With the NFL Players Association suing the NFL Coaches Association for more than $650,000 and a judicial declaration that David Cornwell isn’t the “lawfully elected” executive director of the NFLCA, it appears that the NFLCA will be responding to the lawsuit with a legal claim of its own.
An April 11, 2012 letter from Cornwell to NFLPA general counsel Richard Berthelsen, a copy of which PFT has obtained, demands that NFLPA release certain documents and business records belonging to the NFLCA, which previously shared office space with the NFLPA. Cornwell’s letter also makes reference to the possibility that the NFLPA owed, and also breached, a fiduciary duty to the NFLCA.
Thus, look for the NFLCA to respond to the lawsuit with a formal counterclaim, which will assert that the NFLPA violated various legal duties owed to the NFLCA.
The NFLCA’s answer to the complaint filed by the NFLPA likewise will contain a response to the factual allegations and other defenses to the claim that the NFLCA owes more than $650,000, and the contention that Cornwell was not properly elected to the position of Executive Director.
In English, the organization representing the players has sued the organization representing the coaches, and the organization representing the coaches may in return sue the organization representing the players.
And the NFL continues to be the ultimate reality show.