Flashback: NFLPA Flush With Cash for Fight

Back in December of last year, Fourthandgoalunites.com cited a SportsBusinessJournal article that reported the NFLPA earned $35 million in 2008:

For the 12 months ended Feb. 29, the union earned a record $34.85 million on revenue of $160 million, according to the union’s 2008 report.

The figures are the most complete financial information ever publicly revealed for America’s top sports union. The numbers underscore the financial surge the NFLPA has had since taking licensing in-house in the mid-1990s, a move made with an eye on building a war chest for potential labor disturbances.

Filed under: NFLPA

NFLPA Lockout Summit

DeMaurice Smith and the NFLPA have seen the writing on the wall and are digging in already.  From the NFLPA website yesterday:

NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith met Wednesday with a group of economists, lawyers and business advisors at NFLPA headquarters to discuss strategies for countering a potential lockout by the NFL owners.

Since March 2009, there have been only two formal negotiating sessions. Smith and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell briefly met over lunch Tuesday in Washington, D.C. after the Commissioner paid a visit to Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va.

According to the Washington Post’s coverage of Tuesday’s visit, Goodell said, “We’re communicating, we’re trying to get information to the union leadership, make sure they understand the challenges we’re facing as a system and as a business. And make sure they understand that so we can design a system that addresses the issues for the players, the coaches and the game.”

When Goodell’s comment in Wednesday’s newspaper was raised during the morning’s strategy meeting, Smith reminded NFLPLAYERS.COM that numerous written and public requests have been made for precisely that information, including profit and loss figures, details of television contracts and, above all, a formal proposal to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

“If they need to use our copy machines or printers to get us this information,” Smith said, “the door to our office is always open.”

It’s on.

Filed under: NFL revenue, NFLPA, Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith

Pash: 75% of New Revenue Goes to Players

The National Post (Canada) reports on the CBA, quoting Jeff Pash, NFL general counsel, and Roger Goodell:

The owners claim revenues are not growing fast enough to keep up with the payments they make to the players. Jeff Pash, the league’s chief counsel, says 75 percent of new revenues have gone to the players since a new CBA was reached in 2006, and the owners opted out of that agreement last year.

Meanwhile, the players say the system isn’t broken because the 32 teams aren’t losing money – 19 of them are worth at least US$1-billion, according to Forbes magazine’s annual survey, and the estimated annual revenues approach $8-billion.

“When the issue is dollars, economics, and one side is saying economics are not good, it’s up to them to give evidence that those economics have changed and there is reason for concern,” says NFLPA general counsel Richard Berthelsen. “But that has not happened.”

Berthelesen also addresses the point that Florio made in our last post: what will happen to the players in an uncapped system?

“If a team wants to win, there would be no limit on spending dollars to bring in players to get to the Super Bowl, and we all think we know who those teams are,” Berthelsen says. “If an owner is not interested in competing, he can go on the cheap. But I think that would be the exception rather than the rule.

“If past is prologue, the players’ piece of the pie would get larger, which is what happened in 1993.”

Filed under: NFL revenue, NFLPA, salary cap, Jeff Pash, Richard Berthelsen

Goodell’s Gag Order (Unless It’s Positive for the League)

Last week, the Sporting News had an article about the CBA negotiations, quoting lead negotiator, Pat Bowlen, as saying he was optimistic a deal could be reached by March 2010.  He thought the talks would pick up once the season started.  But, the Sporting News also spoke with two other NFL officials whose outlooks were not so rosy:

[T]wo senior NFL sources at the meeting said the league found it difficult to engage with the union during the two negotiating sessions that occurred this summer because representatives on the players’ side, in response to what these sources said were issues presented by the league, kept responding that they did not understand why the owners disliked the deal.

The sources, citing commissioner Roger Goodell’s gag order against discussing the CBA, declined to be identified, but both disagreed with Bowlen’s sentiment that a deal could be struck by March.

The article details the other big issue that has been raised publicly: the secrecy of the league’s finances.

Smith has insisted the league open its books before the union can truly judge the financial health of the teams. Goodell by contrast has said all revenue information already is shared with the union and the historical practice of not opening the books has served the sport well . . . .  [Depsite the league's complaints that the teams' profit margins are shrinking, Smith] points to healthy operating results reported by the Green Bay Packers, the only team that publicly discloses its financials, as evidence that the NFL is far from financial distress.

Not that the NFLPA hasn’t been represented by lawyers before in these negotiations, but it strikes me that the new NFLPA executive director is not a former player, but fully-fledged lawyer who won’t just sit down and discuss whatever issues the NFL thinks are important. He wants the league to put its proposal on the table and work down to details from a framework.  Interesting.

