on february 13, 1991, the eeoc ruled that the nfl had violated the age discrimination in employment act by illegally demoting dreith. after attempts to reach a compromise with the league, the eeoc sued the nfl on august 13. in the first-ever lawsuit filed by the agency against professional football for age discrimination, the eeoc claimed that the nfl unfairly reviewed the job performance of older referees more closely than that of younger officials. the eeoc also noted that the league's performance ratings showed that dreith performed better than some of the younger officials who were retained.