MINNEAPOLIS (CN) - In a hearing on damages, NFL players on Thursday asked a federal judge to deny team owners access to their "$4 billion war chest," and asked for more than $700 million in damages. The hearing before U.S. District Judge David Doty was one part of a two-track legal struggle between pro football players and the NFL and team owners.
The hearing stemmed from Doty's March ruling that the NFL had violated a settlement agreement with players, by negotiating a deal with TV networks for more than $4 billion as "lockout insurance," to sustain the NFL and its owners during the lockout, which the players say the owners had been planning for years.
(The second legal track involves the lockout itself. Players in Tom Brady et al. v NFL claim, in essence, that team owners are keeping their books closed to juggle numbers and deny the players their fair share of revenue sharing.
(The NFL Players Association dissolved on March 11, Tom Brady became the lead plaintiff in an antitrust complaint against the league and the owners of its 32 teams.
(The nature of the Brady complaint has been one of the bones of contention. The NFL claims the dissolution of the players' union was a sham, intended to bootstrap a labor dispute into an antitrust complaint. A labor complaint, the NFL says, should be heard by the National Labor Relations board - not by a federal judge.
(The players say the owners made that argument because the NLRB process is much slower than a lawsuit, and would allow the owners to lock in place the status quo, while continuing to profit from the players' work, to breach an 18-year-old stipulated settlement and agreement, and to keep their financial books closed.
(U.S. District Judge Susan Nelson enjoined the owners' lockout on April 25. The 8th Circuit lifted the injunction four days later.)
The Thursday hearing before Judge Doty did not address the roots of Brady v NFL. It was on damages for the NFL's breach of the SSA in Reggie White et al. v. NFL, dating back to 1993.
The players' attorney, Thomas Heiden with Latham & Watkins, told Courthouse News: "What we asked Judge Doty to do today is actually really very simple. We asked him to provide the players some protection in the form of an injunction and to provide the players damages for the illegal conduct that Judge Doty found that the defendants have committed against the players - illegal conduct where they violated the laws of this land and illegal conduct where they violated and breached their own written promises."
The players say the NFL and team owners have been preparing for the lockout since 2009. They claim the preparations included illegally obtaining $4 billion by renegotiating broadcasting and advertising contracts.
NFL attorney Gregg Levy, with Covington & Burling, responded by saying there was a "contingency plan" for a lockout, but no "commitment."