Happening in the last hour, a federal judge has ruled in favor of the NFL Players Association in its fight against the NFL owners in hopes of avoiding a lockout. U.S. District Court Judge David Doty reversed an earlier ruling that the owners could keep TV rights money if they locked out the players during the season. Doty ruled that the owners would be in violation of their agreement with the players if they kept $4 billion in rights fees from all of the NFL’s TV partners, CBS, DirecTV, ESPN, Fox and NBC.
The players had successfully argued that the league was going to use the money as a guarantee in case a lockout occurred. A special master had ruled that the owners were allowed to keep the money.
Jim Trotter of Sports Illustrated says the ruling is a huge blow to the owners as they cannot count on the rights fees as insurance in case no games are played. Under the previous ruling, the NFL would have been paid by the networks as if games were being played, but the partners would be returned on a pro-rated basis.
Jon Weisman of Variety writes that the chances for a lockout have diminished due to this latest ruling.
The NFL Players Association is expected to make a statement later tonight. In the meantime, the decision in full is available at the NFLPA’s website.
We’ll continue to monitor developments as they happen.
