Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores wants to add a new discrimination claim to his longstanding lawsuit against the NFL and six of its teams. The move is tied to a dispute between executive search firm Korn Ferry and the plaintiffs over if a one page document obtained in third party discovery should remain sealed. It is what is in that document that led Flores to ask the New York federal court to add a new allegation to his complaint
What the new allegation is, and what is in that Korn Ferry document, is non-public information, at least at the moment. In a letter to the magistrate judge handling discovery in the case, however, Korn Ferry described the subject of the document as a head coach search the recruitment firm did for the Las Vegas Raiders.
“Korn Ferry is specifically requesting that Exhibit A remain under seal,” the company’s lawyers wrote the magistrate judge in a letter dated August 12. “Exhibit A references a confidential candidate search and was prepared by Korn Ferry in connection with a confidential search engagement with its client, the Las Vegas Raiders.”
The Raiders conducted head coach searches at the end of the 2024 season and again at the end of the 2025 season. Public reports in early 2025 said the Raiders hired Korn Ferry to assist in the hiring of a head coach and a general manager https://www.silverandblackpride.com/2025/1/11/24341227/raiders-news-jed-hughes-firm
Flores filed his class action lawsuit February 1, 2022, after the Miami Dolphins fired him, claiming racial discrimination. The case initially was brought against the NFL and the Dolphins, the New York Giants, and the Denver Broncos. The Giants and Broncos interviewed Flores for head coach positions in what he dubbed sham processes. Months later he added former head coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton as plaintiffs, and as defendants their former teams, the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans, as well as the Houston Texans. Earlier this year Flores added a retaliation claim https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/brian-flores-will-amend-lawsuit-to-include-retaliation-claim-over-arbitration-issue.
The case for more than three years did not move as the sides argued and appealed whether the dispute should go before a court, or an arbitrator as the NFL prefers. Ultimately the second circuit court of appeals ruled all the parties should be in court, and not arbitration.
The NFL has not objected, at least yet to the unsealing of the Korn Ferry document, but the Miami Dolphins have. The magistrate judge requested briefs on the subject to be filed in coming weeks.
The Dolphins and Titans are objecting to Flores adding a new allegation, one of the coach’s lawyers wrote today to the magistrate judge,
“The Dolphins, as well as the Titans, contend that it would be more `practical’ for Mr. Flores to hold off the filing of a Supplemental Complaint until a later point,” David Gottlieb wrote. “That gets the practicalities backwards. Mr. Flores is entitled to seek redress for his newly accrued anti-discrimination claims.”
Gottlieb would only confirm to this reporter that Flores is ready to add a new allegation, but he cited court confidentiality orders from revealing the nature of the allegation at this time or what is revealed in the Korn Ferry sealed document.