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HomeSPORTSJUDGE SAYS JIM TROTTER SUIT AGAINST NFL CAN GO FORWARD

JUDGE SAYS JIM TROTTER SUIT AGAINST NFL CAN GO FORWARD

Image Courtesy of NFL

By Julio Rodriguez

Jim Trotter will get his day in court.

The NFL may have its hands full.

A New York District Court judge denied the NFL’s request to completely dismiss Trotter’s racial discrimination lawsuit against the league. Judge Jed S. Radkoff said all six of Trotter’s claims of retaliation by the NFL could move forward. Trotter said the NFL retaliated by firing him after he had criticized the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell for underrepresenting Black journalists and writers in the NFL Media newsroom, a public relations and marketing arm of the league.

Trotter’s lawsuit is an attempt to initiate a court-ordered review of NFL policies and practices related to hiring and advancement of Black people. His 53-page complaint seeks an investigation into what he describes as discriminatory practices. NFL team owners are included in the lawsuit.

The NFL issued a statement that read in part: “We take his concerns seriously, but strongly dispute his specific allegations, particularly those made against his dedicated colleagues at NFL Media.”

Trotter’s attorney, David Gottlieb of Wigdor LLP, issued his own statement.

“With the NFL having failed to get this case dismissed, and with no arbitration agreement to save them, we look forward to finally holding the NFL responsible for its conduct in a forum fully open to the public,” Gottlieb wrote.

Trotter is a Chula Vista native and a long-time NFL writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine. He is active in the San Diego Association of Black Journalists and teaches journalism classes at SDSU. He is respected nationally for his talent as a football writer and his advocacy for Black journalists.

He also has legions of journalists and civil rights leaders supporting his efforts. At this year’s Super Bowl press briefing Kansas City sports radio host Darren Smith took up Trotter’s torch and called out Goodell for firing Trotter. He then asked the NFL Commissioner the same questions Trotter had asked in 2022 and 2013 before his contract was not renewed.

“I know you don’t run the NFL media newsroom, but you do run the NFL, and they answer to you as well as the 32 owners,” Smith said to Goodell. “As of this press conference, the NFL Media newsroom still employs zero Black managers, zero Black copy editors, zero full-time Black employees on the news desk, and your only full-time Black employee, Larry Campbell, passed away over the weekend.”

Smith pressed on with Trotter’s line of questioning.

“In a league that has more than 60 percent of African Americans that have played the game, how does knowing this sit well with you? And after two years of being asked this question, why has there not been any change or any hirings in that area?”

Washington Post sports columnist Jerry Brewer has called Trotter “a courageous voice” and “a man I admire very much for taking a stand.” San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa called himself a Trotter admirer.

“Jim is a man unafraid, a man of convictions, a family man and a beacon of Black pride who has pushed through the headwinds,” wrote Canepa.

Trotter was the Grand Marshal of the 2020 Bonitafest which honored him for his “outstanding service to journalism students, commitment to civil rights and advocacy for fairness in the United States.”

Trial dates are pending. Trotter said he would be there.

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