They absolutely would have been better. The most appropriate venue for an employment action in federal court is generally considered to be the district of the principal site of employment of the complaining party, in this case the District of Massachusetts. Once the NFL filed in New York, it was stupid for Kessler to file in Minnesota. (I feel I have the right to criticize because I have practiced law for 29 years and spent most of my working hours dealing with labor law matters.) By filing in Minnesota, the NFLPA looked like they were just as guilty of forum shopping as the NFL—hence the first-to-file rule breaks the tie. I doubt a Massachusetts court would have returned the case to New York.
For those people who are saying we shouldn’t be whining about the case ending up in New York and that whether the case is in New York or elsewhere doesn’t make a difference, I disagree. Federal judges are not immune to pressures from their surrounding community. I would also assume that it is too much to expect that a New York judge’s inclination to believe that Brady cheated will be completely unaffected by the fact that he is a Jets fan or has been reading the sports pages of New York newspapers for the past 15 years. If Brady and the NFLPA were appealing Goodell’s decision solely over matters of law and procedure, then it wouldn’t matter so much whether the case was heard in New York or not. But it is primarily a fact driven appeal. As I see it, the only way that the NFLPA is going to get Brady’s suspension overturned is by persuading the judge that Goodell was not impartial—that he had a personal agenda that was served by going after Brady and the Patriots and that the Wells investigation and the subsequent appeal hearing were driven by a predetermined conclusion. In effect the NFLPA is going to have to persuade a New York City judge that a prominent New York City institution is corrupt and then to announce that in his decision. That’s going to be difficult to do. It would have been a lot easier to persuade a Boston judge to do that. Before this case ended up in New York I thought it probable that Brady’s suspension would be completely overturned. Now I think that’s unlikely. And the more I hear from Judge Berman, the more pessimistic I become.[/QUOTE
^^^ one of the best posts I've seen on the topic. And you would think that the NFLPA would know this already. I don't know what they were thinking. This should've been avoided. If I'm Brady, then I'm mad as hell