Over the past 24 hours, we’ve certainly had a lot of discussions around the old adage “Not seeing the forest for the trees.” In the old way of controlling their spin on all stories about football, the NFL managed to keep all of the television networks and most of the major print media on very short leashes because of their broadcast rights and access to players and managers for interviews. And then the Internet came along. Despite claims of a few who proudly proclaim they invented the Internet and Facebook, this new medium has not only moved the retired football players battle to a new and level playing field; it’s in a different league altogether. Just as the past two weeks have completely caught Tiger Woods and his team of old-school PR flacks like deer in the headlights, the NFLPA and the NFL and their old media machines have been hard-pressed to catch up with a new medium that they can no longer control. The Internet doesn’t belong to anyone and it belongs to everyone.
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As so many of you already know, Bernie Parrish was the original plaintiff in the NFLPA/Players Inc. lawsuit – always was and always will be. And we’ll continue to refer to that case as Parrish vs. Players Inc. I guess some people feel that if you keep trying to spin it another way often enough, people will forget – just like the NFL and the NFLPA. But we did notice that even as contentious as it got throughout the trial, both Jeffrey Kessler and Richard Berthelsen were generally professional and respectful enough to refer to the case as Parrish vs. NFLPA/Players Inc. in their filings. But things deteriorated rapidly between Bernie and his hired attorney, Ron Katz. As a result, you will notice the filings that came out of Katz’s office after a certain point were generally filed as Herbert Adderley vs. NFLPA/Players Inc. Some people have been fed a hook, line and sinker to diminish Bernie Parrish and his years of independent work for all retired players.
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On a quick side note for those of you who were on that final GLA Settlement list, we’re going to emphasize here once again: Watch your mail for the paperwork from Garden City Group over the next week. Some of the guys have already reported receiving their information already. If you don’t receive it by the end of December, be sure to call them at (866) 697-5552 and leave them a message. The folks at Garden City Group will get back to you quickly. It’s possible they might have an old or wrong address for you. Then be sure to send the completed form back to them as quickly as you can (it has to be postmarked no later than Feb. 9, 2009 to qualify). Then put it in an envelope and mail it to this address (by USPS Certified Mail with confirmation so you know they got it):
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.
This is the 4-page final settlement agreement that was signed by Judge William Alsup in San Francisco on Nov. 23, 2009.
(The crew over at DocStoc have added some great new features: 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.) .
… And here’s the 12-page Summary from Judge Alsup covering Attorneys’ Fees, costs and compensation for the class representative. Everything Bernie Parrish has pointed out is covered in this document …and more. (Ouch!)
On November 23, 2009, in San Francisco, California, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup rendered a blistering set of three orders approving the settlement agreement in Parrish & Adderley vs. NFLPA Players Inc. However, in rendering the orders, Judge Alsup said of the award of attorneys’ fees, “When combined with the expense reimbursement below, counsel is receiving approximately 25 percent of the value of the settlement. This figure adequately compensates counsel for the work performed in this action. A reasonable fee in light of the ultimate recovery obtained for the class, and is reasonable in light of the missed opportunity for an even higher recovery.”
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Judge Alsup criticized Manatt and McKool, both of which are now touting themselves as “sports attorneys,” for (1) Counsel’s “failure to lay the proper foundation for critical evidence”; and (2) “Counsel’s failure to present a plausible damages theory on plaintiff’s claim for breach of fiduciary duty.”
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In approving the class action, Judge Alsup received fifty-three letters from class members and non-class members. Only two of the letters praised the settlement reached by Manatt and McKool. The judge states that of the remaining letters, most did not make cogent arguments to the fairness of the settlement and “over half of these letters were ‘form letters’ drafted by a non-class member. Moreover, a majority of the objections were signed by non-class members, whose rights are unaffected by this action.”
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 »
After what seems like an eternity, Manett Phelps & Phillips and McKool Smith filed Motions in the Parrish, Adderley, Roberts vs. the NFLPA/Players Inc. class action lawsuit late last week for final review and court approval on August 20, 2009 by Judge Alsup. The documents just became available online so we’ve loaded them up on DocStoc once again for easier viewing and searching. The main part of the Motion outlines the basics of the case and subsequent settlement. The Exhibits outline the payment plan and schedules with the first payment scheduled for July 13, 2009 (they’ll miss that one!) and the second set for June 5, 2010.
It’s always interesting digging into the details: Turns out the settlement will be managed and distributed by Garden City Group which just happens to be right here in Seattle. Half of the funds (around $13 million) were placed into escrow on July 13th, the day this Motion was apparently filed. And then barring no problems, the balance will be placed into escrow on June 5, 2010 for distribution shortly after that. Another interesting detail from Page 7 of Exhibit 1: Players who elected to Opt-Out John Baker, Richard Yelvington, Lynn Chandnois, John Demarie, Dan Goich, Daniel Direnzo, James “Scottie” Graham, Deacon Jones, Steve Largent, Brig Owens, Ben Pucci, Donald Testerman and Andre Collins were all excluded from suit.
(If you need to look at the GLA list of Players in the lawsuit click HERE.)
