US District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, in an 89 page ruling yesterday, grated the NFLPA's request for a preliminary injunction, effectively ending the NFL's lockout of the players. What does this mean? In short, chaos.
Pure and utter chaos.
Players are being told by the union/trade association that they can (and should) report to team facilities to start working out. Nevertheless, teams are allowing players in the facilities, but not allowing them to work out. DeMaurice Smith is saying that the league is breaking the "law of the land" by not allowing players to work out. (aside...sorry, DeMaurice, labor law is not the Constitution...end aside). The league has already filed a motion with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to issue a stay of Judge Nelson's ruling, which would delay the execution of the injunction. Judge Nelson refused to issue a stay in her courtroom. The ruling was based on Nelson's opinion that the lockout was doing "irreparable harm" to the players association, citing (among other reasons) the short duration of players' careers. Losing one year of work would be extremely detrimental.
So does free agency begin now 2 days before the draft? Can players be traded? The answer is yes, but there are no rules. Under the old CBA rules, players became unrestricted free agents after 6 accrued years of service (4 years before 2010). Players became restricted free agents after 4 (3 years before 2010). There was no salary cap in 2010, but before that year there was the "hardest cap" in pro sports. Players can be traded, but teams are hesitant to do so until there is a new set of rules in place regarding compensation. Teams losing qualifying free agents are usually granted compensatory draft picks. With no CBA, they would be granted nothing.
Ultimately this ruling gets us no closer to resolving the issue. What I feel will ultimately happen is the 2011 season will be played (perhaps on schedule, perhaps not), but will be played with no CBA and no union. Every player will be on his own as far as negotiations. This could be good for somebody like a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, who could stand to receive a HUGE payday. However, with no salary cap (and likewise no salary floor), players who barely make the 53 man roster will probably not get much of anything. It may even be in their best interests to get cut and pursue other work...
In other football news, so much for that boycott. A record 25 prospects will be at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday for the first round of the NFL Draft, including Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller, the one non-union player named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit in Judge Nelson's court which prompted the preliminary injunction. Miller is a projected top 10 draft pick, so I wonder what the Rog' will think when he gets to shake his hand and give him a jersey and cap... Anyway, the union/trade association has said that they have scheduled a series of events for the players that were not designed to conflict with the NFL's draft schedule. Yeah, right...
The schedule came out last week too...whoopie.....(sarcasm...). The league may be losing in court, but they are very shrewd when it comes to contingencies. They constructed the schedule so that they can delay the start of the season by as many as 3 weeks if needed. This would include eliminating the bye between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, pushing the Super Bowl itself back by a week (the league has book hotels in Indianapolis through the following weekend), and finally, every game in week 3 features two teams playing each other who share a common bye week. That way, if necessary, the league can save a week by simply eliminating byes and making everyone play a full 16 week schedule.
That's your dose of NFL nonsense for now. I'll have more after the draft.
Huzzah! Workers of the world unite! It is bullshit that teams gave their strength and conditioning staffs off. That's nothing but rich, greedy pricks being passive aggressive. They don't have to have staff on-site to supervise workouts, but a guy showing out to work out and being turned away because of it should get his workout bonus. He's fulfilling his end of the bargain. It's the league/cartel who is in violation of the supreme law of the land (quick aside: the supremacy clause reads "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." One of the "Laws of the United States which shall be made" is the National Labor Relations Act, which created the National Labor Relations Board, which swallowed a cat, which ate the bird, etc. Anywho, the NLRB governs, among other things, the certification and de-certification of labor unions such as the former NFL Players Association [still in existence as a trade association, but no longer a labor union - these are legal distinctions and not generally interchangeable]. End aside.)
ReplyDelete@AK What the league is expecting (as am I) is that the 8th Circuit will issue a the stay...but ultimately Nelson's ruling will be upheld (however long that takes). And you're right, players showing up should get their workout bonuses. That would be pretty cheap of the teams to turn players away at the door despite the ruling. Players will get their money eventually anyway so the league right now is trying to play whatever cards it has left...which isn't many.
ReplyDeleteAlso as one more aside, I find it odd that a union guy such as yourself (AK) is cheering Huzzah! over the fact that an entity that REFUSES to call itself a union is winning court battles. Remember, the NFLPA is no longer in the business of representing players despite the existence of player reps and the executive committee...the same executive committee that your boy Mike Vrabel (again, your boy Mike Vrabel) told the guys they can boot out if they don't like it. Isn't that a little counterintuitive?
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