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NFLPA sues NFL claiming collusion in imposing secret salary cap during the 2010 uncapped year, claiming recent punishment of Redskins and Cowboys as evidence; will face procedural issue (Yahoo)

In other courtroom news, former UCLA basketball player Reeves Nelson has filed a $10 million defamation suit against Sports Illustrated for an article that ran a couple of months ago (LA Times)

Sports celebs are founding investors in stealth startup 12Society, as founders not spokesmen (Fortune)

Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid shortlisted for 2020 Olympics following cuts of Doha, Qatar and Baku, Azerbaijan (Bloomberg)

Are the Yankees up for sale and is the asking price in excess of $3 Billion?  (NY Daily News).

Daily News weighs in on potential buyers, including almost all of the groups who lost the Dodgers bidding, plus David Einhorn, who tried to buy a stake in the Mets, Anthony Scaramucci who also was interested in the Mets and Charles Dolan of Cablevision who owns the Knicks and Rangers and is likely Yankee fans worst nightmare (NY Daily News)

Yankees and MLB both deny report (NYT

English Premier League clubs lost $568 million (�361 million) last year despite $3.6 billion (�2.3 billion); only five clubs made money (Guardian)

A look at NBC's cable plans for the Olympics (Awful Announcing)

Israel looking at Law of Return to get current Major League players to play on Israeli team in World Baseball Classic (Jewish Ideas Daily)

Curt Schilling's video game company, 38 Studios, which received a $75 million loan guarantee from Rhode Island to move its operations there, has laid off its entire staff (NYT)

The NFL Players Association is circulating cards among players permitting the union to decertify in the face of a lockout by the owners at the end of the current collective bargaining agreement in 2011.  The NFLPA is not leveling decertification as a threat but wants to maintain the option in order to strengthen its hand in negotiations for a new CBA.

Should the union decertify, it would enable the players to sue the owners for violation of antitrust laws by conducting a group boycott in locking out the players. Maintaining itself as a union would not allow the union to sue because of the labor exemption under the antitrust laws.


The circulation of these cards is just one indication that the new CBA is going to be one difficult negotiation and will take at least as long as there is time remaining on the clock before the current one expires.  As is generally the case with collective bargaining, there is little incentive for the parties to compromise until midnight hour and the option of decertification gives the union an arrow that is at least as dangerous to the owners as a lockout may seem to the players, thus equalizing the playing field and increasing the likelihood of an eventual settlement.