Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees & 10 NFL players file suit versus NFL

After agreeing to decertify their union in order to make a last ditch effort to save the game they love to play, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and ten other NFL players together filed suit against the National Football League in the U.S. District Court under antitrust laws, as they seek a class action litigation.

The lawsuit alleges that the NFL has "conspired to deny the players' ability to market their services through a patently unlawful group boycott and price-fixing arrangement or, in the alternative, a unilaterally imposed set of anti-competitive restrictions on player movement, free agency, and competitive market freedom."

They cite as constraints what they called "the league's history of antitrust violations, including a potential lockout, the draft and the franchise and transition player designations." Teams use those designations to keep key free agents off the open market, but the players also are well compensated when they sign new contracts (NFL.com).

In short, the NFL has kept the players from seeing their account books with regard to players' salaries. The NFL is a $9 billion business, and the players want to have a raise in their overall salaries, as well as improved health care costs and benefits, plus players want more flexiblity in free agency. Under the old CBA, teams had the right to franchise players who were free agents on their teams thereby forcing them to sign a one year contract for less money than they would make on the open market.

Yet, the owners so far seem unwilling to listen.

By midnight tonight, the NFL could lock the players out, meaning that there will be no football activity until the CBA is finalized.

This is a horrible black eye for the NFL, a league that has prospered during one of the worst economic climates in United States history. Without the NFL, American business is destined to suffer for it, lay-offs will likely go up and millions of dollars will be lost.

When a regular company has a labor problem it really doesn't affect everyone around it; however, the NFL is like a black hole. From advertisers, to public relations, communications, media outlets like radio, television and print, concessions, and stadium operations, if the NFL locks out, these businesses will suffer greatly.

It's only a matter of time before this case goes to the Supreme Court.