NFLPA on a Winning Streak in Courtroom Against Owners

The NFL Players Assn., putting pressure on the league, has financed five victories over the NFL’s club owners in courtrooms during the past four months.

The five cases:

Back Pay--On March 22, a National Labor Relations Board judge, Benjamin Schlesinger, awarded the players $25 million in back salaries after finding that the owners unlawfully discriminated against them during the 1987 strike-lockout.

Pensions--On April 1, a U.S. district court, holding that the NFL was again delinquent on pension payments, ordered the owners to pay another $4 million into the players’ fund.

Free Agency--On May 28, Federal Judge David Doty ruled for Freeman McNeil and seven other NFL veterans who said the NFLPA has decertified as a union, costing the league its antitrust exemption.

Price Fixing--On June 4, Federal Judge Royce C. Lamberth agreed that because the players’ union has decertified, the NFL can be held liable under antitrust laws. The judge ruled for developmental player Tony Brown, who challenged a taxi-squad wage scale on grounds that the NFLPA hadn’t agreed to it.

Free Agency--On June 12, in the most significant of the actions, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals backed Doty’s May 28 decision in the McNeil case. On Feb. 12, it will go to a trial that could clear the way for NFL veterans to bargain with the owners as equal free agents.