The NFL’s secret, rigged, kangaroo court is on life support.
In the lawsuit filed four years ago by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, the presiding judge has reversed a prior order sending some of the claims to arbitration. Now, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has concluded that all claims will be litigated in open court.
The ruling means that the Flores claims against the NFL, the Dolphins, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans will be handled in court, not arbitration. It also applies to the claims made by Steve Wilks against the Cardinals, and by Ray Horton against the Titans.
Friday’s decision flows from last year’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which denied arbitration as to the remaining Flores claims based on the NFL’s insistence that Commissioner Roger Goodell control the process. That same “fatal flaw” (as Judge Valerie Caproni described it) impacts all efforts to compel arbitration.
The league will undoubtedly fight the result. Although Goodell defended the practice during last week’s Super Bowl press conference, it is fundamentally unfair for the person hired and paid by the teams to be resolving legal claims made against his employers. No one in that position can be fair and impartial.
The NFL hates external oversight. It wants to control its business, and it hopes to keep any dirty laundry tightly under wraps.
The league previously filed a petition for appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on the question of whether the arbitration requirement is legitimate. Whatever the final outcome, it’s long overdue that the highest court in the country examine and resolve whether it’s appropriate for any organization to require employees to submit their legal claims not to an independent party but to the boss.
As the clock ticks toward the start of the new league year on March 11, the Dolphins will soon be making a decision about the future of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
If they haven’t already decided to keep him as the starter, chances are they’re only thinking about how they’re going to extricate themselves from his contract.
At a fan event on Thursday night, G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley were asked about the quarterback situation, Tua Tagovailoa’s status, and whether the Dolphins will be looking at other quarterbacks in the draft.
“Of course, we’ll be looking at other quarterbacks in this draft,” Sullivan said, to a round of applause. “And every draft hereafter. But, look, I’ve had — Tua was in my office the other day, if I’m being perfectly frank. We had a great conversation. Tua has been a very good player in this league. He’s done a lot of really good things for the Miami Dolphins. You guys should be proud to have him and having had him.
“I don’t know what the future holds right now, and I told Tua that. We’re working through some things. What I can tell you is that we’re gonna infuse competition into that room, whether Tua is part of the room, whether he’s not part of the room. We’re gonna infuse competition into that room, like we will do in every other position. Tua knows where we are. We’ve been very honest and upfront, and Tua also knows that he will be the first to know when we make a decision. So if Tua is the first to know, you guys can’t be the first to know, and I know that you respect and appreciate that.
“But we’re getting close to a decision. And when we do, we’ll let Tua know whether he’s gonna be part of this or not, and we’ll move forward. But you can rest assured that we will add competition to that room, one way or the other, to make it the best that we can.”
Said Hafley after Sullivan finished: “Yeah, I don’t think I need to add anything.”
Whatever they do, the Dolphins are stuck. They owe Tua $54 million for 2026, fully guaranteed. If they cut him, he’ll leave behind $99 million in cap charges that would most likely be divided over two seasons.
A trade is possible, but they’d have to pay a large amount of the guaranteed salary in order to make it happen. In the end, the Dolphins may have to do a Brock Osweiler-style deal, in which they give someone a draft pick or two in order to eat some of the cash and cap space.
Of course, the Dolphins also could just keep him. They have to pay him; they don’t have to play him. Given everything that has happened over the past six seasons, it would be awkward to do that — especially with a new regime trying to turn the page.
However it goes, it seems as if the Dolphins are dealing less with the question of whether he’ll return and more with the challenge of how to engineer his exit, thanks to a market-level contract former G.M. Chris Grier never should have paid.
The Dolphins hired Nathaniel Hackett as their quarterbacks coach, but they had interest in interviewing Bruce Gradkowski for the job before adding Hackett to Jeff Hafley’s staff.
Miami requested to interview Lions offensive assistant Bruce Gradkowski for the job. The Lions denied the request, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
Because he is under contract to the Lions and the position is considered a lateral move, the team was allowed to decline the Dolphins’ request.
Gradkowski played 37 games, with 20 starts, as an NFL quarterback, with the Bucs, Browns, Raiders, Bengals and Steelers. He last played in the NFL in 2014.
Gradkowski served as the St. Louis BattleHawks’ offensive coordinator in the spring league in 2023-24 before joining the Lions in the 2025 offseason.
Former Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo has found a new job.
The Dolphins are hiring Patullo as their pass game coordinator, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.
Patullo was fired as Eagles offensive coordinator after a rough 2025 season. Now he’ll join a Dolphins staff under new head coach Jeff Hafley and offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik.
It will be a homecoming for Patullo, who played his high school football in the suburbs of Miami and played quarterback and wide receiver at South Florida.
The 44-year-old Patullo spent the last five seasons in Philadelphia. He has spent a total of 14 years as an NFL assistant, mostly coaching wide receivers and otherwise being involved in the passing game.
The Panthers are adding an experienced assistant to Dave Canales’ coaching staff for the 2026 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that they will hire Darrell Bevell as their associate head coach. Bevell will also have an offensive specialist title in Carolina.
Canales was the wide receivers coach for the Seahawks when Bevell was the team’s offensive coordinator from 2011-2017.
Bevell interviewed for the Jets offensive coordinator job recently and spent the last four years as the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator with the Dolphins. He’s also been the offensive coordinator for the Jaguars, Lions, and Vikings over the course of his time in the NFL.
