Dave Pear's Blog

This just came in over the wire regarding the new class action lawsuit with the NFL and NFL Films. The courts in Minnesota have upheld the suit and is allowing it to proceed. Here’s the press release along with a copy of the Order Denying the NFL’s Motion to stop the lawsuit posted on Scribd for easier access and viewing. (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. )

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Retired NFL Players Record First Victory Against National Football League

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Court Allows Players to Proceed with Claims

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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.

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