The NFL players are seeking punitive damages as a result of zzzzzzzzzzz man are we playing football yet? No? I guess we should throw some dollar signs out there and call it sports reporting.
The NFL and players spent nearly two hours Thursday arguing before U.S. District Judge David Doty on what the court should do with $4.078 billion in television rights fees. Doty ruled two months ago the the money was secured illegally by the league to build a “lockout fund.”[..]
The players cited $400 million in revenue from DirecTV, as well as $40 million from ESPN and $17 million from Verizon, as money that didn’t needed to be repaid. They also went over the 2011 totals from each of the league’s partners — $610 million from CBS, $713 million from FOX, $775 million from NBC, $976 million from ESPN and $555 million from DirecTV. In regards to those funds, Kessler said the league “ignored their obligations and conceded their breaches.”
“A message needs to be sent,” said Kessler. “You must comply with the law of this land.”
So if you’re keeping score at home, there was a lockout, an injunction on the lockout, a stay on the injunction on the lockout, and now the stay is under deliberation. Whew. The offseason was so much easier when we were just bitching about Brett Favre.
