A very quiet news announcement hit the wires this past week that could have major repercussions for active players in upcoming contract negotiations. First, here’s the headline and a clip from the original release on Reuters:
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NFL in discussions about using chip-in-ball technology
A couple of recent articles caught our attention today, one of them discussing the Madden Curse – what happens when you find yourself featured on the cover of the latest edition of Electronic Arts Madden Football:
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To Grace Or Not to Grace The Cover: Is Madden Curse For Real?
Would you trust your brain or your money with this man?
We have no idea how anyone missed this little tidbit from the Congressional hearings on brain concussions in the NFL. The media rightfully focused on stirring comments made by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ owner Gay Culverhouse regarding the complete lack of advocacy for the players when it comes to brain injuries: The team doctors are hired by the owners and are employed to protect their investment; many of the coaches and owners often play golf with the team doctors in their free time. Tampa Bay Online covered Ms. Culverhouse’s testimony closely and the last paragraph in their story says a lot about just how seriously Roger Goodell plans on looking into brain concussions.
AAA
Culverhouse: NFL doctors aren’t advocates for players
I would urge every retired football player to write Judge Alsup whether you are on the (thus far) confirmed Katz/Adderley Kessler/Berthelson list of 2062 or not; there is proof of over 3,000 but it’s up to Judge Alsup to demand it as part of perjured testimony.
Many of you know you signed GLA’s but are not included in Players Inc. records managed by Players Inc. employee, Kelly Skubick, who told interviewers she took care of licensing for “over 3,000” retired players in an article published on Oct 3, 2008. Katz refused to use this information which I supplied to him in time to be used in the trial. Kelly Skubick has very recently left her $50,000+ job at Players Inc., a job she told the interviewer that she loved. I now understand that her computer with the records of over 3,000 retired players who are covered by licensing agreements may have been damaged by the convenient fire in the NFLPA offices shortly after DeMaurice Smith took office replacing Upshaw. Katz has allowed Berthelson and Kessler to continue saying only 2,062 retired players had signed GLA’s when he knew that was not true and that the Players Inc. employee who handled servicing those GLA’s on a daily basis said there are over 3,000. That, Mr. Katz, is perjury on their part as I pointed out to you shortly after I gave you that information which certainly extends any time limit problems you claim to exist.
This issue is important since it reduces the damage award in this case by 33% whatever the true amount of the award should be. That is an increase of $9.3 million raising the incorrect $28.1 million to $37.4 million while 133% of $106.9 million raises the Rowley-calculated damages to over $140 million. Since the NFLPA’s Executive Committee calls $28.1 million “Chump Change,” they need a stronger message – like $140 million from Judge Alsup’s court.
PERHAPS THE BEST OPTION IS TO PRINT THIS OUT, SIGN IT AND MAIL IT TO JUDGE ALSUP. LET HIM KNOW WE ALL CARE, WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND WE AREN’T GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!continue reading »
Chalk up another one for the old guys! Retired players are so sick and tired of getting ripped off every time they turn around. We recently came across an article that Electronic Arts was partnering with The Weather Channel to pay them for weather statistics to make Madden Football X more “realistic” – but they DON’T want to pay the retired football players themselves for their stats in order to make the game more “realistic”. I wonder when they’re planning on screwing around with the weather so they won’t have to pay for that either. Read all about the weather by clicking HERE.
So when you use the retired players’ likenesses right down to their race, size and stats, is that realistic enough for you, EA? But you don’t want to pay for that and you want to pay for the weather? Recently, EA announced that they were no longer going to be using retired players in their video games. Ha!
Anyway, that leads us to another news item. Bob Stein (1969 – 1975 Kansas City Chiefs, LA Rams, Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers) is spearheading a new Class Action Lawsuit against the NFL for distributing footage of old games through their film distribution arm, NFL Films. Here’s their synopsis:
“Six retired National Football League (NFL) players have filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL. The lawsuit challenges the unauthorized use of the retired players’ names, images, and likenesses to promote the NFL brand and otherwise produce revenue for the NFL. The players, Fred Dryer, Jim Marshall, Elvin Bethea, Joe Senser, Dan Pastorini, and Ed White, allege the NFL has earned substantial revenue by using the identities of retired NFL football players to promote the League’s “glory days”. The NFL’s efforts to use its past to promote its brand have allowed the NFL to obtain revenues from current fans of the game. The NFL’s total revenue exceeded an estimated $6.9 billion in 2008 alone.
