First Day Of NFL Retirees Trial Fails To Reach Opening Arguments
By Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
Yesterday’s opening day of the trial pitting a class of retired NFL players seeking allegedly unpaid royalties from the NFLPA never reached opening arguments as planned because juror selection consumed the day. Selection of the 10 jurors took most of the morning, and then Judge William Alsup ended the day in his courtroom in the Northern California District Court in S.F. He did make two small rulings before juror selection. Alsup will allow taped deposition comments from late NFLPA Exec Dir Gene Upshaw confirming comments he had made that he does not work for the retired players. This comment was made in ‘06 to the Charlotte Observer, and defense counsel Jeff Kessler had argued they were in the context of collective bargaining and not about licensing income. But Alsup ruled while he thought Kessler was probably right, it would be up to the jury to decide. He also did not rule yet on whether Kessler could introduce the intent of the parties that entered into the licensing agreements in dispute. The license agreements signed by parties like Electronic Arts appear to include retired players, but Kessler has argued that the intent of EA and NFLPA was not for the fees to cover retired players. Because Judge Alsup has not yet ruled on it, Kessler as of yesterday was precluded from bringing up intent in his opening remarks.
SELECTING THE JURY: The 10-person jury took nearly four hours to choose. One juror selected temporarily for the final pool of 16 was a plaintiffs attorney and longtime friend of Rams WR Drew Bennett, even though Kessler had objected to his inclusion. However, walking out of the court room, this potential juror said hello to a junior lawyer on the staff of Manatt Phelps, which is representing the retired players, because they had gone to law school together. Judge Alsup had strictly forbidden any contact between jurors and the counsels, and on these grounds Bennett's childhood chum was dismissed.
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