Just a week ago, Arizona Cardinals owner and president Michael Bidwill was celebrating his election into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.

Now, he’s the center of a lawsuit brought forth by his former assistant, who worked for him and the organization for the past six years.

Brittany Neuheisel filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Bidwill and Arizona Cardinals Football Club LLC, listed as co-defendants, according to the Maricopa County Superior Court website. Neuheisel’s LinkedIn profile still lists her as “Assistant to the owner at Arizona Cardinals Football Club,” beginning in Jan. 2019, though the complaint indicates she officially left the post just over a week ago, on Jan. 28.

A copy of the complaint was posted on X, formerly Twitter, by attorney Daniel Wallach on Friday. In it, Neuheisel claims Bidwill “unmercifully harassed Plaintiff in an effort to drive her to leave the Cardinals.”

The Cardinals released a statement later on Friday, first released by A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, denying any wrongdoing while stating the organization will fight the allegations.

“Earlier this week, the Cardinals received an email from a California-based plaintiff’s lawyer,” the team said in the statement. “In it, he threatened to file a lawsuit unless the team agreed to his demand for a substantial amount of money by 5:00 PM the next day. The team refused and the lawyer has now filed the complaint.

The Cardinals strongly deny the allegations made in this lawsuit and intend to defend the case on its merits in the appropriate forum. As this is now pending litigation, the team will refrain from further comment.”

Specific Complaints Against Bidwill

The complaint states Neuheisel is a Navy veteran who served from 1999-2007, all while raising four children and graduating the University of Hawaii with a Bachelor’s Degree in accounting. It says the former Cardinals Chief Financial Officer, Greg Lee, ultimately referred Neuheisel in 2018, and she was eventually offered the position.

Lee’s employment was terminated in 2024, which was previously reported by ESPN and also stated in the complaint filed Thursday in Maricopa County. Lee was terminated by Bidwill because he “had hired a trans-woman for a position within the Cardinals accounting department. This infuriated Michael Bidwill and resulted in Lee being fired.”

Screenshots of the lawsuit posted by Wallach on X allege a number of accusations against Bidwill, including:

• “She was continuously tormented for failing to disavow members of her own family and for refusing to participate in illegal conduct.”
• “Bidwill mocked and laughed at Plaintiff for being attacked by his pit bull.”
• “Bidwill verbally abused Plaintiff almost every day. It became clear that Bidwill wanted Plaintiff to quit because she refused to disavow her children and grandchildren and she did not fit into his criteria of being, ‘Young, Beautiful and Athletic.'”
• “Bidwill told Plaintiff that her relationship with her children and grandchildren was affecting her work performance.”

The lawsuit lists constructive discharge, wrongful discharge, discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress as causes of action, and requests a jury trial seeking unspecified damages.

Last year, an NFL arbitrator ruled Bidwill had made false and defamatory statements to the media about former executive Terry McDonough, awarding him $3 million.