49ers Slapped With Age Discrimination Lawsuit By Former Employees
SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) -- Two former employees of the San Francisco 49ers are reportedly suing the team, alleging age discrimination resulted in their firing in 2011.
SF Weekly reported former managers Anthony Lozano and Keith Yanagi were fired when they were both in their late 50s.
According to the complaint cited by the SF Weekly, the 49ers let go a number of senior managers in 2011 and 2012 to make room for younger employees from Silicon Valley.
CEO Jed York was cited in the complaint as saying the team wanted to hire younger tech workers "because they made a lot of money, they did a lot of cool things before they turned 40 years old, and they didn't want to play golf six days a week," according to the report.
SF Weekly said the complaint alleges Lozano and Yanagi were dismissed after each had worked with the team for more than 20 years and each had received stellar performance reviews throughout their years of service.
The complaint alleges the 49ers told Lozano he was fired as Facilities Manager because the team was "going in a different direction," while Yanagi was told he was dismissed as Director of Video Operations for undisclosed "performance" reasons, SF Weekly reported.
49ers Director of Communications Bob Lange told CBS SF "We do not comment in any fashion on pending litigation."
