Justice Dept. Asked to Give Views on NFL Free Agency

The Supreme Court today asked the Bush Administration to offer its opinions about key limitations on free agency in the NFL.

The court asked Justice Department lawyers to comment on a lower court’s ruling that NFL restrictions on a player’s switch to another team do not violate federal antitrust law.

The justices are not expected to say whether they will review that ruling until hearing from the government lawyers, which could take months.

No further court action in the case is likely before October, when the justices return from their summer recess, scheduled for late June or early July.

The antitrust case is an outgrowth of a 24-day strike in 1987 by the National Football League Players Assn. The walkout ended without a new contract between the players and the league’s 28 team owners.

But the owners continued to enforce an expired contract, signed in 1982, containing provisions that restrict free agency.

The provisions limit a player’s ability to negotiate and sign with a new team. The player’s original team is given the right to match a competing club’s offer. If the original team declines to match the offer, the player’s new team must compensate the other team with draft choices.

The provisions are called the league’s first refusal-compensation system. The NFL has a separate provision, known as Plan B, in which teams protect 37 players and permit the rest to become unrestricted free agents.

The players association filed a federal lawsuit in 1987, accusing the league and team owners of violating antitrust law by enforcing the first refusal-compensation system after the expiration of the 1982 contract.

The owners said they are exempt from antitrust law, arguing that the old collective-bargaining agreement still is valid.

U.S. District Judge David Doty of Minneapolis in 1988 ruled in favor of the players, ordering a trial to determine whether the owners were guilty of antitrust violations.

But the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Doty’s decision last November.