The Missouri Supreme Court has given new life to the case of a man who says the Kansas City Chiefs discriminated against him because of his age.

The Missouri Supreme Court

The Missouri Supreme Court

Former Chiefs maintenance manager Steven Cox sued the Chiefs, saying he had been fired to make room for younger employees. A judge threw out that Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt and then-executive director Scott Pioli had allegedly made remarks that they wanted to go from older staff to younger, as well as testimony by 20 other former employees regarding terminations and possible discrimination.

The Supreme Court said that evidence should not have been excluded and ordered the lower court to take the case back up, allowing those items to be considered.

The Chiefs argue Cox was not fired because of his age, but because his performance had waned and because he gave a janitor a $5,000 pay raise without permission.