Off to court: where the NFL labor fight continues

The NFL labor situation is fluid, and nobody can be certain how everything will play out. However, now that the NFL Players Association has decertified and the owners have locked out the players, here is what could happen next:

-- No player movement. There will be none under the lockout. No player signings and no trades. The April draft still will take place, but drafted players will not be able to sign contracts. And players who are injured will be unable to receive treatment by team doctors and trainers, and coaches can have no contact with their players.

-- The union could win an antitrust suit, overriding the lockout. That was a major reason why the union decertified -- hoping to counter a lockout. The court also could deny the owners the right to lock out the players while litigation continues.

The case was assigned to U.S. District judge Patrick Schiltz, not colleague David Doty, who has overseen NFL labor matters since the early 1990s and has several times ruled in favor of the players. The lawsuit still could end up in front of Doty. New cases are randomly assigned to judges when they're filed but are sometimes reassigned to others on the bench with expertise in a certain issue.

In the 52-page lawsuit, the players are seeking a declaration that NFL salary cap, draft, franchise tag and other restrictions violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. Even if Doty rules in favor of the players, the owners almost certainly would appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

-- The league could challenge the union's decertification before the National Labor Relations Board. The league might contend the union was not negotiating with the intention of reaching an agreement but with the intention of decertifying all along.

The NLRB, if it agreed with the league, could file a request in federal court seeking to block the decertification. A union cannot file an antitrust lawsuit, so decertifying is critical to the players' strategy.

-- If a lockout is blocked, the league would have to decide what rules will apply for the 2011 season. Would there be a salary cap? What would be the rules of free agency? Those are more serious questions that would have to be decided.

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