This comes completely out of nowhere.
The National Football League Players Association has filed a motion in federal court hoping that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league will be found in contempt. The motion alleges that Goodell and company have continually failed to abide by a court ruling from 11 weeks ago that indicated the league reassess the Adrian Peterson situation.
If you remember correctly, Judge David Doty overturned Peterson’s suspension and placed him back on the commissioner’s exempt list.
Here’s the full press release from the NFLPA:
Today, the players filed a motion in Federal Court in the Adrian Peterson matter because the Commissioner and NFL have deliberately ignored both the Court’s decision from eleven weeks ago and our repeated requests to comply with that order.
On February 26th, the NFL was ordered to change their decision in the Peterson matter and reissue a ruling consistent with our collective bargaining agreement. The Union made multiple requests to the League office asking the arbitrator, who serves at the direction of the Commissioner, to comply with the law and avoid further litigation. Despite our attempts, they have done nothing and leave us no choice but to seek this motion.
The delay tactics, inconsistencies and arbitrary decision making of the League has continued to hurt the rights of players, the credibility of the League office and the integrity of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In the absence of any action by the NFL’s governing board of owners, the players have acted to hold the NFL accountable to our players, the CBA and to the law.”
Peterson, who was suspended by the NFL for his role in a child abuse case last year, was reinstated by the NFL last month. However, the union’s stance is that the league has not been in compliance with the ruling. Immediately after Doty returned the case to the NFL, the league then filed an appeal with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Missouri—an appeal that could take months.
This comes on the same day that the NFLPA has demanded that Goodell recuse himself from the Tom Brady appeal. It also comes on the heels of suggestions that the union will attempt to take the league to court regarding Deflategate.
In addition to this, the NFLPA is going after the league for retroactively applying the new personnel conduct policy to Greg Hardy, who was suspended for 10 games last month.
NFLPA also goes after the NFL for acting in defiance of court orders by retroactively applying the new personal conduct policy to Greg Hardy
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 19, 2015
This is going to be fun.
Photo: USA Today Sports