Filed under: NFL revenue, NFLPA, Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith, gag order, Green Bay Packers, Pat Bowlen, The Sporting News

NFLPA Bulletin on Injury Rights

We’ve discussed this before, but the union has sent out a bulletin to players regarding their rights if they’re injured in training camp:

NFL rules allow for clubs to bring 80 players into their training camps to compete for a job. But those rosters must be drastically reduced by the end of the summer. Each team has to cut its roster to 75 players by September 1 and to 53 players by September 5.

However, the fact that the clubs need to slash their rosters by almost one-third often conflicts with the extremely high rate of injury experienced by players during the violent competition that takes place in training camp, and the clubs’ injury obligations under the NFL Player Contract.

By the end of summer camp, many clubs have a number of players who have sustained injuries and are unable to play. The NFL Player Contract’s injury guarantee provides that if a player is injured while performing services for his club, and the player promptly reports the injury, then the club must continue to pay the player’s: 1.) salary as long as he remains physically unable to play during that season; and 2.) all necessary treatment, rehabilitation, medical and hospital care relating to the injury.

During late August, clubs cut some injured players from their roster believing that they are healthy. If a player is cut while still injured and unable to play, he must file an injury grievance within 25 days after his release from the club to enforce his injury guarantee rights under his NFL Player Contract.

“If a player believes that his injury prevents him from playing, the player should call the NFLPA immediately after his release so that an injury grievance can be filed on his behalf,” said NFLPA Associate General Counsel and Regional Director Tom DePaso.

After the grievance is filed, the player will be sent to be examined by a “neutral physician.” If the neutral physician finds that the player remains injured, then the player will be given a hearing before an arbitrator to decide his case. An NFLPA attorney will represent the player at the hearing free of charge. Approximately 40 such injury grievances are filed each season to resolve these types of injury disputes.

So as the cut-down dates approach, players should be mindful of their injury rights and call the NFLPA legal department if they have questions.

Filed under: NFLPA, non-guaranteed contracts

NFLPA Filled with Patton Boggs Attorneys

The AmLaw Daily has an article up about the departure of Ira Fishman, former COO of Patton Boggs, the Washington law firm.  Fishman joins DeMaurice Smith, formerly of Patton Boggs, at the NFLPA.  The article also notes that two associates followed Smith and Fishman to the union — lucky bastards.

On the law firms handling NFLPA work:

Patton Boggs is one of many outside firms handling work for the union; others include Dewey & LeBeouf, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Latham & Watkins. Dewey and Weil handle collective bargaining and litigation work for the NFLPA while Latham–where Smith worked prior to joining Patton Boggs–was brought in this summer to settle a class action filed by retired players. (Click here for an Am Law Daily Q&A with Smith and here for a story from The American Lawyer on a possible shuffling of the union’s outside counsel roster.)

Filed under: NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith, Dewey & LeBeouf, Ira Fishman, Latham & Watkins, Patton Boggs, Weil Gotshal & Manges

The Huddle: NFLPA House Organ

The NFLPA has released the latest edition of its in-house magazine, The Huddle, a publication seemingly directed at the players and retired player.  There’s a good piece in there about DeMaurice Smith, the new executive director, as well as a rundown of the benefits that the players will lose if there is an uncapped year in 2010.

Filed under: NFLPA, player benefits, salary cap, DeMaurice Smith, The Huddle

Dept. of Labor Investigating NFLPA?

Here, once again, we have an issue that is not directly related to the CBA.  ProFootballTalk, citing the SportsBusiness Journal (sub. req.), notes that the complaint filed by the NFLPA HR director against the association includes an allegation that the Department of Labor is investigating the internal machinations for the successor to Gene Upshaw.

Again, this doesn’t have to do with the CBA, but this is likely a distraction that the NFLPA doesn’t need.

Filed under: NFLPA, Gene Upshaw, ProFootballTalk, Sports Business Journal, Troy Vincent

More NFLPA Internal Politics

As you may have seen over at ProFootballTalk, the former Director of Human Resources of the NFLPA under Gene Upshaw has filed a lawsuit against the union.  This isn’t directly related to the CBA, but it is a reminder that the NFLPA has its own internal issues, politics, and rivalries to solve while the big CBA negotiations are progressing.

Filed under: NFLPA

LOLFavre

The National Sports Review loves them some Favre:

With the above for a resume, why DeMaurice Smith is head of the NFL Player’s Association is beyond understanding. There is only one man who can look Roger Goodell and 32 owners in their eyes and somehow force them to capitulate to his wishes ————- Brett Fave.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

You gotta love Brett Favre.

Filed under: NFLPA, Brett Favre