[FRPLG]

I think Tripp is right. The more I have thought about it the more the litigation route seems useless other than perhaps some type of temporary injunction.

The problem is this. The league can do whatever it wants internally to the degree that it doesn't impair the unionized players to lose money. Speaking legally. If they want to enact wonky salary cap rules that distributes cap space proportional to record they can do that as long as it doesn't hurt the players' earning power. That type of major move would certainly get the NFLPA up in arms and a protracted legal battle might ensue but the players wouldn't definitely win..they only might win. Additionally if they want to enact in-game rules to favor certain teams they can do that too. None of it has to be "fair" but it's their league..they make the rules (or, more accurately, make up the rules as they go). What the league has done is patently unfair in philosophical sense but not really so in any type of legally enforceable sense.

On one hand the league just came out a labor dispute in which they essentially argued that the NFL is one big company and not 32 individual teams working together in a collusive manner. Speaking from a business standpoint this makes total sense. On the other hand when it comes to on-field competitiveness the teams clearly are not one unit but separate in every way. Competing for cap-space is a direct on-field issue while competing for real business dollars is a business issue.

The salary cap bridges the two worlds. Business and on-field competitiveness