The NFL has become the most powerful and profitable sport in America over many years through the sacrifice of the players who played the game. Many of those now-retired NFL players suffer from severe physical limitations, pain, and disabilities as a result of the sacrifices they made – sacrifices the NFL now uses to promote itself. Through their suit, the retired NFL players seek a fair share of the revenues the NFL has earned, and will earn, by using the images of former players who helped build the NFL brand into what it is today.
Maybe we should be thanking DeMaurice Smith. After all, he signed the 2008 LM-2 even though he didn’t step into office until this Spring. Some of these items seem to be listed out in more detail than last year and there are other details that weren’t disclosed in the 2007 LM-2.
Electronic Arts Inc.Pg. 48 Amount $29,873,436.00 (WOW! here we go again – EA paid royalties for 2008 that totaled MORE than what the entire settlement was for the Players Inc. lawsuit, folks!) (Question: Just how many retired players have current GLA agreements for Players Inc. now? Or perhaps we should say, “How few?”)
Don Russ Playoff Inc. (Licensee): pg. 59$6,715,129.00
Octagon Football:pg. 779 Amount: $411,929.00 (What is Octagon Football?)
Super Bowl Game (tickets?)pg 789 Amount: $289,800.00 ( Who were these tickets for?)
Washington Redskins:Pg. 794 Amount $141,929.00 ( What is this for?)
NFL Coaches Assoc. (Group licensing) Pg. 776 Amount $500,000.00 (Does the NFLPA also represent NFL coaches now?)
NFL Management CouncilPg. 777 Amount $221,774.00 (What could this be for?)
Weil, Gotshal & Manages: (Attorney fees) : Pg. 794 Amount $628,646.00 (What services did they provide?)
NFL Experience (tickets)Pg. 777 Amount $8,033.00 (Even more tickets? Heck – between all the free tickets given to the NFLPA, the Alumni AND the NFL, no wonder paid tickets cost so damn much!)
Dewey, Leboef: (Attorney fees) Pg. 756 Amount $8,146,976 (Was this all for the Players Inc. debacle?)
Groom Law Group (Attorney fees) Pg. 762 Amount $586,355.00 (Which part of the disability debacle is this for?)
The Fairmont Kea Lani Maui:Pg. 798 Amount $1,369, 082.00 Nothing but the best for the NFLPA Leadership. (Guess this must this include room service?)
The Nanny Connection (again): Hawaii: child care provider 2008 NFLPA board meeting pg. 801 Amount $7,112.00 (How many children were each NFLPA leader allowed to bring?)
NFLPA Board Meeting (United Airlines) Pg. 805 Amount $322,399,00 (These were first class seats? Just exactly how many people do they have?)
Ritz- Carlton Hotel: Puerto Rico NFLPA Retired Players 2008 convention Pg. 803 Amount $227,040,00 (Steering Committee: Where’s the next meeting?)
Gaguas, Puerto Rico: NFLPA Retired players 2008 convention Pg. 799 Amount $28,255.00 (Is this another child care expense or…?)
Retired Chapters Officers MeetingPg. 799 Amount $52,806.00 (Where did this important meeting take place? We KNOW we didn’t spend this much to put on our entire Summit!)
Find any other juicy LM-2 goodies that we need to point out? Drop us a line!
4/17/2009 Subject: Madden not paying retired players while collecting over $100 million in royalties off the retired players’ backs – Did Madden scramble your identity to keep from paying you?
The retired NFL players who were used in Madden EA video games will be suing Madden and EA for using us in those games without compensating us. Madden’s agent Sandy Montag boasts he and Madden collected over $100,000,000 in royalties while paying the retired NFL players used in those games absolutelynothing. Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement. I doubt he wants to answer all those fans who will be asking, “Why, John Madden? Why did you screw all those retired players over, you seemed like such a friendly, good-natured buffoon?”
We probably won’t use Manatt Phelps and Phillips and McKool Smith, the attorneys who obtained a $28.1 million verdict for us against the NFLPA for “scrambling retired players identities” in those video games. The jury found it a “grossly fraudulent” action taken so they wouldn’t have to pay the retired players. That case Parrish v NFLPA Case No. 07 0943 WHA carries $21 million in punitive damages and is being appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which doesn’t mean the decision has been overturned nor does it lessen the verdict found by the jury. In my opinion, Madden should have been included in our licensing suit against the NFLPA and so should Electronic Arts.
