I really believe if they argued the composition of their league on its own versus a single action with a former vendor, the outcome would be different.

You’d be surprised. I don’t view the NFL the way you do. I view it as a corporation with 32 offices throughout the country. Much like the Sinclair Broadcasting Group. If you don’t like what they pay you, you can go work elsewhere. Same with NFL players. The only reason we are having this discussion is that the players were allowed to unionize. That needs to end.

All business organizations have job classifications and pay grades. The NFL should be allowed to do the same and cap what they want to spend on salaries. It’s called budgeting, pal.

I also don’t view the NFL as having negotiated the TV contracts in bad faith. They had a contingency arrangement. Big deal! The owners and NFL staff make those contracts, not the players. The players are employees. Period.

I’d really like to see an anti-trust suit go to court. I’m not sure the NFL even needs the exemption when they have a monopoly based on consumer preference and not coercion. In my eyes, the NFL meets the single entity requirement as put forth in the Supreme Court ruling and thus is free to determine how much it pays it’s employees and who it does business with.

So teddy, if you are done insulting my intelligence, I’d like to point out how you are coming off as a jealous, begrudging patron that is attempting to tell a business with which you probably have no association how to run itself. That’s pretty galling.

if the players decertify and then win, the courts can strike down various practices as illegal. most likely, this would include some of the provisions restricting free agency, and definitely the salary cap and revenue sharing (if the players challenged those).

going forward, then, those practices would be effectively barred, and injunctions would be granted if the NFL tried to implement those again. In future CBAs, the players would likely not concede these provisions, or only with huge concessions from the league.

in short, litigation threatens the entire structure of the NFL as it currently stands. if litigation happens, the NFL ends up looking a lot more like MLB (no revenue sharing, no salary caps, big market teams dwarfing small market teams).

“A monopoly achieved solely by merit”? So were the railroads and the steel companies back in the 1800s, which were the basis for the SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT.

It doesn’t matter how you acquire a monopoly, all that matters is that a monopoly, by virtue of being a non-competitive market, cannot engage in anti-competitive practices.

Most of the disputed labor practices in the NFL are anti-competitive. Imagine if all the employers in your industry (I’ll guess you’re a secretary, because you’re at a computer a lot, but you don’t seem highly educated) got together, and collectively created a salary cap (capping all total labor expenses), a college draft (so you could only work for the employer who drafted you), a “franchise tag”, restrictions on “free agency” (aka moving to another job), etc. etc. etc.

The only thin legal argument the NFL has right now is that the players’ decertification is pretextual, but that seems like a tough argument since NFL owners have been talking about a lockout for 18 months now, and both the independent mediator and a U.S. district court found that the NFL negotiated its TV contracts in bad faith to guarantee incoming revenues during a lockout.

Think, research, then write. Don’t just spew ignorant baseless opinions. Whatever you may think of our current antitrust laws (and it sounds like you would like us to go back to the 1890s), they’re there, and they’re pretty clear.

I’ll take that bet.

If the players sue for anti-trust, and win. What doe sthe NFL have to do? Pay a fine right? Then, they have to negotiate again to make a deal?

And all those players who came out against it? everyone with half a brain knows that was just to gain leverage in the talks for concessions. The players would have been fools to come out in support of it until they got what they wanted.

I see today’s session being a eyeball test for both parties to see if the other side is truly sincere about settling things.

If they pass the test, then I see them working out the details of a 1 to 2 week extension and then getting down to the nitty gritty starting tomorrow.

I smell SETTLEMENT.

Let me know when they decide to act like grownups and have a signed deal in place.

Ultimately, it’s Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick who have architected what the Patriots have achieved. Players have come and players have gone, but 10 straight winning seasons speak for themselves. In my opinion, if you really love the game, you have to get behind your owner.

And honestly, I’m sick of the whole anti-trust exemption talk. Yes, the NFL is a monopoly, but only because they are the only one to successfully offer their uniquely branded product. It’s a monopoly achieved solely by merit and would stand up to criteria expressed as such in the Sherman Antitrust Act. The NFL doesn’t participate in actions that attack or jeopardize competition among the players or the market. It is the purchasers of their product that seek exclusivity in regards to broadcast and apparel rights.

Let’s see this thing go the full distance, end the union and finalize the status of the NFL as just another employer so we never have to watch these silly proceedings again.

“Wah, wah, wah. We are the players and the league is being mean to us by letting us play a game for a living. Don’t they know the risks they are making us endure?”

Punks.