Short Memories in a Long Battle
The Parrish vs. Players Inc. lawsuit presented an interesting conundrum for the NFLPA under Gene Upshaw; here they were, being sued by their own membership for not paying them royalties due after years of revenues generated from video games and trading cards and other licensed items. Yet they couldn’t allow themselves to notify their retired members that they were part of a class action against… them?!! Keep in mind that this was Upshaw’s NFLPA. It didn’t take long for new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith to quickly void Berthelsen and Kessler’s tired old arguments for another appeal and move the process to the settlement that’s close to being distributed today. Do we have to remind anyone that if Gene Upshaw was still around, retired players would still be looking at another 3 – 5 years of appeals with no end in sight? (Actually, it appears that Yes – We DO Have to Remind Some People.) And all this happened within the first few months of change in the front office.
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Let’s just say it one more time for the people at the back of the room: You know Gene Upshaw would have spent millions more of YOUR money fighting YOU over YOUR money for however long it took to beat you down.
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And yet some people are still trying to point out what Gene Upshaw’s NFLPA DIDN’T do… He’s gone! Elvis has left the building! Get over it.
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This lawsuit and a whole lot of other things have all come about in just the past couple of years as a direct result of the efforts of INDEPENDENT retired players like Bernie Parrish. And so it will continue. Accept no substitutes.
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A lot of players have been writing and calling to see why they weren’t included in the final list of recipients for the GLA class action settlement. We suspect that many of the players might not have even received notification of the class action and therefore didn’t get included in the lawsuit and subsequent settlement. (This is another good reason to make sure you return your paperwork for the settlement checks as soon as you receive it.)
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Anyway, for some of you who might never have seen it, here’s a copy of the original notice that went out in 2008 once the class was acknowledged by the court.
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Once again, we’ve loaded it up on DocStoc for easier reading and downloading. (Click on the FULL SCREEN button to enlarge it for easier navigation – hit the ESC key to close. You can also click the DOWNLOAD button to save a PDF copy for printing and reading. There’s also a Menu button in the upper left corner with even more options.)
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Players Inc. Suit Final Approved Order –
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And if you want to see what one of the GLAs (Group Licensing Agreement) looked like, here’s one that Dave received in 2005 (as always, click on the thumbnail to enlarge for reading) and we’re still pretty sure that Richard Berthelsen did indeed have a hand in crafting these agreements.
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