Two former Detroit Lions employees who claim they experienced unequal treatment and disparaging comments because of their race have filed suit against the team, alleging they were fired because of racial and age discrimination.
Robert Yanagi, the Lions’ long-time director of video operations, and assistant video director Michael Richardson filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court last month seeking damages in excess of $25,000 for being terminated in January “without justification.”
The Lions released a statement on Tuesday afternoon, saying, "we are aware of the report. Because the report involves ongoing litigation, it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time."
Yanagi, a 58-year-old man of Japanese descent, responded to requests for comment Tuesday. Richardson, a 52-year-old African-American, could not be reached for comment.
The Lions fired both Yanagi and Richardson in January, while retaining two video assistants, and replaced them in February with former Syracuse and Indianapolis Colts video director Erik Kunttu.
New Lions coach Matt Patricia was a graduate assistant at Syracuse in 2001-03, during Kunttu’s time as the school’s director of video operations.
According to the suit, which also names the NFL as a defendant, Richardson complained to the Lions’ human resources department last December that he was subjected to “racist comments by an employee in the Detroit Lions scouting department and disparate treatment by an employee” of the team’s operations department.
In the same meeting, Richardson said that Yanagi previously asked the same employee to “stop making jokes about his race,” the filing says.
Days after Richardson’s complaint, Lions general manager Bob Quinn met with Richardson and acknowledged his complaint of race discrimination, the suit says, while also raising “concerns about Richardson's work performance."
Detroit Lions GM Bob Quinn. (Photo: Duane Burleson, AP)
The suit states that Quinn solicited feedback from Lions coaches about Richardson’s work after his complaint, and that Richardson scored a 2.8 out of 5, with “one of the coaches that Richardson had complained” about giving him a score of 1 in every category.
Yanagi also reported to human resources that Quinn "treated him differently because of his race and therefore he was concerned about losing his job,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit does not provide any specific examples of how Yanagi was treated differently.
“There were comments made about both of my clients in regards to their race,” said Angela Mannarino, the attorney for both men. “It was commonplace for comments to be made of that nature and that’s why Michael went to HR and made the complaint about what was going on because it made him very uncomfortable. And then Robert supported his complaint, supported what he was saying, and then shortly thereafter they’re both out the door.”
Mannarino said the employee who Yanagi and Richardson claim made the racially insensitive comments was “a newer employee,” but declined to name the employee or to specify what was said.
“We’ve filed a complaint, we’ve served it on both the Lions and the NFL so right now we’re just kind of waiting for them to respond, whether that would be an answer to the complaint or some other response,” Mannarino said. “I don’t know how they’re going to go about that. And then after that, our hope is to start litigating the case, get some discovery, take some depositions of some of the folks that were involved in this situation.”
Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!
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