NFLPA Wins Special Master Case To Continue NFL Revenue Sharing

Kessler Confident Judge Will Confirm Decision

A Special Master has ruled that the NFL must continue its supplemental revenue-sharing program in '10, a decision the NFLPA hailed as a win for players and competitive balance in the league. “This means that the low revenue teams should have approximately $200 million more dollars this year,” said NFLPA outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler. “This should make the market vibrant for players even if there is an uncapped year.” The NFL in a statement said, “Today’s decision involves a small sliver of the NFL’s overall commitment to revenue sharing. The NFL for decades has shared more than 80[%] of league and club revenues. In the 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement that expires in 2011, the NFL clubs also agreed to a small percentage of additional revenue sharing because of the new CBA's significantly increased salary cap. The agreement calls for no salary cap in 2010 and that additional piece of revenue sharing to which the clubs had agreed in 2006 is therefore no longer required in our view. Although the Special Master disagreed with our interpretation on that issue, we are hopeful that Judge Doty, who will look at the issue anew, will see it differently.” Kessler said the union is confident Judge David Doty will confirm the decision of the Special Master. Kessler: “The decision is exactly what the union argued: That the collective bargaining agreement applied for every year of the deal whether the years are capped or uncapped" (Liz Mullen, SportsBusiness Journal). Special Master Stephen Burbank in his ruling wrote, "We find no explicit distinction between capped and uncapped years or between capped years and The Final League Year." Burbank agreed that the CBA "required the union's approval of any changes made to the supplemental revenue sharing pool." Kessler believes that the ruling should "motivate low-revenue clubs to participate in spending on its own players and potential free agents." Kessler: "These clubs can now budget for beyond 2010" (ESPN.com, 2/2).

GOING INTO LABOR: ESPN's John Clayton yesterday said CBA negotiations between the NFL and the union are "in a very bad way right now." Clayton: "That doesn't mean they can't get a deal done, but the rollbacks that they're asking from the players certainly are so dramatic. When you're talking 18-20% rollbacks in salaries, or at least rollbacks in the percentages, you're not going to get a quick response and a quick offer that is going to be countered." Clayton noted NFL owners plan to meet on Saturday in Miami, where "both sides -- high revenue, low revenue -- are going to try to hash things out." He added, "The players want to make a deal. I don't think there is any question about that. I think they're willing to give back some things that they've won in the last negotiating round, but also too they need a little bit more of a firmer grip of how much less they're being asked" ("Mike & Mike in the Morning," ESPN2, 2/1). Comcast SportsNet's Brian Mitchell, who played in the NFL from '90-'03, said, "You have 32 owners who are very money-hungry who love money. They're making tons of money. Their last TV contract was $17.2(B), compared to basketball at $2.9(B)." Mitchell: "If they weren't making money, they'd open all their books. They wouldn't be trying to hide most of the stuff. Everyone is making money and now they want to take more of it." He added, "The union is not what it was in '87. It's far stronger. The players, as a whole, have a lot more control and power than the owners truly think." Author John Feinstein said NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith "is no Gene Upshaw. He is more like a Don Fehr. He is ready to really get in the trenches with the owners" ("Washington Post Live," Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, 2/1).

BACK TO THE FUTURE: In DC, Mark Maske noted while NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell claims that the owners are "not planning a lockout," others within the sport say that the league is "about as close as it has been to labor strife since the two players' strikes in the 1980s." What happens over the "next 13 months or so will determine if those fears are justified" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 2/1). SI.com's Peter King predicted that a new CBA "will be signed closer to March 5, 2012 than March 5, 2010" (SI.com, 2/1).