The Detroit Lions organization has moved on from several employees following the 2017 season, ranging from the coaching staff to the front office to the public relations department to the video team.
However, the team is facing a lawsuit from two former employees who allege that they were fired due to age and race.
Michael Richardson and Robert Yanagi have filed suit against both the Lions and the NFL in Wayne County Circuit Court saying that they were terminated in January “without justification”. Michael Richardson, a 52 year old African American and Robert Yanagi, a 58 year old of Japanese descent, had previously served as the Lions’ assistant video director and video operations director.
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Richardson claims that general manager Bob Quinn met with him and criticized his work shortly after being hired in January of 2016. After he filed a worker’s compensation claim following a shoulder injury in December of 2017, he then filed a complaint to the human resources department over “racist comments by an employee in the Detroit Lions Scouting Department and disparate treatment by an employee in the Detroit Lions Team Operations Department,” with the filing also stating that Yanagi asked the same employee to stop joking about race.
The suit then acknowledges that Quinn “acknowledged Richardson’s complaint of race discrimination,” but then “raised concerned about Richardson’s work performance.”
Yanagi also complained to the human recourses department that Quinn “treated him differently because of his race and therefore he was concerned about losing his job.”
The lawsuit says that Richardson was fired because of “his age, race and/or in retaliation for his workers’ compensation claim and/or complaint about race discrimination,” and Yanagi for age, race, his complaint or for supporting Richardson.
The Lions have not commented about this situation as of yet. The attorneys in the case have requested a jury trial on April 5.
