Judge, Jury, Executioner? Doty Gives N.F.L. the Chills
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: March 12, 2011
For N.F.L. players, federal court in Minneapolis is a legal nirvana.
Judge David S. Doty could again preside over a players lawsuit against the N.F.L. in federal district court in Minneapolis.
Over nearly 40 years, cases filed there by players and their union have found favor in legal rulings by United States district court judges like Earl Larson and, since the late 1980s, David S. Doty. Names like John Mackey, Freeman McNeil, Marvin Powell and Reggie White have been featured plaintiffs.
And on Friday, when the N.F.L. Players Association decertified itself as a union, the Minneapolis court once again became the legal theater for football, this time in a particularly tense impasse. Ten players, including the star quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the N.F.L. in the court and asked for an injunction to prevent the league from initiating a lockout, which the N.F.L. said was in effect as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
“The N.F.L. has a long history of violating federal antitrust law in an effort to minimize its labor costs,†the players’ lawsuit alleges about a subject that has become as familiar to the South Fourth Street Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis as First Amendment cases are to the Supreme Court in Washington.