A three-judge federal appeals panel this morning ruled against a group of NFL retirees who alleged the NFLPA had interfered with their negotiations with the league during the '11 lockout. A lower court judge had already sided with the union, and while the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel sounded more sympathetic to the retirees’ argument during oral arguments earlier this year, today it ruled for the NFLPA. The retirees, led by Carl Eller, argued the NFLPA shut them out of talks with the NFL and negotiated a lower set of retiree benefits than had previously been offered by the league. The panel rejected that position. The retirees, they wrote, did not have a “reasonable expectation that either prospective contractual relations or other economic advantage would result if they had been allowed to bargain independently with the NFL, or that defendants improperly interfered with any such expectation.” The NFL and NFLPA negotiated a $900M legacy benefit for the retirees, who in the lawsuit contended the league had been willing to give $1.5B. The panel also rejected the retirees’ contention that the NFLPA had illegally negotiated the CBA because it was not a union at the time, having renounced its status to file an antitrust lawsuit against the league. The panel contended the NFLPA was permitted to assist in CBA talks even if it was not a union. One judge, C. Arlen Beam, did dissent from one part of the ruling that found the retirees did not have a reasonable expectation they could have on their own negotiated for better benefits than they received in the CBA. The retirees can appeal the ruling to the full 8th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court.