The proposed Distribution Plan is actually in Exhibit 2 (5 pages long). $1.7 million to cover costs and expenses will be coming off the top of the first half of the settlement to be paid this summer and the law firms will be receiving half of their 30% fee from each of the two payments. The juicy stuff on how and when players will get paid are in the last 2 pages of Exhibit 2. Here’s the key section that most of you will be interested in reading:
We keep getting inquiries and comments on an almost daily basis asking about when the retired players will finally be receiving their Players Inc. settlement money. Since the settlement was first announced with great fanfare in early June at a well-covered press conference that included NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, plaintiffs’ attorney Ron Katz and plaintiff Herb Adderley, few details have been available on how, what, when, where and why. We need a Jerry Maguire to remind the NFLPA/Players Inc. to Show Us the Money!
Here are some comments from a recent e-mail from Bernie Parrish, the original plaintiff in the lawsuit:
“I have yet to find any retired player in the class – or even outside the 2,062 member class – who was consulted about the settlement before Katz accepted the strange $26.25 million deal that Kessler says he “crafted” and that Katz ordered Adderley to accept, telling Adderley it came from Latham & Watkins, a special law firm who suddenly arrived on the scene to hand Kessler’s “crafted” settlement deal to Katz…
“Adderley told the press conference he had not discussed the settlement with any other retired players because he just found out about it on Wednesday [Editor's Comment: The day before the press conference] and then met D Smith the day of the settlement press conference. And there are lots more lawyerly shenanigans where this comes from. I’ll be emailing them to you shortly.”
One of the presentations that drew a lot of attention during The Summit was from Bruce Laird of Fourth and Goal. Fourth and Goal has been in ongoing discussions with the NFL to use the NFL Alumni organization as a possible platform for advocacy of disability and pension reform. At the conclusion of The Summit, the group voted to continue moving forward without embracing any single organization at this early stage while encouraging and supporting all organizations that will advance retired players’ issues. (You can look at the evolving Summit blog by clicking HERE and you’ll find Bruce Laird’s presentation under the PowerPoints tab – or click HERE.)
Bernie Parrish has already voiced some of his strong opinions in no uncertain terms (HERE and HERE) and this is definitely going to make it a very hot summer topic. There’s no middle ground or gray area on this one. Do the retired players embrace an existing organization that has been looked on as another business-as-usual club for elite members or will they be embracing an organization that’s been reborn into something that can actually serve the membership at large with complete transparency and representation for each and every one of its members? Only time will tell and everyone’s watching closely.
In the meantime, we’re encouraging everyone to join in an open dialog to make their voices and arguments heard. We hope that everyone will take advantage of the new technology tools available to us today so anyone can voice their opinions. We just received some comments from Jeff Nixon and Tony Davis who were both also at The Summit. So we’re posting them here tonight in hopes of starting a civil discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the Alumni deal. We only ask that each of you keep your comments from getting personal. This will be cross-posted on Dave’s blog and on the new Football Summit blog.
Now that Judge Alsup handed down his final order on the Class Action lawsuit filed against the NFLPA/Players Inc. by Bernie Parrish, Herb Adderley and Walt Roberts, more details and analysis is starting to show up in sports columns across the country.
The LA Times’ Greg Johnson was among the first in the mainstream media to actually comment about the verdict (you can read the entire article by clicking HERE). Among the more interesting notes was Judge Alsup’s own words, quoting the departed Gene Upshaw’s “dog food” reference on Page 3 of the Order (Thank you, Judge Alsup, for having a sense of humor!) (click to enlarge for reading):
Ron Katz from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and his co-counsel and McKool Smith are to be commended for doing a great job of conveying a complex case to the jurors and the judge. No doubt interim Executive Director Richard Berthelsen and defense counsel Jeffrey Kessler are probably already huddled in some dark corner, plotting their revenge – er, appeal – with even more of the players’ money. Maybe they should at least wait until a new Executive Director is put in place before making their final decision; from a business standpoint, there’s a simple concept called Cutting Your Losses. And in retrospect (looking back from some time in the future), the cost of ongoing litigation just in dollars alone makes no sense. And of course, why would Kessler “advise” his client, the NFLPA under acting Executive Director Berthelsen, to follow common sense? Another couple of years of litigation appeals and another few million dollars goes into his firm’s pockets.
Jeff Nixon remembered to bring his camera along to the trial in San Francisco and managed to get a few pictures outside of the courtroom during deliberations. Even before the verdict came in, everyone seems relaxed and happy to be there. Has anyone got any pictures of NFLPA Acting Executive Director Richard Berthelson or their attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, smiling?
Clifton McNeil and Jeff Nixon
Dave, Jeff Nixon & Walter Beach
Dave, Herb Adderley, Bart Starr, Jeff Nixon & Ron Katz
Over the past 24 hours, we’ve certainly had a lot of discussions around the old adage “Not seeing the forest for the trees.” In the old way of controlling their spin on all stories about football, the NFL managed to keep all of the television networks and most of the major print media on very short leashes because of their broadcast rights and access to players and managers for interviews. And then the Internet came along. Despite claims of a few who proudly proclaim they invented the Internet and Facebook, this new medium has not only moved the retired football players battle to a new and level playing field; it’s in a different league altogether. Just as the past two weeks have completely caught Tiger Woods and his team of old-school PR flacks like deer in the headlights, the NFLPA and the NFL and their old media machines have been hard-pressed to catch up with a new medium that they can no longer control. The Internet doesn’t belong to anyone and it belongs to everyone.
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.
