NFLPA decertifies, NFL likely to lockout

Sometimes a game can be as simple as two people holding their breath until one exhales.

Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith are the two people playing, but neither will respire.

Of course, we all know what happens if you hold your breath too long; you pass out and wake up a few seconds feeling nauseated.

This is exactly what is happening between owners and players.

Today, at 2 p.m., Smith held a conference with his lawyers and players to determine whether or not to extend negotiations a third time or to pull the plug on dialogue with Goodell and owners.

Smith announced two hours and 43 minutes later the Players Association would not decertify as long as the NFL met the players’ demand for 10 years of teams’ audited financial records.

The owners denied the players’ request seventeen minutes later, and the union officially decertified.

But what does this mean?

First, the NFLPA no longer exists, Smith said they are now a professional trade association.

Second, the players are calling a time-out on Goodell’s and Smith’s game to allow the players to bring individual antitrust lawsuits against the owners in the court of Judge David Doty, who is historically pro-union.

If owners do attempt to lockout in response to the NFLPA’s decertification the players will dispute the lockout as an antitrust violation. The players’ case would be that by the NFL locking players out the owners are limiting trade by agreeing not to deal with every player.

By decertifying the players also give up their right as a union to collectively bargain, though the players could and likely will reconvene as union after lengthy court battles.

If the players had not decertified by 5 p.m. they would have been forced to wait six months to disband as a union, which would have almost guaranteed no football in 2011.

The players will claim decertification is the best way to save next year’s football season.

Issues the owners and players agreed upon are few and far between.

The two sides agreed on a rookie wage scale, and the concept of an 18-game schedule was publicly taken off the table by Smith, stating the players would not consider it under any circumstances.

The two remaining major issues – post-career health insurance and how to allocate $9 billion – were the deciding factors for the union to decertify, believing agreements and a new CBA could not be reached even with another extension.

Also, the NFL, according to the Smith and the players, will not make enough financial data available to prove owners need more money to offset enormous operating expenses such as Jerry Jones new $1.2 billion domed stadium.

We can expect the league to countersue the players, claiming the decertification is a facade.

It is hard to say whether or not there will be a 2011 NFL season, but Judge Doty likely will rule on players’ and owners’ lawsuits by the end of the summer.

Now, it is the fans’ turn to hold their breath.