court in New York City on behalf of Black head coaches, general managers, quarterbacks coaches, and defensive coordinators in the NFL, as well as Black candidates for those positions, alleges violations of the Civil Rights Act on the part of the league.

The lawsuit was filed after Flores, who was considered a leading candidate for the head coaching position at the Giants due to his back-to-back winning seasons, was passed over in favor of a white coach, Brian Daboll. 

Flores alleges he found out that he hadn’t got the job three days before hishe was set to interview with the Giants through a mistaken text message sent to him by New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

“I hear from Buffalo & NYG that you are their guy. Hope it works out if you want it to!!” the text reportedly read. When Flores responded, confused, Belichick admitted he had made a mistake, the lawsuit states.

“Sorry – I f****d this up. I double checked & misread the text. I think they are naming Daboll. I’m sorry about that. BB,” Belichick said.

Flores says he then went on to have an extensive interview with the Giants, knowing they had already chosen someone else. He alleges that the process shows that the NFL is trying to appear to commithave a commitment to racial equity when it does not. 

“NFL remains rife with racism, particularly when it comes to the hiring and retention of Black Head Coaches, Coordinators and General Managers,” Flores says. “Over the years, the NFL and its 32 member organizations have been given every chance to do the right thing. Rules have been implemented, promises made—but nothing has changed. In fact, the racial discrimination has only been made worse by the NFL’s disingenuous commitment to social equity.”

The lawsuit notes that despite the NFL’s player pool being over 70% Black, the league employs just one Black head coach after Flores was fired by the Dolphins in January.

NFL, Rams Agree To Pay St. Louis Over Los Angeles Move 

In December the NFL paid the City of St. Louis $790 million over its handling of the Rams relocation to Los Angeles. 

The NFL and the city came to the agreement in November, settling a lawsuit filed against the league in 2017 by the city and county and its Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, reports KSDK.  

The lawsuit alleged the team and its owner Stan Kroenke had not acted in good faith with the city and violated the NFL’s relocation guidelines when it moved the team to LA in 2016. 

The decision to settle has led to a similar lawsuit being filed against the NFL and Los Angeles Chargers by former San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre, who told TCA that a precedent has now been set. 

“The (NFLs) standards basically say it’s not enough just to say you want to make more money elsewhere,” Aguirre said. “You have to, one, have some sort of shortcoming, some sort of deficiency, and then you have to show that you worked really hard to work around it.”

The Chargers formally moved to LA in 2017 after 56 seasons in San Diego, following years of back-and-forth between the team and city officials. 

Aguirre’s case also centers around an alleged admission made recently by the Chargers chief operating officer that team owner Dean Spanos had decided he was going to move the team as far back as in 2006.

“All that went on after 2006, and there was a lot of it, was just a charade, a very cynical manipulation of the community,” he said. 

Rams Pay Fans, Season-Ticket Holders Following LA Move

The victory for St. Louis, meanwhile, followed a January 2020 agreement by the Rams to pay $25 million to Missouri fans who claimed they were financially injured by the team’s relocation to Los Angeles in 2016. 

A Class of fans and season ticket holders claimed in a 2016 class action lawsuit that the Rams had misled them about their intentions of moving the franchise to Los Angeles.

Fans argued they had spent money on tickets, team gear, and concessions due to their beliefs that the team would not choose to relocate. 

A central point of their claims was a statement that Rams owner Stan Kroenke allegedly made during an interview in 2010, when he purportedly said he would “do everything I can” to keep the team in St. Louis. 

The Rams did not admit to any fault or wrongdoing by agreeing to the settlement. 

NFL Agrees To Concussion Settlement With Former Players 

Going back to 2016, the NFL reached a settlement agreement which continues to compensate players who suffered permanent brain damage from their time playing in the league. 

The settlement, which is estimated to be worth around $1 billion, was the result of years of growing allegations that the NFL had knowingly hid the risks associated with concussions. 

More than $827 million in claims had been approved by the league as of last January, with $760 million already having been paid out to former players. 

The settlement sought to compensate former players dealing with a number of brain-injury related issues, including Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, memory loss, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). 

More than 3,000 former NFL players or members of their family have made claims to be part of the uncapped settlement agreement. 

Black Former Players Able To Retake Cognitive Tests Without ‘Race-Norming’

In October, the NFL agreed to revise the concussion settlement so that hundreds of former BlackBlack former players could retake cognitive tests or have their results rescored without using a formula called “race norming.”

The revision came after former NFL players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport filed a class action lawsuit over what they alleged was a racist and discriminatory formula used to test the cognitive function of Black players. 

Race-norming was adopted by the league in 2013 as part of its then-$765 million settlement with players, reports the AP. It involves the process of automatically adjusting cognitive tests to account for a belief that Black players automatically have less cognitive function than their White counterparts. 

“We look forward to the court’s prompt approval of the agreement, which provides for a race-neutral evaluation process that will ensure diagnostic accuracy and fairness in the concussion settlement,” Brad Karp, a lawyer for the NFL said, in a statement at the time.  

NFL Players Waited Too Long To File Painkiller Claims, Judge Says

Finally, in December, a class action lawsuit filed against the NFL in 2014 over its alleged policy of prescribing players with painkillers and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was dismissed.

Former players argued the league did not take their individual health histories or potential for negative interactions into account when prescribing them painkillers which they said led to injuries such as addiction, organ damage, and musculoskeletal issues. 

The judge overseeing the case ruled the players, led by former Chicago Bears and Super Bowl champions Richard Dent and Jim McMahon, had waited too long to file their complaint, however.

Players should have known about their claims well-before filing them, the judge said, noting the statute of limitations for filing them had passed since the last player had retired from the NFL in 2008. 

The judge also rejected the players’ argument they only learned the league was at fault for their injuries after talking to a lawyer in the year before filing their class action lawsuit. 

“At the moment they suffered each musculoskeletal injury they now allege against the NFL, they were obligated to conduct a reasonable investigation of the NFL’s direct or indirect responsibility,” the judge wrote.

While most of these lawsuits are resolved now, only time will tell how Brian Flores’ class action will play out. Regardless of the outcome, it has the makings of a paradigm shift in how the NFL addresses hiring in the future.

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