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Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon
FRPLG:
IF you are correct, then the NFLPA should be taking this textbook case of collusion to Federal Court to get themselves and their members - - the players - - a big time payday. When the baseball owners were found guilty of collusion by a Federal Court - - not by a few people on an Internet message board - - the baseball union and its members got $360M.
Now, the fact that the NFLPA which is headed by a labor attorney - - that is DeMaurice Smith's background - - and which has a slew of top-shelf attorneys on their staff and under retainer (I believe the guy who got Microsoft convicted of monopolistic tactics is on the NFLPA retainer list) has not filed a federal suit on this matter makes me wonder why.
My first guess is that this is not the simple "textbook collusion" that you assert that it is.
I am not an attorney so my opinion on the legality of what the owners did and did not do is not worth a lot. But I do put some stock in the fact that the NFLPA has not immediately pursued a legal course that could bring it and its members hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
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They did not bring suit because they had waived there right to do so as part of the various settlements that cleared the courts of the various lawsuits and allowed the CBA to be signed. The players dropped all pending charges of collusion including the right to bring an action for collusion during the negotiation period.
Remember there were multiple suits file by both sides. In order to get to the point where a new CBA could be signed, all the lawsuits had to be settled and all the issues within them resolved. One of those issues was the charge that the owners were operating in collusion to circumvent the CBA (remember the successful challenge concerning the TV contracts?).
Essentially, both sides wiped the board clean and agreed that all that went before was forgiven/resolved. The collusion to circumvent the CBA by creating a "psuedo-cap" would be one of those issues.
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The pact requires that those issues be resolved and a full CBA be done by Aug. 4; no one involved believes that will be a problem.
Doty has oversight for the "lockout insurance" case and a separate collusion claim by players.
On March 1, Doty ruled that the NFL failed to maximize TV revenues for the players, essentially leaving money on the table for the last two years to gain leverage in the labor fight. At a hearing in May, the players asked Doty to make $4 billion in disputed broadcast revenue off-limits to owners; the NFLPA also asked him to award players more than $700 million in damages.
In January [2011], the union accused teams of conspiring to restrict players' salaries last [2010] offseason [the uncapped season].
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NFL.com news: Lawyers: NFL, players settle antitrust suit, two other cases