The NFLPA filed a 526-page federal lawsuit, on behalf of the bounty scandal's suspended players, against Roger Goodell and the NFL this morning in Eastern District Court of Louisiana, claiming the league's appeals process is unfair.
The Players sought - and were legally entitled to - an arbitral process that was transparent, credible and fair. It becomes more apparent with each passing day, however, that the NFL's objective was not to follow the CBA and provide a fair process, but to validate a biased investigation and to deprive the Players of any meaningful ability to defend themselves against a preordained result.
You can view the lawsuit in it's entirety right here on the TImes-Pic website.
Of course Goodell and the NFL responded to the lawsuit with an explanation via email:
"As in the case of Mr. Vilma's lawsuit, this is an improper attempt to litigate an issue that is committed to a collectively bargained process. There is no basis for asking a federal court to put its judgment in place of the procedures agreed upon with the NFLPA in collective bargaining. These procedures have been in place, and have served the game and players well, for many decades."
To be honest, I really don't care about any of this anymore. Nor can I keep up with all of these lawsuits. Seems like every damn day now another one is filed. And all it's doing is turning off fans and making everyone involved appear like whiny babies. When the f*** did it become necessary to have a law degree, business degree and psychology degree just to follow along with your favorite NFL team. For the love of Christ can we please get back to what fans actually care about: football.