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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Wouldnt almost every team be over the cap?
Assuming no agreement (and no lockout) is in place, the owners can implement whatever rules they want within the confines of the laws of the United States of America. Problem is, absent a CBA, a lot of the old rules were in direct violation of those laws.Are the owners limited to which rules they can run the league under??? If they aren't, then they could easily turn back the clock and use rules from the CBA that expired in 2006 (signed in 2002) which would drop the cap back a bit.
Assuming no agreement (and no lockout) is in place, the owners can implement whatever rules they want within the confines of the laws of the United States of America. Problem is, absent a CBA, a lot of the old rules were in direct violation of those laws.
I think the league is going to implement the same rules we saw in 2010. Now those rules certainly include some rules that break the law (the franchise tag comes to mind). I think they're hoping that any lawsuits filed against the league for violating antitrust laws will not wind their way through the court system prior to a new deal actually being agreed upon, and such a new deal would include a sort of "amnesty clause" for all those itty-bitty illegal things the league did in autumn of 2011.
Not all of those issues are as cut and dry as you think. Courts, including the Supreme Court, have talked about leagues being allowed to do certain things in order to simply survive. Revenue sharing and actually making a schedule would probably survive any challenge (and I doubt they would be challenged in the first place because there would be no real incentive to challenge either of those things).There are lots more than a few "itty bittsy rules'" that the antitrust lawyers would surely find illegal.
The Draft, the League schedule, No immediate Free Agency on contract expiration, Sharing of revenues, these are just a few.
This would never happen and no court would impose such a structure on the NFL. It is not even remotely in the realm of possibility.If antitrust were to be fully enforced the NFL would probably have to go to a Soccer like system. All Players are FA after the contract. The league would have to admit new league entrants and probably would have to implement something like the graduated "A" or premier league, a "B" league and a "C" league that the teams graduated or fell to each season. New league entrants might be constrained to the C league at least initially. An ultimate World Cup like quadrennial championship open to all competitors.
I don't quite know how a A level player continues making his A level salary when the team falls into a B league revenue structure. I could see many perpetual losers folding franchises.
If they go overboard and just, like, blatently violate the law they could face some sort of immediate sanctions and orders to cease.They are going to face anti trust challenge no matter what they do short of abandoning what made this league work. That being the case they might as well not half ass it and just play under the rules they wanted.
That part I agree with. If they don't do anything radical, they can just wait out any legal challenge with the anticipated "amnesty" of a new CBA.This case will not ultimately be settled in the courts, that's just about leverage, it will be settled long before that would happen and as part of that settlement all the suits would be dropped by players who are members of the suddenly recertified union who can't thereafter due the league based on terms agreed to in a CBA.
Wouldnt almost every team be over the cap?
There are lots more than a few "itty bittsy rules'" that the antitrust lawyers would surely find illegal.
The Draft, the League schedule, No immediate Free Agency on contract expiration, Sharing of revenues, these are just a few.
If antitrust were to be fully enforced the NFL would probably have to go to a Soccer like system. All Players are FA after the contract. The league would have to admit new league entrants and probably would have to implement something like the graduated "A" or premier league, a "B" league and a "C" league that the teams graduated or fell to each season. New league entrants might be constrained to the C league at least initially. An ultimate World Cup like quadrennial championship open to all competitors.
I don't quite know how a A level player continues making his A level salary when the team falls into a B league revenue structure. I could see many perpetual losers folding franchises.
It would be legal and football, but a far different league and levels of revenue, and fan interest.
Just because you are familiar with the NFL today and are used to the way it functions, does not mean that is the way it has to be. If no one follows the NFL with such changes, what do the lawyers care?
I agree with those statements (absent a CBA).The Draft is patently a restraint of trade, and therfore illegal. Reserving a player to any franchise in the absence of a contract is patently illegal.
Not true. You are allowed to restrict franchises within your own organization. If Donald Trump wanted to make a football team, call them the New Jersey Generals, and start a football league called the USFL he can go right ahead and do that (again). But he cannot form a football league and then sue his way into the NFL. That's kind of what he tried to do in the 80's with the aforementioned USFL, and he was awarded all of $1 in damages.Denying any would be entrant with the monies to participate as a franchise is patently illegal and a restraint of trade. If Bill Gates or Donald Trump decides he wants a franchise and is willing to spend the money to conform to the requirements, who are the present owners to stop him?
Enforcing that illegal restraint of new Team entrants, such as a Trump team, by a league schedule, is patently illegal.
First of all, we're not talking about the "laws of many lands" we're talking about the laws of the United States. Second of all, I'm not saying such a system would be illegal here in the U.S. What I'm saying is there's nothing illegal with the NFL's current system and no court in the land would impose a soccer-style system on football.Don't say the Soccer system is impossible. Everything it does, conforms to the laws of many lands. The systems they adopted were necessary to meet the laws of many nations and is the most widely followed sport in the world.
I never said they weren't.Players do jump from league to league after contracts expire. When under contract different teams in different leagues do buy and sell the contract, and with it the player's services.
All these things are legal to do.
The NFL converting their league to a European-soccer style system of franchises is not even remotely within the realm of possibility.Just because you are familiar with the NFL today and are used to the way it functions, does not mean that is the way it has to be. If no one follows the NFL with such changes, what do the lawyers care?