NFL Decertification and Lockout for “Dummies”

The NFLPA has announced its decertification and a lockout is amongst us. We've heard details of legal action being taken by the individual players headed by Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and others against the NFL accusing the NFL of violating antitrust acts.

But what the heck does this all mean? Here's a simple explanation of the situation.

If you all remember from your high school US history classes, we all learned one piece of important US legislation. This being the Sherman Antitrust Act. This legislation requires the US government to monitor and investigate trusts, companies, and other organizations who are creating a monopoly in their market.

In recent memory, this piece of legislation was put into play when Microsoft was taken into court by the federal government of violating this antitrust law. Microsoft was being accused by limiting competition and creating a monopoly in the PC computer business by forcing their software onto all Intel products, as well as using their Internet Explorer browsing software to infiltrate the market and completely saturate the market against Netscape and other minor competitors.

So back to this current NFL issue. The legal action the players are taking to the NFL is accusing the NFL of antitrust violations. Causing a lockout means these players cannot work for their contracted employer, the NFL, with no other suitable alternative for these players to perform their work, which of course is playing pro football. In the market of "pro football", the NFL does have a "monopoly" unless if you even consider the UFL an alternative which most don't. So the players are prepared to take the NFL to court now that the lockout has been made official since the owners/NFL are preventing the players from working and having no alternative, hence a monopoly and hence the antitrust violation accusations.

There is no easy way to clearly explain what is going with every legal move and discussion but as far as what the current status is, hopefully this cleared up some confusion.