Lawsuit clams Jaguars set 'different standards' for Black employees

A Black man who once shaped the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ social media message is suing the team, claiming management “targeted him because of his race” after he complained about racial bias.

The NFL franchise “promotes itself as a local advocate for racial equality. But when it comes to its own employees, it still applies different standards to its Black employees,” argues a lawsuit by Nick Birdsong, the Jaguars’ former director of digital and social media.

Jaguars lawyers answered that the team “denies each and every allegation” by Birdsong, who worked for the Jaguars from 2021 to 2025. He later became director of social media at Texas A&M University.

Birdsong sued in Jacksonville’s federal court on September 8, arguing the Jaguars “repeatedly discriminated against … [him] because of his race.”

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Birdsong is seeking back pay and unspecified punitive damages and compensation for emotional distress, humiliation, reputational damage and other harms.

The suit argues Birdsong’s immediate supervisor “began imposing new and subjective expectations … regarding dress, attendance, office presence, and camera use” but didn’t apply those consistently to white employees.

His yearly performance evaluation dropped significantly between 2023 and 2024, the suit said, and he faced “heightened scrutiny and different workplace expectations” after he objected that a white social media manager and a Black social media specialist seemed to be facing different levels of discipline for work issues.

The suit said Jaguars Chief Operating Officer Chad Johnson called a meeting in February 2025 with Birdsong, Birdsong’s immediate boss and another manager to discuss “vague complaints” about Birdsong’s leadership.

The suit said Birdsong was accused of resisting collaborating with the other manager and tried to show he had been willing to cooperate but Johnson “became combative and indicated that Plaintiff’s employment was at risk.”

Johnson generally told everyone in the meeting to treat each other with respect but “the only concrete corrective requirements he gave were directed at Plaintiff to repair his relationships” with the others, the suit said.

Little has developed so far in the lawsuit, for which attorney held a Zoom call October 14 with U.S. Magistrate Judge Samuel Horovitz.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Lawsuit clams Jaguars set ‘different standards’ for Black employees