NFL’s Limits on Free Agents to Go on Trial

As a group, the NFL’s 28 club owners are 0-14 in court cases brought by their players since March 1, 1991.

Although earlier in the century, the owners scored a few moral victories in damage settlements, they have yet to win an antitrust case. Still, they are planning to go to trial again in Minneapolis early next week in the big one: McNeil vs. NFL.

Or so they say.

“We’ve never backed away from (a fight),” Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, said the other day.

Spokesmen for both sides see only two options for the league before District Judge David S. Doty hears former UCLA running back Freeman McNeil and seven other pro players accuse the NFL of once more massively breaking the law:

--In a last-minute settlement, the owners could concede free agency to all veterans of three or four NFL seasons in return for concessions such as a salary cap and extension of the draft.

--Or, in an all-out gamble, the owners could conclude that they’re well placed to win this time.

The NFL Players Assn., headed by Gene Upshaw, is financing the case for McNeil and his associates, whose 1988 contracts expired on Feb. 1, 1989. They contend that they should then have been free to negotiate with any NFL team.

The thing that makes this one different from every other former antitrust case in American sports is that the NFL’s antitrust shield disappeared when the NFLPA decertified two years ago, according to two federal district judges, Doty and Royce C. Lamberth.

The McNeil case, as the first to come to trial since then, is thus considered the landmark event in pro football’s player-owner history, the case that will set the precedent for all future NFL civil disputes.

At issue is the legality of the owners’ labor system, which, according to McNeil, keeps salaries well below market value by severely restricting the rights of the players to bargain.

The NFLPA says, for example, that Raider halfback Marcus Allen hasn’t had a salary increase in five years. The salary of a part-time player, Bo Jackson, was continuously larger.

Three more free-agency suits, including Allen’s, are pending against the owners. But there is a question whether the decertified union will be able to underwrite the others.

“The owners keep trying to dry up our revenue stream,” said Upshaw’s assistant, Doug Allen. “The latest example was their outrageously false ad in USA Today (Monday) listing the players they say they have on (licensing) contracts.

“Eighty percent of those names are under contract to the NFLPA,” Allen said, noting that sports unions are financed by player-licensing arrangements with advertisers. “And the owners stole most of the rest of the (players) from us. They’ve cost (the NFLPA) millions of dollars.”

The ad, which also ran in several trade journals, was placed by NFL Properties, the owners’ marketing arm.

“We represent 668 (of the 1,500) NFL players,” said John Flood, Properties vice president. “We have 322 veterans exclusively and 153 rookies--including 25 (of the 28) first draft choices this year.

“We signed them because we’re in business to make money for the owners and players (on trading cards and other products).”

The record shows, however, that Properties recruiters have been aggressively pursuing NFL veterans only since McNeil filed suit.

“It’s obvious that the owners are trying to destroy the NFLPA’s capability to fund these suits,” said Bruce H. Singman, a Pacific Palisades business lawyer who represents athletes, entertainers and others.

“But they’re too late--a dollar short and a day late. The union has more than enough (money) to fund the McNeil suit--and that’s all they need. There’s no way that NFL players can lose this or any other antitrust case.”

Accordingly, Singman says that the owners will arrange a settlement.

Of the antitrust suits the NFL failed to settle over the years, it has lost all and the damage payments have run to millions.

The bill could be heavier this time:

--Although the McNeil group is believed to be seeking modest damages, $1 million or so per player, a victory would clear the deck for hundreds of their teammates to sue for hundreds of millions.

--Although free agency for all NFL players won’t result instantly, a McNeil victory would set the players firmly on that path.

--And although the draft theoretically could proceed next spring, as Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has promised, a McNeil victory soon would doom it in its present form.

For one thing, if the owners’ labor system is ruled illegal, any college player seeking an injunction in late April could knock out the 1993 draft. Or, afterward, any drafted player could knock it out by telling a judge that he is morally opposed to signing illegal contracts.

Doty said he will run the McNeil trial in sections. The first section will last through Thursday, July 9, when Doty will begin a two-week assignment on another case.

Resuming July 27, the trial is expected to last another three or four weeks--barring a settlement during the break.

The NFL’s lead attorney will be Frank Rothman of Los Angeles. McNeil’s lead attorney is Jim Quinn of New York, an NFLPA counsel.

Batteries of other lawyers will serve both sides, running the fees into the millions. Under antitrust rules, the loser pays the bills.

NFL Notes

The process of selecting a jury should begin Monday, Judge David S. Doty said, though it could be postponed a day or two. . . . Sports lawyers predict that the trial will reshape the NFL. For one thing, they say, the NFL draft is about to change greatly.

The plaintiffs and their team affiliations when the suit was filed are New York Jet halfback Freeman McNeil, Phoenix Cardinal safety Tim McDonald, New York Giant cornerback Mark Collins and running back Lee Rouson, Green Bay Packer quarterback Don Majkowski, San Diego Charger guard Dave Richards, Detroit Lion defensive end Niko Noga and Cleveland Brown cornerback Frank Minnifield. . . . The NFL will defend its player restrictions in the name of competitive balance. Said Giant President Wellington Mara: “In a land of free agents, a lot of good players would like to live in New York--and we’d like that, too. But to have a viable league, you need good players in Green Bay and Buffalo as well.”

Said Tim English, NFLPA attorney: “The players also strongly favor balanced competition. But it’s a fact that the NFL’s present restrictive rules harm competitive balance. Most of the same teams stay near the bottom or the top year after year. Contrast that with baseball. The teams in the (1991) World Series, Minnesota and Atlanta, went from last to first in one year by signing free agents. Something like 12 different teams have won the last 14 World Series by signing free agents.”