Irregularities in the trial may even bring about a retrial that will allow the award to be in the $100+ million range where it should have been instead of only $28.1 million. The case is already being retried in the media by Richard Berthelsen and Jeffery Kessler. Regardless of their propaganda, the case has nothing to do with the issue of the number of high profile players not signing what the Judge William Alsup calls a “masterpiece of obfuscating.” That “masterpiece of obfuscation” is the Group Licensing Agreements (GLA) drafted by the NFLPA’s Richard Berthelsen and Jeffery Kessler. The “grossly fraudulent obfuscation” – that GLA – is the issue that lost the NFLPA the $28.1 million. Our side of the trial was warned by Judge Alsup that if we talked to the press about the case he would hold us in contempt. On the other hand, Berthelsen and Kessler seem to be exempt from spinning their previously defeated arguments to try to win them in media articles before the 9th Circuit Court hears the case. Worse yet, they’re now using publications where they have spent over $281,000 over the last several years for NFLPA advertising. So they’re not only retrying the case in the media, they’re actually paying the media to retry the case as an advertisement in the court of public opinion to try to influence the 9th Circuit Court. Are those actions contemptuous? It seems to me that most of what they do is contemptuous. Rigging a union election is contemptuous and it is also illegal.
2,062 retired NFL players participated in our lawsuit with only 12 retired players opting out, 10 of whom work for the defendant – the NFLPA. That’s an amazing vote of endorsement by the retired NFL players.
HBO Real Sports ran its Disunity episode on the retired players GLA trial last night. In under 15 minutes, they managed to present the major highlights of the entire 3-week trial, covering the points and counterpoints between the retired players and the NFLPA/Players Inc. and how the trial was won.
Joe DeLamielleure, Bruce Laird and Herb Adderley on HBO Real Sports
Joe DeLamielleure, Bruce Laird, Herb Adderley and Dave were interviewed as plaintiffs and the players’ attorneys from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips as well as the NFLPA attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, were each given time to explain their positions. Just like in the trial, the defining moment came when they showed Herb Adderley sitting on his couch with Frank Deford to show him some player’s pages on Electronic Arts’ Madden Football video game. There on the screen was a virtual NFL player that didn’t have his name or his number but his stats were exactly the same as Herb’s (and that virtual player was black). Then they showed a generic white player who also didn’t have Dave’s name and number but with his exact stats. Then they showed the letter from the NFLPA’s own licensing director instructing EA to make sure they altered any reference to all actual players to avoid payment of royalties. (As usual, the NFLPA’s overpaid mouthpiece Kessler still had the nerve to try spinning his worn-out ‘We-were-only-trying-to-protect-the-retired-players-from-being-ripped-off routine.’)They even had references to the departed Gene Upshaw’s Dog Food comment (read Judge Alsup’s own comments by clickingHERE).
Gene Upshaw selling Dog Food on HBO Real Sports
This was pretty much the way it was all presented in court, so it’s easy to see why the retired players won an overwhelming decision, complete with Judge Alsup’s final opinion as icing on the cake.
We’ve pretty much come to expect that nothing the NFLPA or the NFL does is ever straightforward or easy.
Another prime example popped up a couple of weeks ago when we first announced that the jury had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in the NFLPA/Players Inc. lawsuit in San Francisco. Several people posted positive comments about this incredible effort by Herb Adderley, Bernie Parrish and Walter Roberts on behalf of thousands of retired players. Sadly, when the final revised list of players who were included in the suit was made public, many players came to realize that they had been completely left out. Again. Some of them may not have even received a GLA for their signatures; others may simply have been left off in error or even intentionally not contacted by the NFLPA/Players Inc.
One example of this was brought to our attention by Doug Brien. Doug retired in 2005 but doesn’t recall being asked to sign a GLA in 2006 – 2008. Yet, it turns out he’s prominently featured as an important kicker in Electronic Arts’ Madden 2005 game. Take a look at the synopsis for that game on GameSpot’s website by clicking HERE. Doug’s featured prominently in a playoff game.
And here’s a screenshot actually clipped by GAMESPOT clearly showing Doug Brien in that Fantasy Football game (that sure ain’t Gene Upshaw kicking the ball):
We don’t know how many of you remember the kids’ series of books, “Where’s Waldo?“. But we’re sure it’s Where’s John Madden? time now. (We had a clip on the blog just before the trial started. Click HERE to read it.)
