NFL Lockout

NFL Lockout
This is a new article on the NFL Lockout. My earlier article CBA Negotiations Look Promising was based on Judge David Doty hearing the case. Since that was written the NFL has petitioned for a was granted a change of venue which had Judge Doty removed from the case. At first I thought things were not looking good, however there are still things that will help the players.
Many of you reading this live in Louisiana and are familiar with how our legal system works here. Well in case you don't know here is a summary. In Louisiana we operate under the Civil Code, it is a system of law that is used in most of the world except Great Britian, and the United States (excluding Louisiana). These countries operate under Engish Common Law. So what does that mean here, well for starters in Louisiana our laws are made by our legislature, and rulings in prior cases have no bearing whatsoever on the actual law. In other words only the legislature can alter, change, or modify the laws in Louisiana. In every other state in the Union and on the Federal level all laws are based on common law. In this system a ruling that a judge made in a prior case alters the law, and changes how all future rulings are made.
So you are probably wondering what does this have to do with the lockout. Well the court in Minnesota where the current case is being heard is the same court where prior decisions were made in favor of the players. First it's a federal court aka uses common law, and what gives it more power is it is the very same court. So in essence even though Judge Doty is not hearing this case his prior rulings must be taken into consideration by the current judge in order for any ruling she makes to be legal.
The only drawback to all of this is the time it would take to settle this in court. Odds are the players would win this thing, however the NFL would appeal it and this could potentially push this thing out into the regular season. As a result Judge Susan Nelson ordered the league and the players to meet again at the bargaining table. The mediation is to begin Thursday under the supervision of Judge Arthur Boylan.
The NFLPA decertified to make it where all the players are negotiating with the 32 NFL clubs individually. The reason this was done is to seek federal anti trust protection. Basically all 32 NFL teams are 32 independently owned, and operated businesses that are in competition for all of the players. If competitors of any other business decided to pay their suppliers of widgets half price as a for instance, and the guy who makes these widgets noticed all of his buyers are offering the same exact price at the same time he would be able to file an injunction to make them stop. In the NFL scenario all 32 clubs are doing just that when it comes to players, and is a violation of federal antitrust laws.
Of course this only holds up if there is no such thing as an NFL players union. This is where it gets interesting, the NFL says the decertification of the union is a sham and that the players are really still in a union. If they are able to prove this then all of that talk of anti trust goes right out the window. If all the proper legal work is done then there is no way this can be proved. Once again bringing all of this into court takes time and time is not a luxury any of us who enjoy football has regardless of who comes out on top. Hopefully this supervised mediation on Thursday can help bring this all to an end, and we can get back to football.

Now that you got my take on the NFL lockout you can read more at Saints Report.

Dan Delaney is a lifelong resident of the New Orleans metropolitan area and long time Saints fan. He was a fan before being a Saints fan was cool. You can learn more about the New Orleans Saints by reading my ezine article now!