Black NFL doctor Brandon Mines files suit against Atlanta Falcons alleging racial discrimination

The NFL’s only black head team physician is suing his former employers, the Atlanta Falcons and Emory University, for racial discrimination and retaliation.

Dr. Brandon Mines also listed his former supervisors, Dr. Kenneth Mautner and Dr. Scott Bolden, in the suit.

In the June 1 complaint, Mines claimed his rights were violated after he was fired from the Falcons. He accused the team and Emory of retaliating against him by withholding his salary and issuing false statements about him, including that he “failed to maintain players’ medical records and that he reportedly missed a brain tumor in one of the Atlanta Falcons players.”

“The termination stifled Mines’ promising career trajectory and eroded trust within the Emory sports medicine community,” the lawsuit states. “The ripple effects of this illegal termination are far-reaching, casting doubt on Emory and the Falcons’ commitment to diversity and inclusion and creating a culture of uncertainty and fear among its Black physicians .

Mines began working with Emory University in 2005 and “had every intention of remaining with Emory until his retirement.” Simultaneously, he began working with the Falcons in 2011 and was promoted to head team physician in 2014. In 2019, Mines signed a multi-year contract with Emory University in partnership with the Falcons.

Over the years, Mines earned further promotions but, according to the lawsuit, he said he was passed over for positions assigned to less qualified white colleagues. Mines also applied for positions with the Atlanta Braves MLB team, which was under contract to Emory, as well as the Atlanta Hawks NBA team, but the complaint claims his bosses, Boden and Mautner, both white, seemed to prefer white doctors. .

“Each time, Boden appointed only white doctors to this leadership position. Worse, Boden intentionally and maliciously overruled the recommendations of other Emory executives regarding Plaintiff’s candidacy for chief team physician of the Atlanta Falcons in 2019 and the Atlanta Hawks in 2016,” according to the lawsuit.

Mines has also been thinking about new ideas at Emory and said he would be interested in leading them. Boden and Mautner agreed that these were good ideas, but they never came to fruition. Specifically, Mines expressed interest in becoming co-director of sports medicine, but never got a direct response from his supervisors.

During an annual job review in 2023, Mines officially put his employers on notice and complained that he was still being overlooked.

From that point on, Mines was the target of a retaliatory plan, the lawsuit claims. Unlike his colleagues at Emory, his family was not allowed to visit him. Plus, one of his supervisors ended up creating an Emory position that Mines had been asking for for years. However, the position was “watered down” to a less senior role.

In May 2023, Mines was “abruptly” fired from the Falcons without “any substantial explanation or good cause” and “tarnished (Mines’) impeccable reputation and undermined diversity and inclusion efforts within Emory and the NFL.”

“As the only Black Head team physician in the entire NFL, (Mines’) firing raised serious questions about fairness, equality and illegal racial bias within Emory and the Falcons” , the lawsuit says. “The dismissal stifled (Mines’) promising career trajectory and eroded trust within the Emory sports medicine community. The repercussions of this illegal termination are far-reaching, casting doubt on Emory and the Falcons’ commitment to diversity and inclusion and creating a culture of uncertainty and fear among its Black doctors.

But the discrimination was far from over, Mines says.

While in his position at Emory, the lawsuit claims Mines experienced more microaggressions and filed a formal complaint with the school’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, but to no avail . He claimed his superiors constantly referred to him as “angry” and “aggressive,” racial tropes used to stigmatize black people. Mines continued to expose how discriminatory behavior spread from the Falcons to Emory, but it was as if no one ever heard his cries for help and no investigation was conducted.

Mines submitted his resignation from Emory in April 2024 after continuing to experience racism at work, according to the lawsuit.

“(Mines’) resignation was a disguised discharge because it was the direct and immediate result of severe and widespread racial discrimination and retaliation that made his work environment so intolerable that a reasonable person would have felt obligated to resign,” the lawsuit states.

Mines accused his former employers of “willful, wanton and malicious” conduct. The lawsuit says they are responsible for the “malicious and outrageous racial discrimination and resulting hostile work environment.”

In turn, for suffering “physical and mental harm, loss of wages, professional and reputational harm, serious emotional distress, humiliation, anxiety,” Mines wants a jury trial. He is also seeking compensation for punitive damages and reimbursement for his attorney fees.

The legal team for the Falcons, Emory and Mines did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast on Thursday.