NFL Lock Of The Week: Players Will Lose Their Disciplinary Appeals
Take Paul Clement minus anything.
For Dallas Cowboys fans who see a vast conspiracy against them, those fears weren’t allayed yesterday when the Second Circuit rubberstamped Judge Katherine Polk Failla’s denial of Ezekiel Elliott’s effort to enjoin his six-game suspension. Just as they deflated Tom Brady’s hopes of avoiding suspension, the Second Circuit took one look at the collective bargaining agreement and swiftly sent Elliott and the NFLPA packing.
There’s a time for a union to zealously defend its members, and there’s a time for them to save their resources and realize they completely botched the last agreement and gear up for the coming strike. This is the latter occasion.
The last collective bargaining agreement gave Roger Goodell god-like powers over the lives of the players and, somehow, the union agreed to this. It sucks, but wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on Winston & Strawn’s Jeffrey Kessler (as well as a team from Gibson Dunn) isn’t going to make that agreement go away. Kirkland’s Paul Clement, taking a break from his usual work eroding the fundamental pillars of 20th Century American society, is going to win these cases for the NFL every goddamned time.
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Maybe if the Trump administration would go ahead and nominate Clement to the federal bench instead of Scrappy Doo over here the union could stand a chance. But between the Kirkland team Clement would leave behind and Akin Gump (who is also repping the NFL) they’d still be more than capable of dropping the CBA in front of the judges and saying, “Take a look at the pages I flagged, we’re going outside for a cigarette, so call us when you’re done.”
The union deal is so terrible that they’re looking to Jerry Freaking Jones as their savior. He’s brought 2017’s Most Popular Lawyer In America, David Boies, on board to support his nascent coup to oust Goodell. Newsflash for Goodell — if you start noticing Israeli spies following you around, you’re toast.
Still, there’s a bittersweet justice at work in watching Roger Goodell get an education in the plight of the players:
https://twitter.com/xmasape/status/928407587325923328
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It’s just bitter that the players’ union can’t figure out how to be the ones teaching that lesson and have to depend on the NFL’s wackiest owner getting a bee in his bonnet to see some progress.
Earlier: NFLPA Continues To Ignore The Awful CBA It Agreed To
Dallas Cowboys Fans See Judicial Conspiracy In Elliott Ruling
Deflategate: What Have These Judges Decided In Past Arbitration Appeals?
David Boies Takes Responsibility For Enabling Harvey Weinstein
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
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