Yahoo! Sport’s Dan Wetzel is reporting on a new anti-trust lawsuit filed by retired players today against the NFL. The gist of it is that by using this year’s college kids and players who weren’t represented by the NFLPA during the last bargaining session, and thus can’t be faulted for it’s decertification.
Eller vs. NFL would then deprive the owners of one of their main counterarguments in the proceedings: that the union willingly decertified itself precisely in order to chase their anti-trust lawsuit. Without the same motivations, these players would have a clearer case in court. Or at least that’s how it goes hypothetically.
The NFL, Hausfeld said, would have to work out a deal with the NFLPA or risk taking on an antitrust case without its top counterarguments. If the league were to lose, it would risk the basic structures of its business – the salary cap, the draft, free agency and so forth. It would be better off agreeing to a deal.
Stay tuned, because this is an issue that could be a gamechanger in the process.