When the calendar flipped to February, the National Football League (NFL) was in the middle of an exciting playoff run with the Super Bowl scheduled in less than two weeks. Indeed, on Feb. 1, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady confirmed what had been reported during the prior weekend: that he was retiring after winning seven championships (in 10 Super Bowl appearances) as well as holding any number of individual records, including completions (7,263), touchdown passes (624), and passing yards (84,520). Surely nothing could bump the Brady retirement from the 24/7 media cycle for a few days. The league was ready to bask in the glory of highlights of arguably its most accomplished player. It did not happen. Brady was not even the lead football story by the end of the day.

What changed? The NFL had counted out Brian Flores. Flores, the former head football coach of the Miami Dolphins who was fired on Jan. 10, filed an explosive lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the league and three teams (the Dolphins, the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos) accusing them of discrimination against African American coaches in their hiring, denying them equal opportunity, and paying them less than white coaches. Flores, who identifies as Afro-Latino is the son of Honduran immigrants who grew up in Brooklyn’s projects. In his class action complaint, Flores asserts the league remains “rife with racism, particularly when it comes to the hiring and retention of Black head coaches” and that the “racial discrimination has only been made worse by the NFL’s disingenuous commitment to social equity.”