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The NFL has responded to the lawsuit filed in September by former NFL Media reporter Jim Trotter.
In a four-page letter sent Friday to U.S. District Court Judge Paul Crotty, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch explains that the NFL intends to file a motion to dismiss Trotter’s case. The letter also provides a glimpse into the league’s overall position regarding the termination of Trotter’s employment.
“In March 2020, after an initial two-year contract, the NFL renewed Plaintiff’s contract for another three years,” Lynch writes. “In March 2023, Plaintiff’s contract expired and, as part of a broader cost-cutting measure and strategic shift away from traditional broadcast journalism and towards interactive media, the NFL made the decision not to renew the contracts of several reporters, including Plaintiff. That reasoning was communicated to Plaintiff and is well documented.”
Whether the league has indeed shifted “away from traditional broadcast journalist and toward interactive media” (whatever that means) is irrelevant for now. However, it sheds light on how the league will try to defend the case.
Trotter claims the decision was motivated in whole or in part by discrimination and retaliation, under federal, state, and local law.
Lynch contends that Trotter’s complaint is “fatally deficient” on its face. She writes that Trotter “does not plausibly allege that he engaged in any protected activity supporting” a claim for retaliation.
“Plaintiff does not allege that he complained, including through his reporting, about any such [discriminatory] practice by the NFL,” she explains. “His generalized allegations — that he questioned what he viewed as a ‘lack of diversity’ and was ‘skeptical’ of the NFL’s initiatives to promote diversity — do not suffice.”
She downplays Trotter’s questioning of the Commissioner at a February 2023 press conference regarding persistent lack of diversity in the newsroom at NFL Media by stating Trotter “concedes that he posed the exact…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-intends-file-motion-dismiss-012530007.html
Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports
Publish date : 2023-11-18 01:25:30
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