The Kansas City Chiefs were sued this week for wrongful termination and accused of racial discrimination by an NFL player who went on to work for nearly a decade as the team’s director of player engagement.
Former defensive back Ramzee Robinson filed the lawsuit, which was reviewed by PEOPLE, on Sunday, June 15, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Robinson, 41, claims he was fired in February after his boss came into his office and accused him of attacking a female co-worker.
Robinson’s complaint claims his boss said she saw the purported incident take place on security cameras in their offices — however, when Robinson asked to see the video, the Chiefs official would not show him the footage, the suit states.
An attorney for Robinson tells PEOPLE he “unequivocally denies having been in an altercation with anyone.”
“My client dedicated years of professional service to the Chiefs organization and supported players through critical personal and professional challenges,” Robinson’s attorney, Katrina Y. Robertson, said in a statement. “This lawsuit seeks to hold the organization accountable for the systemic inequities and retaliation he faced for simply demanding fairness.”
Robinson’s filing claims that the Chiefs’ were “discriminatory” toward him and that his race was a “motivating factor” in his firing.
Robinson also alleges in the lawsuit that “the Chiefs paid African-American business employees less than their white counterparts.”
In his job as the director of player engagement, according to the suit, Robinson was paid $125,000 annually but he learned through his own research that other NFL teams were paying employees in a similar position an average salary of $171,932 per year.
The suit claims that Robinson “has and will continue to suffer from emotional distress, lost wages, including front and back pay and other benefits, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs necessary for litigation.”
Chiefs spokesman Brad Gee declined to comment in detail, citing the ongoing litigation, but tells PEOPLE the team is looking “forward to the facts of this case coming to light.”
“To be clear, the Chiefs do not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” Gee adds.
Robinson played three seasons in the NFL between 2007-2009 for the Detroit Lions, the Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles,.
He was selected last in the 2007 NFL draft by the Lions, where he played for more than two seasons before brief stints with the Browns and the Eagles.
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After his playing career, Robinson says he earned a master’s degree in professional counseling from Webster University before he later began working for the Chiefs in 2016.
Robinson’s filing describes his position as the director of player engagement as a job that includes a range of duties including managing the locker room, mentoring younger players and helping players through situations such as “when they got in trouble, had family emergencies, needed help with community engagement, or relocation.”
Robinson is demanding a jury trial and seeking to have the Chiefs pay him “all lost wages, earnings, and payment of all benefits he would have received had it not been for [the Chiefs’] unlawful actions,” including interest as well as covering his legal fees, according to the filing.
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