Mark Kriegel of FOXsports just wrote a powerful piece about the recent Players Inc. lawsuit victory and how the normally boisterous Madden has mysteriously vanished since the beginning of the trial. Calls to NBC, Electronic Arts as well as to his agent have resulted in mostly dodgy comments, with each of them pointing Kriegel to the other. And absolutely no one seems to know where John Madden has gone. Kriegel also starts digging into the idea that perhaps this is as good a time as any for madden – and everyone else along with him in the NFL and NFLPA – to finally step up to the plate and do the right thing for the retired players. There were 481 comments when we found the article and the vote for Madden to do the right thing was overwhelmingly 72% FOR vs. 28% AGAINSTDoes John Madden have a duty to speak out (With a Total of 65,102 people voting so far.)
From the article on FOXsports:
Jack Youngblood, another tough guy plaintiff, also professes an undying admiration for the former coach. Madden once said that Youngblood – a Rams defensive end who once played with a broken leg – “personified the All-Madden team.”
This is just coming in right now on the class lawsuit by Bernie Parrish, Herb Adderley, Walter Roberts and a cast of thousands against the NFLPA/Players Inc. in San Francisco. It looks like the jury has come back in favor of the plaintiffs! More as news breaks…
In short, WE WON!!! On both counts of Breach of Contract, Breach of Fiduciary Duty and the jury is now charged with considering punitive damages.
And More: Plaintiffs are awarded a total of $28 million: $7.1 million in royalties etc. PLUS $21 million in punitive damages. Wa-hoo!
And we’re all still wondering just exactly how much the NFLPA and Players Inc. wasted of the Union’s money (YOUR money) to fight this lawsuit over the past 2 years? And how much more they’re probably considering to appeal the award?
And congratulations and credit are also in order for Ron Katz and his co-cousel for a fine job representing the players.
Like many of us, Jeff Nixon’s been following the class action lawsuit between players (mostly retired) against the NFLPA an its, subsidiary, Players, Inc. The trial starts October 20th in San Francisco.
John Madden Introduced by His Favorite Sandwich
A LITTLE BACKGROUND: Among the people in the middle of this case is, of course, John Madden. Liked and disliked equally within NFL circles, Madden leveraged his successes as a coach with Al Davis’ Oakland Raiders, he went on to be a regular on NBC Sunday Night Football for a long second career. In 1988, he signed a contract with Electronic Arts to put his name on the wildly successful video game, Madden NFL. The game has generated incredible revenues and profits and is now at the center of the class-action lawsuit involving claims of fraud, misrepresentation and just plain-old thievery.
The majority of retired players have filed suit to recover royalties and damages as a result of what appears to be a consistent pattern of ensuring that EA paid as few of the players their due as possible (leaving more for those who WERE getting paid). Mounting evidence convinced a judge to allow the trial to move forward this past September 12th but the trial was postponed until the October 20th date as a result of Gene Upshaw’s quick disappearance from the scene in August. There’s no doubt that the NFLPA has already spent a small fortune in their attempts to prevent this case from going to trial and becoming public. We think this trial may be a watershed moment and valuable in supporting the long-standing claims of how the majority of retired players have been systematically robbed on virtually every front that involved any money. And it looks like anyone who’s been riding on this runaway bus – maybe it’s the Madden Cruiser – is complicit in the scheme. If you’re not part of solution, then maybe you’re part of the problem. While he may or may not have known everything that went on with the lopsided licensing deals, most of the players feel that Madden probably had some idea of why he was making so much money. (HINT: Not his good looks!)
Today on his blog, NFL Retired Players United, Jeff Nixon posts some publicly released information about some damning evidence that was instrumental in allowing the upcoming class action lawsuit against the NFLPA and its licensing subsidiary, Players, Inc. (click HERE to read the rest of Jeff’s post). Part of the key evidence that will be officially presented at trial in San Francisco on October 20, 2008, will be letters from the NFLPA and Players Inc. management to Electronic Arts (publishers of the wildly successful video game Madden NFL). The correspondence appears to show a long-standing conspiracy to defraud the majority of retired players by directing game developers to “disguise” the identities of retired stars in a blatant effort to avoid paying them any royalties. But like we keep saying, it’s often not the crime but the coverup that nails you. It looks like NFLPA may have been cooking the books as well in order to keep everything covered up. Small wonder Upshaw & Co. spent so much in legal fees trying to make sure the trial didn’t move forward.
Perhaps someone should immediately get a court order in place to lock in the assets of all those involved – including Gene Upshaw’s estate – before we find even more money has vanished offshore.
There just isn’t a whole lot more we can say here to make anyone LOOK bad – they’ve done a really good job of it themselves. We just can’t wait to see what else comes out of the trial.
