Updated Title: 8th Circuit Court Grants Stay, Lockout Reinstated

I think your collusion point is dead on, will be interesting to see who makes the first move here

The problem (from my uneducated position) is that any move they make is collusion. They are a league built on working together, by definition colluding to provide a supposedly better product. If they say open the doors and use 2010 as a guide, the NFLPA has already said that that would be collusion (not in so many words, but by telling the judicial monarch (errr...judge) that all the NFL has to do is put rules in place that don't violate antitrust they were saying that in their opinion any rules the league tries to set won't meet her conditions)

If they don't make deals, collusion. If they make deals based on 2010 rules collusion. Heck if they make rules on the original 2006 CBA collusion. The NFLPA wants to force this chaos so that 3 segments make boatloads - the lawyers, the elite tiered talent, and the players agents, the rest of the groups, and the game be da***d.

Well I don't think anybody is suggesting the league is going to install 2010 rules under which to move forward. By definition, they can't install any rules without bargaining in good faith with the players.

Absent any collective bargaining agreement, and given Judge Nelson's recent ruling, the league has to move forward under a free market system. No salary cap, all clauses (as JR mentioned) have to be explicitly installed into each individual contract, etc.

What this does is put all the pressure on the owners to come to a quick agreement with the players. If they get the players to agree to using 2010 rules under the pretense that further bargaining will take place to establish a new CBA, that is not collusion at all.

The whole point of Judge Nelson's ruling is to say, you can't lock out the players, now get back to the table and negotiate immediately, or you're going to have to move forward without any rules in place.

Yes. I meant owners.

IMHO Nelson should have stayed the lawsuit until the NLRB made a decision as to the players decision to decertify. IF the decertification was illegal, THEN the owners have no "anti-trust music" to face. Instead, in a case of judicial activism, Nelson injects herself into parralel proceedings writes the score, hires the musicians and rents the hall so that she can eventually force the owners to listen to her "Anti-trust Symphony In Green".

As I said, result oriented judiciating as opposed to law based judginess.

It's just not very scientifical.

I think you have your finger on the pulse here. Nelson does seem to be engaging in results oriented decision making. She has left the owners with only one palatable escape from their "damned if we do, damned if we don't" situation: make real compromise moves on a deal on a new CBA now.

Since I am not a legal purist, I like it. The owners have struck me as both greedy and arrogant, and as such in need of a swift kick in the pants. Nelson has delivered that swift kick.

The owners sure are taking it on the chin.

The owners sure are taking it on the chin.

Their arrogance is very reminiscent to that of Roger Clemens.

Players show up to work out, Redskins turn them away | ProFootballTalk (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/04/28/players-show-up-to-work-out-redskins-turn-them-away/)

Players show up to work out, Redskins turn them away | ProFootballTalk (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/04/28/players-show-up-to-work-out-redskins-turn-them-away/)

I hope like hell they get slapped with contempt. That's exactly what they are showing right now. Haul every single one of the owners refusing to allow players in should go to jail, no passing go and collecting 4 billion dollars.

I don't know. I've got some sources who say they were allowed in, and were inside the facility. I think Holliday may have gotten bad information.

Cardinals, Dolphins turn players away, too | ProFootballTalk (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/04/28/cardinals-dolphins-turn-players-away-too/)

Doesn't look like it's just the Skins either Smoot.

Per the source, tackle Levi Brown was advised in Arizona the the league is waiting for the 8th Circuit’s decision. In Miami, Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder was met with a letter posted on the door explaining the league’s decision to wait it out.


...take in mind this is Florio reporting.

Hehe...the players should have a big tailgate in the parking lot and invite the media.