Hard ti imagine that Internet giant Yahoo would have a reason to want to take on the NFL players association, they think they do. Today in a federal court in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sunnyvale based Yahoo filed suit against players association.
What prompted this suit? According to Yahoo the licensing arm of the players union threatened suit against Yahoo if they failed to pay royalties for profits earned from publicly available player data.
In the court papers filed, Yahoo says their licensing agreement with NFL Players Inc expired March 2009 and went on to say a court ruling in April proved they don't need an agreement with NFL Players Inc. Citing the CBS Interactive case and victory in that case over the NFL Players Inc were the dispute was of a similar nature.
I almost feel sorry for the NFL Players Union and all of its income earning branches. They have lost big dollars with that loss to CBS and will lose more should Yahoo prevail. This is probably the tip of the ice berg for the players union. The fantasy football leagues are a billion dollar industry that the union would no longer enjoy a slice of the money pie. They need to go on a diet anyhow.
I am not anti union, I just have more respect and appreciation for the players than I do the union that is supposed to care for the remaining veteran players that have made the game so great over the last 5 decades, the ones that created so many of the unions money making opportunities. The ones the Players Union forgets when it comes time to share the wealth.
That same union that cries foul, but court papers proved, conspired with a certain home football game company giant that masked former greats like Mel Renfro in their game so he and other veterans would not get paid their fare share of the royalties.
Its hard to have empathy for a union so dedicated to denying monies earned and promised to the living veteran players from the 50's on, men who with out the game would not enjoy the stature it does today. Men whose images still generate revenues for the union but are denied compensation.
Brian Gumbalt has used his position and the power of HBO to document the abuses and denials of claims by the NFL Players Union to needy football veterans. He has shown case after case where former players are homeless and destitute, in need of medical help and rejected by the very union whose job it is to help and protect these men.
Iron Mike Ditka has testified in front of Congress as to the abuses, yet nothing has changed. I would side with the union if they lived up to their moral obligations, helping former football players in time of need. Seeing that they were getting proper medical attention, were not homeless on the streets, but they have not.
If Yahoo and others prevail against these guys and they see all that money going elsewhere, maybe they might see how players they have denied assistance feel and maybe just maybe if they focused on taking care of their own, then they could glean some sympathy.
Till that scene is corrected and the players union takes care of its own, I could care less who gets over on them, just like they don't care what happens to their veteran players.
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