Tom Brady, Peyton Manning And Eight Others File Antitrust Suit Against The NFL

The NFLPA has decertified the union and now a group of players, including Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Kansas city Chiefs LB Mike Vrabel and a few others have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL to prevent the owners from locking out the players when the CBA expires tonight at midnight. This will likely mean football will continue in 2011. Some folks were asking about this in a previous thread so allow me to let the folks at Pro Football Talk explain:

"Decertification would be used either to block a lockout or to combat the unilateral imposition of work rules by the league. Put simply, if the NFLPA decertifies, the league would then be required to promulgate player acquisition and retention rules on an across-the-board basis. The union then would sue the league, arguing that the imposition of standard rules regarding player acquisition and retention among 32 different businesses constitutes a violation of antitrust laws."

The NFL will likely try to convince the courts that the union decertification was a sham but the prevailing feeling seems to be that the law will side with the players. That would mean that the judge in charge of the case could order the NFL to leave the doors open and to continue operations using the most recent rules, which would be the rules from the 2010 season. That would mean no salary cap and no salary floor (Clark Hunt will be excited).

We’ll be keeping an eye on all this tonight so stay tuned.