The "only true winners" of the ongoing Deflategate scandal between the Patriots and NFL "have been the lawyers, who have racked up plenty of billable hours for both sides," according to Ben Volin of the BOSTON GLOBE. The NFLPA recently revealed it spent nearly 33% "more than the previous year on Washington law firm Winston & Strawn, its primary outside counsel led by attorney Jeffrey Kessler." The NFLPA paid the firm $4.5M "between March 1, 2015, and Feb. 29, 2016, up from" $3.5M last year and about $2.7M in '13-14. For the second year in a row, the NFLPA spent a total of about $6M "on outside legal fees." Last week’s federal tax filings revealed that the union paid Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith a $2.7M salary (up from $2.5M), while Managing Dir & COO Ira Fishman "received $780,540, top in-house counsel Tom DePaso collected $711,102, and the seven other in-house attorneys combined to make about" $1.5M (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/5).
MARKET WATCH: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Daniel Kaplan notes the NFLPA's commercial revenue reached $134.5M "in the year covering the most recent season, an all-time high, fueled by the reappearance of payments from Electronic Arts and a large contribution from the NFL." The increase in revenue -- up 30% over two years -- "helped send total union assets" over $400M for the first time. If assets continue to grow at a similar pace, the NFLPA "should enter the next round of labor negotiations in a few years with more than half a billion dollars" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/6 issue).
