Brian Flores Subpoenas 25 NFL Teams in Lawsuit
brian flores subpoenaed 25 NFL teams for information about their hiring practices as his long-running discrimination lawsuit widened again. The move pulls nearly the entire league into the case in some form, with only his current employer likely outside the reach of the latest requests.
Flores Expands Discovery
He sent sweeping subpoenas to 25 teams and more than a thousand document requests, seeking hiring information from the last 24 years. Flores is also suing six teams in the case, so the latest wave of discovery reaches far beyond the original dispute with the Dolphins.
The lawsuit began on Feb. 1, 2022, after the Dolphins fired Flores. He originally named the Dolphins, Giants, and Broncos, and later added Steve Wilks and Ray Horton as plaintiffs, along with the Cardinals, Titans, and Texans as defendants.
Caproni And The Appeals Ruling
Judge Valerie Caproni had already split the case in March 2023, sending claims against the Dolphins, Cardinals, and Titans to arbitration while allowing the Broncos, Giants, and Texans claims to stay out of arbitration because they never employed the coaches. On Aug. 14, 2025, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that split and wrote that Commissioner Roger Goodell's unilateral authority to arbitrate was plainly unenforceable.
Caproni moved the entire case into federal court on Feb. 13 and lifted the stay on discovery, opening the door to the latest round of subpoenas. Last week, the NFL told the judge that Flores's proposed Third Amended Complaint improperly tried to add a new retaliation claim and called that claim meritless.
Wednesday Filing Ahead
Flores was set to file a new amended complaint on Wednesday, and the proposed Third Amended Complaint would add the retaliation claim against the NFL. Chris Deubert said, “They’re obviously going scorched-earth,” and added, “Presuming he’s asking about their employment hiring practices and policies, and even that can be difficult to just to respond to. … But those teams are probably going to object to the subpoenas, probably collectively through the league-friendly counsel, and say it’s not relevant,” about Flores seeking information from 31 teams.
That leaves the case deeper inside federal discovery and closer to a broader fight over NFL hiring practices, with 25 teams now pulled into Flores's legal push and six teams already named as defendants.
