American Needle vs. NFL

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

The current system has its flaws, but its worked incredibly well. Even if the NFL wins this suit, I hope theyre smart enough to avoid going back to those dark days. Free agency has to stay. Now, i'd be fine if teams could slap a franchise tag on a player indefinitely, so long as they continued to pay the player the average of the top 5 players at that position plus 10% each year.

I agree. IMO One reason why the NFL is so much more popular than other sports is because of the competitive balance that free agency and the salary cap have brought. No teams can hoard talent through ridiculous spending that other teams could never match, which seems to be the scene in baseball.

Maybe the court will rule that the NFL is one entity in terms of marketing but not in terms of labor. This will leave American Needle crying but it will preserve the leverage that players need to keep the owners from ending free agency.