The NFLPA on Wednesday learned that a law firm was seeking to assemble a group of about 70 players to form a new class in the Brady vs. NFL antitrust lawsuit. As yet, the effort has not yet been successful, and the mediated talks between players and the NFL have adjourned until May 16, by which time a couple of district court rulings may have altered the landscape. But the NFLPA, which decertified March 11 and gave up its right to act as the sole representative in negotiations on the players’ behalf, decried the action on its NFLLockout.com web site as “another attempt to divide players.”
Early in the day Wednesday, Sports Business Journal reported that a group of about 70 players had assembled under different representation and was seeking a seat at the mediation table because the players in the group were disappointed that the collective bargaining talks broke off in March. The report indicated that this represented cracks in the players’ ranks. What appears to have happened instead, however, is that a law firm that once did business with the NFL has been soliciting players in an attempt to latch onto the antitrust suit.
The letter indicates that the firm’s goal of 70 players has not yet been met, and at the time it was sent it expressed a desire to meet that goal before mediated talks resumed this past Tuesday. That did not happen, and it’s unclear whether any of this will end up mattering. Before the parties resume talks in May, Judge Susan Nelson is expected to rule on the NFLPA’s request for an injunction that would end the NFL-imposed lockout. Also by that time, a hearing is scheduled to be held on the “lockout insurance” case in which the NFLPA has challenged about $4.5 billion worth of NFL television contracts that are scheduled to pay off even if no games are played in 2011.
