NFL players filed their brief in the lockout case yesterday with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. They argued the lockout has imposed immediate, career-ending threatening harm on players and may deprive the public of the 2011 professional football season.
“The players face immediate, continuing, severe irreparable injury from unlawful conduct orchestrated to force them to re-unionize against their will and make immense financial concessions,” the players’ said in the brief. “The NFL, by contrast, claims only a temporary loss of leverage by members of a cartel that is no longer entitled to any exemption from the antitrust laws.”
In their filing, the players also said that the decision to dissolve their union was their lawful right, and the absence of a collective bargaining agreement shouldn’t stop the NFL’s ability to “conduct professional football.”
The player associations for hockey, baseball and basketball players also filed a brief saying the lockout should be lifted because professional athletes’ careers are short, and the loss of even part of a season causes personal and professional injuries can cause harm which cannot be mitigated.
In their filing, the player unions for the MLB, NBA and NHL wrote, “there is no off-season in professional sports — only the portion of the work year during which no games are played.” The players said that part of the year brings opportunities — such as the option to change cities, teams or the trajectory of one’s career.
A hearing on the the lockout is schedule before a panel of 3 judges from the Court of Appeals on June 3.
The antitrust lawsuit filed by the players against the league is still pending in the district court before Judge Nelson. The NFL is arguing that they do not have to respond to the lawsuit until the litigation on the lockout has ended.
The players in the response say the lawsuit will go forward whether or not the lockout is lifted and that the NFL’s request for an extension is “yet another deliberate step in their campaign to crush the players by extending the lockout for as long as they can.”
