The U.S. Supreme Court just handed down a major decision regarding the NFL's hiring practices. On Tuesday, the high court denied the league’s request to block a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by coach Brian Flores, meaning the case is heading to open court.

Flores, who is Black and the son of Honduran immigrants, is currently the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings. If you remember back to 2022, he filed a class-action lawsuit against the league, the Miami Dolphins, the Denver Broncos, and the New York Giants right after the Dolphins fired him. In the lawsuit, Flores pulled no punches, calling the NFL "rife with racism" and comparing its management structure to a plantation when it comes to hiring and retaining Black head coaches, coordinators, and general managers.

The NFL spent years trying to keep this whole thing under wraps. They fought hard to get the case moved out of the public court system and into league-controlled, private arbitration. Lower courts already told the NFL no, and now that the Supreme Court has declined to step in, the league has run out of options. The battle will play out in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the only one who dissented from the decision.

Flores’ attorneys, David Gottlieb and Douglas Wigdor, were clearly happy with the news. They put out a statement saying the NFL has to accept that Commissioner Roger Goodell can't act as both judge and jury in discrimination claims against his own league. The NFL responded by saying it respects the court's decision but is fully prepared to defend itself. The league has always maintained that Flores' claims don't have any merit.

The details in this lawsuit are still pretty wild to look back on. Flores alleges that back in 2019, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 for every game he intentionally lost so the team could tank for the number one draft pick. Flores refused, and even though he led the team to a 9-8 record on the back of a seven-game winning streak three seasons later, he was fired anyway. The Dolphins deny everything.

Then there’s the situation with the Giants. Flores says they brought him in for a head coaching interview in 2022 just to check a box for the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates. He claims they had already decided on Brian Daboll, who is white. To back that up, Flores shared screenshots of a text exchange with Bill Belichick. The coach accidentally texted Flores, congratulating him on landing the Giants job three days before Flores even interviewed. Belichick had mistakenly texted the wrong Brian. The Giants claim Flores was in the running until the very last minute.

Flores also alleges that during a 2019 interview with the Broncos, John Elway and Joe Ellis arrived an hour late and appeared to have been drinking heavily the night before. The Broncos called that allegation completely false.

Since the suit was first filed, two other Black coaches have joined the fight. Steve Wilks joined the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 after the team fired him after just one season. His lawyers say he was brought in as a "bridge coach" and never given a real chance to win. The team replaced him with Kliff Kingsbury. Ray Horton also joined, claiming the Tennessee Titans gave him a sham interview in 2016 before hiring Mike Mularkey. Both teams deny the allegations, but now all of these claims will be picked apart in a courtroom.