Football - Fired NFL Official Claims Racial Bias

NFL will be facing another serious legal problem this season. The NFL fired Earnie Frantz, who had been working as an assistant supervisor, after few referees filed a complained against him. Assisted by his attorney Scott Korenbaum, Frantz filed a legal suit in the federal court against the NFL. Frantz said that he was fired unfairly after some referees lodged false complaints with the NFL that he was racially biased.

Frantz was the head linesman at the NFL from 1981 to 2001. In spring of 2005, he was fired as an associate supervisor of officiating. Frantz, a native of Massachusetts, has claimed in the suit that one of his main responsibilities while officiating as a supervisor was to grade the performances of other NFL officials. However, a few NFL officials who were graded by Frantz complained that Frantz was racially biased and that he tended to be harsher with minorities when grading than with the white officials.

Frantz feels that NFL has taken this complaint very seriously and due to the pressure from the minority representatives, terminated him from his services. He further emphasized that since the complaint was from the minority section, his color was taken into account while terminating him and not his performance as a supervisor. While reacting to this, Greg Aiello, NFL spokesperson, confirmed that Frantz had been terminated and this termination had nothing to do with race issues. However, Aiello refused to disclose what led to the termination.

Frantz is now seeking unspecified damages, penalties and back pay.