The NFL late yesterday denied a waiver to the law firm seeking to represent more than 70 mid-tier NFL players in the ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the league. The firm, Barnes & Thornburgh, needed the waiver because one of its partners handled music licensing legal work for NFL Network. Nine NFL players are named plaintiffs in Brady v. NFL, which seeks to lift the lockout and end free agency restrictions. The issue the law firm was addressing is whether every NFL player is represented by the interests of that class, and the firm was seeking to have a seat at the table in discussions of a new deal. No players have publicly been named as far as being part of any possible action since news was first reported Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the NFLPA is seeking damages in the so-called lockout insurance case from the NFL that could approach and possibly exceed $1B, the league disclosed in legal papers yesterday. The NFL wrote the NFLPA is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages; the NFLPA in its brief said it would seek punitive damages of three times the compensatory amount. Full financial numbers in documents from both sides have been redacted. The NFL contended in its brief that the NFLPA deserves no damages because it did not ask for them previously and because the union decertified.
