Brian Flores took the NFL to the Supreme Court. He won. And now — for the first time in league history — 31 NFL teams have to open their hiring files to a federal court. That process is called discovery. And it is the one word the NFL has spent years trying to avoid. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored For over four years, the NFL did everything in its power to keep this case private. They argued it belonged in arbitration — handled internally, with Roger Goodell as the arbitrator. Courts disagreed. They appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. On May 26, 2026, the Supreme Court said no. The case is going to trial. Discovery is mandatory. There is no more stalling. This is not a small thing. The NFL's arbitration system has been the legal shield that kept internal disputes — discrimination claims, misconduct allegations, coaching decisions — out of public courtrooms for decades. That shield is now gone. What Flores exposed is that the league was essentially running its own private court, with the commissioner working for the owners serving as the sole judge. Multiple federal courts called it what it is: legally unconscionable. The details of what Flores alleges are extraordinary. He received a congratulatory text from Bill Belichick before his Giants interview — a text meant for Brian Daboll, confirming the hire was already done before Flores walked in the door. He claims Denver Broncos executives showed up to his interview an hour late and appeared hungover. And in Miami, he alleges Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per loss to deliberately tank for draft picks. That last allegation exists in a league that has since legalized gambling. The legal implications of that have changed considerably since 2022. Flores's legal team has now served subpoenas to 31 of the 32 NFL franchises and filed over 1,000 discovery requests. What they are looking for: internal hiring communications, Rooney Rule interview records, and any documentation that shows whether minority coaching candidates were ever given a genuine chance — or whether the interviews were, as Flores alleges, procedural theater. The Rooney Rule has been debated for years. A federal court is now going to see the actual evidence. The NFL has until June 5th to file a motion to dismiss. Based on where this case has already been — through multiple federal courts, the Second Circuit, and now the Supreme Court — that motion is unlikely to stop what is coming. Discovery is the next phase. And as anyone who followed the John Gruden situation knows, you never fully know what is in the files until someone has to show them. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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