Still feeling that “back to football” buzz after draft weekend? The NFL is ready to kill it.
The labor legal war rolled on Monday morning, when the league filed a brief to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, making their case for a more permanent “stay” of the injunction lifting the lockout.
NFL Network’s Albert Breer notes this is the final order of business before the court decides on the stay. It’s uncertain when the court will rule, but it may come fairly soon this week.
The league argued that more “irreparable harm” would be suffered without a stay than if one was granted. They even gave an expected timeline to how things might proceed, saying “an expedited appeal . . . could readily be resolved during the off-season.”
The league also suggested it wouldn’t matter if free agency started in “late June or early July” as opposed to May and tried to prove players don’t really mind the lockout.
Ray Lewis’ comment that he’s “never had a summer to myself” was used in the briefing to show that players aren’t suffering harm. Wes Welker’s sarcastic joke that the league should do a “lockout every year” was also thrown in the mix.
So this is what we’ve been reduced to: Using joking comments by a player known for his foot fetish references as legal evidence.
We think the league underestimates the harm caused to the game by starting the lockout again after its fans were teased all last week.