NFL Sues Players’ Group, Asking Antitrust Damages

The NFL Management Council and the league’s 28 teams filed an antitrust suit in federal court Thursday against the NFL Players Assn.

The lawsuit, filed in Minneapolis, charged the NFLPA with illegally coordinating player agent activity in negotiations involving rookies and veteran free agents.

The NFL suit also charges that such contact between agents and the NFLPA to share salary information represents unlawful restraints on commerce in violation of federal antitrust law.

Jack Donlan, executive director of the management council, said the NFLPA claims it is not a labor union but continues to act like one.

Donlan said in a statement: “If the NFLPA isn’t a union, then its activities in exchanging salary data and coordinating bargaining with the agents are illegal. The agents and the NFLPA can’t have it both ways.”

The NFLPA claimed that filing the lawsuit was a victory for labor because “the NFL has finally admitted that the antitrust laws apply because there is no collective bargaining relationship between the players and the owners,” Gene Upshaw, executive director, said. The NFL also said that individual player agents may be added to the suit.

The clubs filed suit in March, asking the court to determine the status of the NFLPA, which asked for decertification as a union.

The NFL’s lawsuit also charged that the union attempted to set a minimum salary level for 1990 contracts and coerced agents into cooperating with the NFLPA to attain union approval in dealing with players.