Amid the seemingly never-ending Deflategate saga, some pretty major news broke around the football world on Tuesday.
A motion was filed by the National Football League Players Association in federal court to argue that the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell are both in contempt of court stemming from the Adrian Peterson suspension.
The motion claims that Goodell and company have defied a February ruling by federal court judge David Doty that indicated the case go back to arbitration and Peterson be placed back on the Commissioner's Exempt List. The NFL appealed Doty's ruling, which enabled it to reinstate Peterson on its own terms in April.
Here are the key points from the motion:
"On February 26th, the NFL was ordered to change their decision in the Peterson matter and reissue a ruling consistent with our collective bargaining agreement. The Union made multiple requests to the League office asking the arbitrator, who serves at the direction of the Commissioner, to comply with the law and avoid further litigation. Despite our attempts, they have done nothing and leave us no choice but to seek this motion."
Essentially the union is arguing that the NFL ignored Doty's ruling and made its decision to reinstate Peterson based solely on the timeline the NFL had set forth when it originally suspended the Vikings running back in November of 2014.
The motion continues:
"The delay tactics, inconsistencies and arbitrary decision making of the League has continued to hurt the rights of players, the credibility of the League office and the integrity of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In the absence of any action by the NFL's governing board of owners, the players have acted to hold the NFL accountable to our players, the CBA and to the law."
Considering Peterson was reinstated, what is the harm here? The union would like us to believe the NFL went rogue during the process.
The NFL wanted to make a point by appealing and setting its own timetable for Peterson's reinstatement. The NFL appealed Doty's ruling to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Kansas City, Missouri. Based on precedent, the league could have waited months to reinstate Peterson while his case was under appeal.
There's little doubt that Goodell and company wouldn't have let Peterson sit on the inactive list past April. However, the league's decision to play it loose with Doty's ruling could came back to it in the long term, especially with the union now making its own point in federal court.
The union's argument won't necessarily be limited to Peterson's appeal. It will represent the larger issue at hand here—Goodell's power in arbitration cases.
A Missouri Supreme Court ruling last month made it clear that Goodell has no power in arbitration cases in the state. This is yet another argument the union could use. If the feds deem it necessary to take up whether Goodell has arbitration power under the league's constitution and bylaws, the NFL's decision to hold off on reinstating Peterson until 11 weeks after Doty's ruling could work in the union's favor.
Why does this all matter?
There's a decent possibility that Tom Brady and the union will go to court in order to appeal his four-game suspension stemming from the Deflategate scandal. Depending on the timing of the Peterson ruling, there could be precedent of a successful challenge to Goodell's arbitration power already set in federal court. Considering there is already a state court that has set precedent, there's a possibility the feds could rule in Peterson's favor. If so, the NFL might face multiple successful challenges to its power in federal court. That would be an absolutely huge blow to the powers to be in New York City.
In addition to the Peterson appeal, the NFLPA also announced on Tuesday that it will be heading to the federal court to argue that the league acted in defiance of court orders by retroactively applying the new personal conduct policy to Greg Hardy's case. If you remember correctly, the NFL suspended the Dallas Cowboys defensive end 10 games for his role in a domestic violence incident last year—an incident that took place when the old personal conduct policy was in place.
Talk about doubling down.
In short, the union is now finally taking a stand against what has to be considered overreaching power from the league office in New York City. Should the Peterson case be heard by the feds, and Brady's case ultimately makes it to court, we could be in for a major legal battle between the NFL and the NFLPA.
