By Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
A federal jury stunned the NFLPA yesterday by awarding a class of retired players $28.1M for not marketing them and not representing their best interests. The jury found the union guilty on both contract and fiduciary duty breach, but awarded no damages for the contractual violation and $7.1M for the fiduciary duty breach. The jury also awarded $21M of punitive damages. In arguing to no avail to the jury, the NFLPA contended that awarding punitive damages would hurt the group’s chances in its labor struggle with the league’s owners.
“We are obviously not pleased with any award of damages, but we believe that we have solid legal grounds to get this award overturned through post-trial motions and/or on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” Richard Berthelsen, the NFLPA’s acting interim Dir, said in a statement on the union’s Web site.
