Former Chiefs employee sues team, claims wrongful firing & race discrimination

A former Kansas City Chiefs employee is suing the team for wrongful termination, claiming the team discriminated against him because of race.

Ramzee Robinson, who served as the Chiefs’ director of player engagement until February, filed the complaint in the Western District of Missouri on Sunday.

In the lawsuit, Robinson — who is African-American — claims the Chiefs “unlawfully discriminated and retaliated against” him because of his race.

He said on Feb. 15 of this year, his boss called him into a meeting to tell him he had engaged in “conduct detrimental to the league” and had attacked a female co-worker. Robinson claims the Chiefs said they had security video of the encounter, but he says the Chiefs refused to show it to him.

Robinson’s suit also says that his boss suggested that he had been “dangerous and inappropriate around white female co-workers.” His boss then fired him and took his company laptop.

Chiefs spokesman Brad Gee, when contacted by The Star, said the Chiefs could not comment on the lawsuit because of its current status.

“We can’t comment because it’s an active legal matter,” Gee said. “But to be clear, the Chiefs do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We look forward to the facts of this case coming to light.”

In his suit, Robinson said that his final salary with the Chiefs was $125,000. He said, through research he’d done for presentations on NFL Player Engagement positions, a position comparable to his had an average salary of $171,932, not including other benefits.

Robinson said in his lawsuit that team president Mark Donovan rejected his request for a compensation review, telling him he’d gotten previous raises from the Chiefs.

Additionally, Robinson stated that an African-American female held a management position with a $50,000 salary. After her resignation, Robinson claims, the Chiefs hired a white female for the position at an annual salary of $80,000.

Later in his suit, Robinson said that a few months before he was fired, he had signed a contract extension with the Chiefs, saying that Donovan had told him it would offer stability. At that time, the Houston Texans asked the Chiefs to interview Robinson; however, the Chiefs declined, according to Robinson, stating that it would violate his contract.

Robinson, 41, is a former NFL defensive back who played three seasons and 26 total games with the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns.

The lawsuit did not ask for specific monetary compensation.

Jesse Newell

The Kansas City Star

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Jesse Newell covered the Chiefs for The Star until August 2025. He won an EPPY for best sports blog and previously was named top beat writer in his circulation by AP’s Sports Editors. His interest in sports analytics comes from his math teacher father, who handed out rulers to Trick-or-Treaters each year.