Judge grants motion, lifts lockout; owners' appeal coming

Its my understanding that The teams can't agree on rules without violating antitrust laws. The judge ruled that the decertification of the union was legit; therefore 32 teams can't impose uniform rules on a non-unionized workforce.

Personally I'm hoping the circuit court grants a stay and the NFL wins an appeal. The players have too much power an the owners have none. The union can strike but the NFL can't lockout. It's not fair. This situation is just going to force the owners to make another bad deal.

Technically the owners do have the right to fire/release players. However, they don't wish to do that cause there is nothing stopping another club from picking them up. The lockout lets the owners retain their contract rights to players during the stopage which is probably why it was ruled illegal.

DeMaurice Smith was just on Mike and Mike, the guy is a little weasel.
Mike was mostly pushing for an answer regarding trades and FA on draft day happening and all Smith would say is that the owners are losers and they lost in this they lost in that blah blah blah...what an annoying little lawyer twerp.

Gotta agree with this post here. He just comes across as an attention grabbing little troll. If the players want to keep the public on their side, they need a new front man.

I'm still dumbfounded by some people. The ONE time a American work force an incredible leverage over a greedy corporation, and many of you want to favor the corporation? ...lol You all should be applauding their ability to tell this corporation to go **** themselves. Corporations have been screwing the American people for a long time now, it's about time somebody had fighting power against them.

Interesting twitter post here:

"MarkMaske
James Quinn, attorney for players, said he thinks free agency should begin within 24 hours or he "would have concerns" about collusion."

DeMaurice Smith was just on Mike and Mike, the guy is a little weasel.
Mike was mostly pushing for an answer regarding trades and FA on draft day happening and all Smith would say is that the owners are losers and they lost in this they lost in that blah blah blah...what an annoying little lawyer twerp.

Agreed. I am certainly on the owners' side in this, but as much is due to the fact that I feel the NFLPA top brass just feel like they can do whatever they want and blatantly lie about the facts. (not that the owners haven't stretched things too. :() Here is the wapo article with D. Smith's comments:
NFL lockout aftermath: DeMaurice Smith says there’s ‘chaos’ - The Early Lead - The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/nfl-lockout-aftermath-demaurice-smith-says-theres-chaos/2011/04/26/AFjVEypE_blog.html)

“I read the commissioner’s [Wall Street Journal] op-ed this morning and my only conclusion is that it’s bizarre. To say that the players don’t want a draft and don’t want football...we didn’t lock ourselves out. We didn’t game the TV contracts to hurt us. And if he truly believes that the draft is something we’re attacking, then I don’t know what’s going to happen on Thursday, but the last time I checked my calendar, the draft is scheduled to move forward.”
The NFLPA lawyers most certainly are attacking the draft. They can't stop this one, because it was in the last CBA, but certainly the lawsuit Brady v NFL attacks the legal foundation of a draft.

I am in the extreme minority because I would rather see a whole year of no NFL and let both sides learn some humility (unfortunately a lot of good people would be hurt by that and that is extremely unfair when these two sides are both doing very well by all accounts)

I'm still dumbfounded by some people. The ONE time a American work force an incredible leverage over a greedy corporation, and many of you want to favor the corporation? ...lol You all should be applauding their ability to tell this corporation to go **** themselves. Corporations have been screwing the American people for a long time now, it's about time somebody had fighting power against them.

There was picture of Brandon Marshall's house on CNN yesterday.
When I see pictures like that I have a hard time agreeing with you.

I'm not enjoying seeing "the Man" get screwed if it means FA, trades and the NFL year is foxxored.

There was picture of Brandon Marshall's house on CNN yesterday.
When I see pictures like that I have a hard time agreeing with you.

I'm not enjoying seeing "the Man" get screwed if it means FA, trades and the NFL year is foxxored.

I would say that players who make a lot of money such as Marshall, represent a small percentage of the people affected by this, when you add up your run of the mill bench warmer player, mid-to-low level league employees, coaching assistants, trainers, and mid-to-low level team employees.

If the league was full of players making Brady's or Manning's salary, it'd be one thing. But many people that are being furloughed, not being paid, or having their salaries cut don't make that type of money.

There was picture of Brandon Marshall's house on CNN yesterday.
When I see pictures like that I have a hard time agreeing with you.

I'm not enjoying seeing "the Man" get screwed if it means FA, trades and the NFL year is foxxored.


So out of the 1500 players, you use Brandon Marshall as your example? For every idiot like him, there are many London Fletcher, Andre Carter, Phillip Daniels, Chris Samuels. Those guys are just magnified because it creates drama and drama sells papers and ratings.

*see post above mine in regards to discrepancies in the salaries*

I'm still dumbfounded by some people. The ONE time a American work force an incredible leverage over a greedy corporation, and many of you want to favor the corporation? ...lol You all should be applauding their ability to tell this corporation to go **** themselves. Corporations have been screwing the American people for a long time now, it's about time somebody had fighting power against them.

It's so clear where your biases lie, (i don't hide mine either) that the players could be 100% in the wrong, and you would still sing the virtue of "fighting the power". None of these guys (the ones pushing this fight) deserve respect because they all are self-obsessed ego-maniacs, regardless of the face they put on in public.

I would say that players who make a lot of money such as Marshall, represent a small percentage of the people affected by this, when you add up your run of the mill bench warmer player, mid-to-low level league employees, coaching assistants, trainers, and mid-to-low level team employees.

If the league was full of players making Brady's or Manning's salary, it'd be one thing. But many people that are being furloughed, not being paid, or having their salaries cut don't make that type of money.

every player that stays in the league(not practice squad) 3 years will have made at least 1million dollars based on the previous CBA, not Manning money, but also not chump change. I agree about assistants, trainers and the non-player workers.