U.S. Court of Appeals overturns Judge Doty on 2012 collusion case

[Nation]

@ProFootballTalk: Per league source, U.S. Court of Appeals overturns Judge Doty on 2012 collusion case. Very surprising outcome. More to come at PFT.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Appeals court reinstates collusion case
Posted by Mike Florio on June 20, 2014, 11:11 AM EDT

As it turns out, Wednesday’s ruling from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could be the less problematic litigation outcome for the NFL.

By far.

Per a league source, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has overturned a decision by Judge David Doty dismissing the NFLPA’s effort to claim collusion against the NFL made in the wake of the salary-cap penalties imposed on Dallas and Washington in 2012.

The case is now expected to proceed to the discovery process, which will force the NFL to disclose information about whether and to what extent teams were told to treat the uncapped year of 2010 under the prior labor deal as something other than, you know, an uncapped year.

That was the gist of the $46 million in cap penalties. Dallas and Washington were penalized for contracts in the uncapped year that nevertheless complied with the language of the CBA and that nevertheless were approved at the time by the NFL.

Read more: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/20/appeals-court-reinstates-collusion-case/

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

Ruh Roh! Mara and company may come to really regret their little vendetta against Washington and Dallas.

 

[waving monkey]

Of course all of us want to stick it up Mara's ash.
It would certainly be sweet victory for Dallas.
I guess we'd get back some cap space and then what?
As far as damages go?
There was certainly that.

 

[daveferr33]

I really hope this case makes it to the discovery phase, then perhaps embarrassing facts about Mara's (and the other owners') collusion can come to light.

 

[Rack]

Of course all of us want to stick it up Mara's ash.

Speak for yourself. I just want to punch him in the face with cactus covered gloves.

 

[EST_1986]

Would we get a cap bump with this or is this just a moral victory? And imagine the skins with 30-40 million to blow.

 

[BigStar]

It stunk to high heaven @ the time and am glad they will dig deeper into this. Being fined the following season, after the salary cap was reinstated, for approved contracts in the previous "uncapped" year. There were teams that did similar moves that were not fined. That is the real annoyance as a fan but should be used as evidence or does that work against DAL/WAS? Asking any lawyers with knowledge on the subject?

 

[BigStar]

Would we get a cap bump with this or is this just a moral victory? And imagine the skins with 30-40 million to blow.

Hate to say it, esp regarding the Skins, but they deserve it. Would suck to compete with them in the next off season's FA though. I have some hope of landing a quality player....or four

 

[Oh_Canada]

Oh my, I can just see Mara and friends feverishly deleting emails off there hard drives as we speak.

It would serve the league right if the case went to the discovery stage and exposed the dark truths about this obvious vendetta. Goodell and his gang should have never went along with this charade in the first place and now they run the risk of being exposed by the courts.

 

[EST_1986]

Hate to say it, esp regarding the Skins, but they deserve it.

Oh they do. They got a raw deal on that stupid ruling.

 

[The Natural]

Rather see whatever the Cowboys/Commanders lost stripped from the She-men's cap, distributed evenly the next 3 years

 

[waving monkey]

Speak for yourself. I just want to punch him in the face with cactus covered gloves.

yikes

 

[Future]

Would we get a cap bump with this or is this just a moral victory? And imagine the skins with 30-40 million to blow.

I'd imagine that it would be mostly a moral victory, because I don't think adding a bunch to the cap next year is necessarily a fair compensation for 2 years ago.

However, there could be some pretty serious consequences for the teams in volved.

 

[conner01]

don't know that this will get the cap space back but i could. the case is really not about that, it's about the collusion and this just happens to be the best proof of it. i've always thought this case would get to court. it's just so obvious that nfl team did conspire to lower salaries and thats collusion. by punishing those who did'nt that made the case even stronger against them. in the end if the nflpa wins it may still not get back to cap space we lost but it could cost the rest of the nfl a ton of money

 

[EST_1986]

I'd imagine that it would be mostly a moral victory, because I don't think adding a bunch to the cap next year is necessarily a fair compensation for 2 years ago.

However, there could be some pretty serious consequences for the teams in volved.

I bet the teams could prove damages and let Danny and Jerry pocket some cash at least.

 

[conner01]

I bet the teams could prove damages and let Danny and Jerry pocket some cash at least.

i don't think this suit would do that. this is by the nflpa and they want money for the collusion that drove down salaries. i would think jerry would have to wait for that case to finish and then sue seperatly to get any money and that may be hard to since they did'nt actually take money from jerry just cap space and that may not be recoverable

 

[DragonCowboy]

I don't think Dallas or Washington would get any cps space back. If anything the NFLPA would get money.

The real question is who this judge doty clown is and why he ruled the way he did in the first place. It was clearly collusion. Wanna know who's lining his pockets

 

[Denim Chicken]

I'd imagine that it would be mostly a moral victory, because I don't think adding a bunch to the cap next year is necessarily a fair compensation for 2 years ago.

Fair would be giving us back the cap space and taking it away from the other teams who were awarded it.

 

[Future]

Fair would be giving us back the cap space and taking it away from the other teams who were awarded it.

I think it would put the rest of the league at a disadvantage to just give a bunch of extra cap space back. I don't know that you can do that.