NFLPA Files Collusion Lawsuit Against NFL, Owners

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

@ Joe - It sounds like the Redskins, Cowboys, Raiders and Saints are essentially witness for the plaintiff. If the NFLPA is suing the owners (is that who they are suing) is there any reason to think any of those teams will be forced to testify essentially against themselves. Is this civil court? Don’t you have to testify in civil court if youre a witness, even if youre the defendant? Any chance any of these 4 teams would want to join as plaintiffs? Is that even possible?

- It is a civil action - more correctly, it is the continuation of an already settled civil action. The NFLPA has requested that the Federal District Court reopen the 1993 Settlement Agreement between the NFLPA that resolved the lawsuit which, eventually, initiated the unrestricted free agent era. All CBA's since then have been approved by the Federal Court as amendments to the original 1993 Settlement agreement.

- If you're called as a witness, yes, you must testify. Of course, if your memory goes bad on the stand ... well, that's just the way it goes ...
Q: Mr. Snyder do you remember Mr. Mara telling you about an agreement to keep players salaries down during the uncapped year?
A: I have no recollection of any such conversation.
Q: What about this e-mail in which you reference just such a conversation, does that refresh your recollection at all??
A: Nope, I don't remember anything about it. etc., etc., etc.

- Each of the 32 clubs and the NFL as an entity are defendants in the original action. Any defendant is allowed to make cross-claims against the other defendants seeking indemnity and/or other relief. So, yes, the Skins could file a cross-claim and assert that they did not partake in the collusive agreement and, in fact, were subsequently punished for doing so. They could then seek damages in their own right and/or ask that they be indemnified against any damages awarded to the players. The problem, of course, is that, by failing to make the secret agreeement public, the Skins did partake in collusive behavior - just not to the extent that the rest of the league did.

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

So if this is the “nuclear option” it makes you think the Redskins/Cowboys knew this would happen based off of their arguments in arbitration. It kind of sounds like we did go nuclear, right?

I wouldn't speculate as to what the Skins "knew" would happen. I think (and I am pretty sure I said so early in the prior thread) that, once Mara made his comments, he opened the league up to this kind of action regardless of the Redskins filing a complaint. If anything, I think the Skins & Cowboys tried hard to contain the fight by pursuing it through their weakest legal avenue. Again, as far as the collusion goes, Snyder's and Jerry's hands are not exactly pristine. To a certain extent, they were playing both ends against the middle and it now has the potential to spiral wayyyy beyond their initial manipulations.