NFL Players Association decertifies in possible precursor to lockout

Source: AP

The NFL players’ union decertified on Friday, making the league’s first work stoppage since 1987 a near certainty

After 16 days of mediated talks with the NFL, the sides could not reach agreement on a new deal. The current one expires at the end of Friday, and the league could lock out its players.

By decertifying, the union clears the way for individual players to file antitrust lawsuits against the NFL, which opted out of the CBA in 2008. It renounced its right to represent the players in contract bargaining.

In 1989, the NFLPA also decertified. Antitrust lawsuits by players forced a new CBA in 1993 that included free agency, and the union formed again that year

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110311/SPORTS01/110311050/NFL-Players-Association-decertifies-possible-precursor-lockout?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

:rofl:

http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-missing-people-2011-3

88,000 missing

I've been posting for months about the little people that will be hurt by this. Where is your empathy?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4764915

revolution breeze Donating Member (478 posts)

10. During football season, my daughter works concessions

at the Superdome. She makes very good money, which she uses to pay her college tuition. If they don't come to an agreement, there is no way they will be able to fill the venue, meaning my daughter will be out of work from August until January. You may say "just get another job" but New Orleans really counts on tourism and, in the fall, that means football.

.... hurt far past the players and owners.

peace!

Obviously the NFL is NOT the moral equivalent of the military-industrial complex, but it is a large dumbing-down mass distraction for the majority of the populace, and refocuses society into false forms of faux tribalist identity, whilst offering time-consuming escapism from much more relevant social issues.

We have our own similar issues here in the EU with football (soccer).

Maybe I'm just being a killjoy, but I do remember the old 1970's movie Rollerball, which had some vital social commentary.

:rofl:

don't think the same can be said of endlessly repeating uber-corporate sporting events

and each year it seems more and more prescient.

Didn't like the remake, though.

...but there is a lot of economic impact with this. Case in point: Indianapolis, where I live, which is supposed to host the Super Bowl next year. The city and other funding sources have spent a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of money getting the city ready, not to mention all the smaller businesses that were planning on a pretty good 2011 football season.

The economic impact here alone could be very bad.

I care both about the disaster in Japan and what the lockout could mean for my city. I can multitask that way.

My only point after seeing what is going on in Japan the NFL seems kind of trivial.

I know lots of jobs and $ are built around pro football.

I apologize for the snarkiness of my closing thought, by the way.

It's been neat to see groups come together to make this happen, and the benefits the city will see from this will last for years -- hopefully whether or not there's a Super Bowl, but that remains to be seen.

It gives them a stronger case in court.

...the MO behind the decertification and the lawsuit that was filed yesterday?

Thanks.

The labor exemption for anti trust cases will no longer be an issue. This tactic has been used before, as when the NFLPA decertified so individual players could sue over Plan B Free Agency. The case was McNeil vs NFL

http://tech.mit.edu/V112/N39/nfl.39w.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6205936