The NFL Players Association has filed a complaint with an arbitrator for the purpose of taking a money lifeline away
from NFL owners ahead of the expected lockout year of 2011.
The league’s contract with its television network partners contains a guarantee that revenue will continue to flow to the NFL whether or not games are played next season. To the tune of $4 billion.
It provides a huge cushion for lost revenue and acts as a war chest for fighting the players over terms of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
That alone would not be the basis for a grievance, but if money were taken away from the revenue pool shared with players to create that cushion, then it is the perfect reason to start a fight.
The union’s lead lawyer, Jeffrey Kessel told the National Law Journal, “We believe what the league did was to trade revenues during the term of our collective bargaining agreement exchanged for lockout financing from the networks. We think that trade is a fundamental violation of what, frankly, we negotiated back in 1993.”
Kessler, on behalf of the union is asking the arbitrator to escrow the cushion money during the term of any lockout as well as to assess damages once the discovery process determines how much was allegedly held back from the players.
The ultimate purpose is to make it more difficult for the league to financially survive a lock-out or perhaps head it off at the pass. Depositions of league officials who negotiated the television contracts are expected to begin in the coming weeks.
The NFL has had a bad couple of weeks. The recent Supreme Court decision denied it a broad exemption from compliance with the country’s anti-trust laws, and now this. Fun times.
Re-printed with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
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