In past years this week would have been spent talking about all of the wheelings and dealings of the NFL Draft. Not this year.
Today the NFL told a federal appeals court that it believes the appeal over whether the lockout is legal can “readily be resolved” during the offseason. The NFL filed a brief with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, arguing that the lockout should remain on hold while the two sides negotiate their differences.
All of this comes after a three-judge panel of the appeals court put U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s order lifting the 45-day lockout on hold temporarily last week. The owners reinstated the lockout a few hours later, and now they are seeking to have Nelson’s order completely overturned.
The NFL filed an 18-page brief in which they argued that Nelson shouldn’t have jurisdiction in the labor dispute citing the Norris-LaGuardia Act, a Depression-era law they argue bars federal courts from interfering in labor disputes on either side.
Roger Goodell and the NFL have argued at great lengths that lifting the lockout would result in the irreparable harm to the league and warrants a necessary stay of Nelson’s order.
According to the brief, the NFL claims that without a stay there result would “irreparably harm the NFL by undercutting its labor law rights and irreversibly scrambling the eggs of player-club transactions.”
NFL’s attorneys wrote. “Absent a stay, there will be trades, player signings, players cut under existing contracts, and a host of other changes in employment relationships,” that could damage the league irreparably.
It’s more waiting now, as it now up to the appeals court to decide whether to declare a more permanent stay until the appeals process is completed.
