The awkward situation at Fox got a little more awkward on Tuesday night, at the annual Sports Emmys awards.
Greg Olsen, the No. 2 NFL analyst at Fox, won the award for Outstanding Personality/Event Analyst. The other nominees included Tom Brady, Fox’s No. 1 NFL analyst.
It was awkward last year, too. After Brady’s first year after supplanting Olsen as the top analyst at Fox, Olsen was nominated for the award. Brady was not. (Brady’s long-time on-field nemesis, Peyton Manning, won the trophy.)
Olsen continues to be stuck behind Brady, while waiting for the top spot to possibly open at another network. And even though Brady will find a way to laugh it off, he’ll likely take it to heart and work even harder in 2026 to make the improvements necessary to get nominated again — and to win.
At a deeper level, the fact that Olsen won the award underscores the oddity of the decisions that often are made when it comes to NFL coverage. It doesn’t matter if Olsen is objectively better than Brady. Brady has the rings, the name, and the fame.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to accept the NFL’s appeal in the case brought by Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores (and Steve Wilks and Ray Horton). The decision allows his case to proceed in court — and, in theory, to culminate with a public trial.
Both sides have issued comments in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We respect the Supreme Court’s decision not to grant review,” a league spokesperson said. “Regardless of the forum, we are fully prepared to defend ourselves as this matter proceeds.”
Said Flores’s lawyers: “We are pleased that the Supreme Court declined to accept the NFL’s appeal. The NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams. We look forward to litigating these claims in court.”
Obviously, the league wants the forum to be its in-house arbitration process. It keeps things secret, and it tips the scales of justice in the league’s favor.
But, no, the NFL won’t suddenly surrender. It will aggressively challenge Flores at every turn, with the goal of securing a victory without having to take the case to trial.
When will that happen? It could take months. Maybe years. After all, it took nearly 52 months to get the case past the threshold question of whether the claims will be resolved in court or in arbitration.
The Browns announced a change to their cornerback group on Tuesday.
They have signed Tyron Herring to their 90-man roster. DeCarlos Nicholson was waived with an injury designation in a corresponding move.
Herring went undrafted out of Delaware last year. He signed with the Packers and failed to make the cut to 53 players in Green Bay. He spent time on their practice squad and on the Patriots’ practice squad over the course of the season.
Nicholson signed with the Browns after going undrafted out of USC this year.
The Browns signed two other undrafted rookie cornerbacks to compete for spots behind Denzel Ward and Tyson Campbell this season.
The NFL’s in-house arbitration process isn’t dead, but it’s on the verge of a TKO.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the NFL’s petition for appeal in the Brian Flores case.
From the 25-page document submitted by the league in January 2026, this is the question the NFL presented to the U.S. Supreme Court: “Whether an arbitration agreement governing disputes in a professional sports league is categorically unenforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act because it designates the league commissioner as the default arbitrator and permits the commissioner to develop arbitral procedures.”
The league wisely made the question narrow, in order to avoid the possibility that the league’s arbitration process would be taken to its logical extreme. If the NFL can make the Commissioner the default arbitrator for any employment disputes or other legal claims made by employees, every American corporation could make the CEO the default arbitrator for any employment disputes or other legal claims made against it by its employee.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had found that the NFL’s arbitration agreement was not enforceable due to the Commissioner’s power over the process. The decision not to take the appeal doesn’t operate as an agreement by the Supreme Court; however, if the Supreme Court wanted to endorse the league’s longstanding in-house process, it could have taken up the case and then reversed the outcome.
The current legal posture doesn’t prevent the NFL from arguing its position in cases that arise in other courts. However, there’s now a clear path to suing the NFL and avoiding the mandatory arbitration clauses in non-player employment contracts by suing the NFL in New York federal court — since the Southern District of New York falls within the Second Circuit.
As to Flores, the development means that his claims against the NFL, Dolphins, Broncos, Giants, and Texans (and the claims made by Steve Wilks against the Cardinals and Ray Horton against the Titans) will be resolved by the judicial process. With full discovery. And, absent a settlement or a successful motion for summary judgment, with a trial in open court. All facts will be introduced and developed and exposed to public scrutiny.
That could spark a settlement, sooner than later. The league uses arbitration due in part to its desire to keep its business secret. Unless it goes away, the Flores case could result in all sorts of things the NFL would rather us not know playing out in the public eye.
Houston is bringing back a defensive player.
According to multiple reports, the Texans are signing linebacker K.C. Ossai.
Ossai initially came into the league last year as an undrafted free agent with the Texans. But when he did not make the 53-man roster, he signed with Miami’s practice squad.
The Dolphins waived Ossai earlier this month.
