It’s a game-changer…oh sure, the Owners will appeal the decision…and no way a new CBA agreement will be reached by the March 4 deadline…but oh how the tide has turned in favor of the Players Union!
Today (Tuesday, March 1), U.S.District Judge David Doty in Minnesota ruled that the NFL (comprised of the 32 owners) violated its agreement with the players’ union in carving out $4 billion for itself in additional television revenue…to be used as potential reserves for the owners in the event of a lockout or a players’ strike.
Wow. The union had some pretty sharp lawyers to even have had this hot potato on the grill!
Judge Doty backed the players’ union over the league on Tuesday in a dispute over television revenue with implications for the looming potential lockout.
The union had argued that the league was effectively stockpiling money to prepare for a lockout. Judge Doty agreed.
That changes the game.
Of course, my first question to myself was: What kind of lame executives at the major TV networks (FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC) would even sign off on such a ridiculous contract with the NFL in the first place? Who in their right mind would pay money to the owners for up to two years for the right to televise….nothing?
For the charge of obvious stupidity by the networks alone, the players’ union should have been upheld by Judge Doty.
Yeah, the owners were guaranteed two years of network revenue even if there were no games played for those two years. Wow, what a deal! So you’ll pay me for two years NOT to write an Eagles Eye column? Okay, I’m there, baby…and trust me, I’m saving my best work for when the lockout’s over!
It’s a key ruling in favor of the players that could strip what the union has been calling “unfair leverage for the owners” in labor negotiations.
Doty overruled a special master, declaring the NFL violated its agreement with the union, which had asked that the TV money be placed in escrow until the end of any lockout. A hearing, yet to be scheduled, will be held to determine damages for the players.
The union had accused the NFL of structuring TV contracts agreed to in 2009 and 2010 so owners would be guaranteed money even if there were a work stoppage in 2011.
Apparently the union has sharper lawyers now than what they had when they signed on to that last CBA deal.
Said George Atallah, the NFLPA’s assistant executive director for external affairs: “This ruling means there is irrefutable evidence that owners had a premeditated plan to lockout players and fans for more than two years. The players want to play football. That is the only goal we are focused on.”
By the way, the total amount of TV revenue for the next two years we are talking about here is $4 billion…with a “B”. That’s even bigger than Charlie Sheen money.
In his ruling, Judge Doty revealed previously confidential details of NFL TV contracts and said that the NFL “consistently characterized gaining control over labor as a short-term objective and maximizing revenue as a long-term objective … advancing its negotiating position at the expense of using best efforts to maximize total revenues for the joint benefit of the NFL and the Players.”
Doty said at least three networks expressed “some degree of resistance to the lockout payments” and that the NFL “characterized network opposition to lockout provisions to be a deal-breaker.”
You know, sounds to me like Judge Doty is a football fan!
Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday, a member of the NFLPA’s executive committee, said the ruling was a “really good reversal.” “I’m not sure what all that means, as of yet,” Saturday told The Associated Press as he left Tuesday’s mediation session in Washington. “We haven’t been debriefed. We just got the news when we were in the meeting, so I’m sure we’ll hear more tonight. But it sounds very favorable.”
Very favorable, indeed, Jeff… In my studied Bird-brain opinion, I think we just broke through to a 2011 regular season. Without that TV money, owners like Jerry Jones who have huge debt-service payments to make on their home stadiums will go broke…or at the very least have to dip into their dubious life savings.
Put that money into escrow like Judge Doty says, and you will see an agreement forged between players and owners by Memorial Day….
Book it…
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