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NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement [Lockout]


ChosenOne
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  • 3 weeks later...
In a development that indicates good news for all sides, the NFL owners and players have agreed to extend negotiations 24 hours beyond the previous end of the league year, which was to be 11:59 p.m. EST.

 

Both sides had been in negotiations for many days under the eye of federal mediator George Cohen, and according to several reports, the owners began today's negotiations by putting a very favorable offer on the table - an offer that apparently took the players aback and set the tone for positive discussions going forward. Most likely, the 24-hour window means that there will be further extensions and discussions as opposed to an automatic stalemate.

 

Several elements led to a more conciliatory tone from both sides. First, there was the ruling from Judge David Doty, reversing the previous ruling by Special Master Stephen Burbank that the owners were allowed to use the $4 billion in television money due them in the event of a full season. Doty reversed the Burbank ruling with very specific language as to the nature of the NFL's dealings with several networks, including DIRECTV. And he was able to better understand the concept of "good faith".

 

And he very clearly stated that the owners did not act in the best interest of the players when they basically left money on the table, or extended current agreements without the opportunity to gain additional revenue, in exchange for loopholes allowing free money to go to the owners.

 

In addition to the loss of that revenue, the threat of decertification by the union was (and still is) a reality. The NFLPA must de-certify before the now-extended end of the league year, or it will lose its most effective weapon, because the CBA says that the union cannot de-certify for a period of six months after a lockout. They would also lose Doty as the arbiter of the de-certification case, which would throw their strategy into a series of legal uncertainties.

 

If Doty were to take the case before the end of the league year, he retains it no matter how long it goes. And this is where the de-certification and subsequent antitrust suit becomes so very important - if there is an antitrust suit, whoever the judge is would most likely rule that the two sides must keep their business going through the litigation process.

 

Decertification, and the loss of the subsequent lawsuit from the union, became much more of a threat when Doty ruled that the owners violated their fiduciary duty to the players by exchanging digital rights fees for lockout insurance, essentially proving that they sold the players short in exchange for money to find a lockout they had been planning all along. Once caught by a jurist with actual legal sense, the owners were in a real pickle, and they knew it. Now subject to all sorts of exposure and derision, and without the money budgeted to get them through a protracted labor battle, the owners had to take a different tone.

 

A longer extension allows for a few things. The owners can go back, take a breath, decide where they stand at this point, and allow the players to discuss the counter-offer now received. Most likely, the two sides are still too far apart on the primary issues to wrap everything up in the next 24 hours, but the fact that the two sides didn't just go back to their corners and declare war is the most encouraging sign we've seen in this process for a very long time.

 

Yahoo! Sports

 

Finally some good news

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I don't really look at this as good news. They are not making up all of their differences in 24 hours. If they would have extended it 4 or 5 days, then I'd be a bit more optimistic.

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I don't really look at this as good news. They are not making up all of their differences in 24 hours. If they would have extended it 4 or 5 days, then I'd be a bit more optimistic.

it's better news than a lockout isnt it? :lol:
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So does anyone know what happens to the draft and free agency if the lockout happens?

 

Guess I better brush up on my baseball more just in case... :(

 

If that doesn't work out for you, there is always soccer. ;)

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League plans to lock out players, whose union decertified

 

WASHINGTON -- NFL labor talks broke down Friday, just hours before the collective bargaining agreement was set to expire, as the union rejected a proposal from the league, then decertified, and 10 players, including MVP quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, sued the owners in federal court.

 

In response, the NFL planned to impose a lockout of players, starting at midnight ET, after the CBA officially expired, two team sources told NFL Network insider Michael Lombardi. No official announcement of a lockout was made.

 

The players went to court to request an injunction to block such a move by the league.

 

Despite two extensions to the collective bargaining agreement during 16 days of talks overseen by a federal mediator -- and previous months of stop-and-start bargaining -- the sides couldn't agree on a new labor deal.

 

"The parties have not achieved an overall agreement, nor have they been able to resolve the strongly held competing positions that separated them on core issues," mediator George Cohen said. "No useful purpose would be served by requesting the parties to continue the mediation process at this time."

 

By dissolving and announcing it no longer represents the players in collective bargaining, the union became a trade association and cleared the way for class-action lawsuits against the NFL, which opted out of the labor deal in 2008. The antitrust suit -- officially known as Brady et al vs. National Football League et al -- attacked the league's policies on the draft, salary cap and free-agent restrictions such as franchise-player tags.

 

Invoking the Sherman Act, an 1890 federal antitrust statute that limits monopolies and restrictions on commerce, the players are seeking triple the amount of damages they've incurred. That means the stakes could be in the hundreds of millions.

 

It could take a month for there to be a ruling on the union's injunction request, and antitrust judgments should take longer.

 

The CBA originally was due to expire last week, then was extended twice, in hopes that the sides could find common ground on the key issues: how to divide more than $9 billion in annual revenues, and how much financial information the league would be willing to reveal.

 

"I would dare any one of you to pull out any economic indicator that would suggest that the National Football League is falling on hard times," NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said. "The last 14 days, the National Football League has said, 'Trust us.' But when it came time for verification, they told us it was none of our business."

 

It all sets the stage for a courtroom fight. The last time NFL games were lost to a work stoppage came when the players went on strike in 1987, leading to games with replacement players.

 

Read More NFL.com

 

-_-

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