The NFL Players Association served discovery requests on the NFL and the 32 NFL teams on Thursday, asking for documentation and communications pertaining to the players’ collusion case against the league. The union asks for a response from the league within 30 days.
In the discovery requests, copies of which Pro Player Insiders has obtained, the NFLPA outlines an extensive list of documents and information it seeks pertaining to the NFL’s alleged conspiracy to create a “secret salary cap” during the uncapped 2010 League Year. That is the core issue the NFLPA is claiming in the lawsuit against the league and its 32 member clubs.
NFLPA officials have spoken with many certified contract advisors about their obligation to take all steps to ensure preservation of all documents potentially relevant to the collusion claim. The union sent a memo to all agents Thursday afternoon requiring them to hold any documents that could be related to the case with respect to the 2010 League Year.
The discovery requests define the term “salary cap” as: “any rule, condition, limitation, restriction, budget, ceiling or other restraint, whether express or implied, formal or informal, with respect to player salaries.”
Thursday’s news revolves around the NFLPA and class counsel demanding that the NFL and the 32 teams identify and produce for inspection any documents and communications—including oral conversations, written memos, emails, facsimiles and text messages—related to the collusion complaint, which was filed May 23. The union also is demanding all documents that refer or relate to a March 9 email from NFL executive vice president Jeffrey Pash to the NFL Management Council Executive Committee (a.k.a., the CEC).
The NFLPA notified all agents of its document hold requirement via a memo sent on Thursday. To read the NFLPA’s memo to agents, click here: 2012 Document Hold Letter for Agents re White v NFL
By Khalil Garriott
