nbcsports
Every large company gets sued, at some point.
The company that owns and operates the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC of the MLS is facing an unusual one.
Via Matt Moret of The Athletic, former pro soccer player Dustin Swinehart has sued Tepper Sports & Entertainment for gender discrimination.
Swinehart, the former director of community engagement at Charlotte FC, claims that his firing was the result of different internal standards for men and women.
Swineharts termination came, he claims, after a colleague sent an email to a local family after a supervisory lapse at a youth camp conducted by Charlotte FC.
Swinehart contends that TSE Chief Human Resource Officer Kisha Smith then fired Swinehart for insubordination because she had instructed Swinehart not to contact the family by email.
I got fired for being kind, and I got fired for an email that I didnt send, Swinehart told Moret on Friday.
And thats really tough.
Thats really sad.
A spokesperson for TSE told Moret that the company is aware of the lawsuit but declined to comment on active litigation.
Swinehart contends in the lawsuit that female employees at TSE engaged in misconduct that went unpunished, including intoxication on the job and the use of racist language.
He also claims he was replaced by a female who was not qualified to assume the job given a lack of experience in soccer.
The evidence shows that had Plaintiff been female, he would not have been terminated, the lawsuit alleges, per Moret.
After all, he was the longest-tenured [Charlotte FC] employee and had amassed an exemplary employment record without a blemish.
The incident for which he was terminated caused no harm to Defendant.
Rather, his sole offense was to irk Defendants powerful CHRO because his direct report confirmed the familys receipt of the refund and their interest in attending a match in a suite via email instead of a phone call.
Swineharts ultimate point is that, with TSE striving to be a leader when it comes to creating opportunities for women, the men who work for the company are left to wonder about their status.
I think specifically, to kind of the celebration of the advancement of women, it felt more presented as, This is great.
Look at all the things that are happening, Swinehart said.
But you could just start to notice, like, OK, so where does this leave me or where does this leave other employees with opportunities? Federal law, along with the laws of most states, prohibit gender discrimination generally, regardless of the specific gender of the person who allegedly experienced it.
Those laws emerged at a time when the vast majority of the victims of workplace gender discrimination were women.
Swinehart obviously believes that, at Tepper Sports & Entertainment, the pendulum has swung the other way.
Like all civil litigation, this one will play out over the coming months (and possibly years).
And if Charlotte FC and/or the MLS have been as aggressive as the NFL when it comes to the use of arbitration clauses, the first battle (which alone could take multiple years to resolve) will focus on whether the case should proceed in open court or in a closed proceeding with something other than a jury resolving the case.