Posted: 04:40 PM ET May 24, 2012
By Will Brinson | Senior NFL Blogger
DeMaurice Smith is firing shots at the NFL. (Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the NFLPA dropped a hammer on the NFL, suing the league for salary-cap-related collusion during the uncapped 2010 year and claiming that the players were due $1 billion in damages.
It was a stunning move and a reminder, as Clark Judge wrote, that labor peace is already a distant memory. And on Thursday, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith ramped up the rhetoric, referring to the owners as a "cartel" while meeting with the media outside the union's headquarters in Washington, DC.
"Cartels do what cartels will do when left unchecked," Smith said.
Smith added that the NFLPA did not sue the league to lose, saying (via the NFLPA's Twitter feed) that the union "wouldn't have filed it if we didn't think it was true."
Additionally, per the NFL Network's Albert Breer, Smith pointed out that the relationship might be frosty but that's the nature of business.
"We all got along and the league locked us out," Smith said. "That's the business we're in."
On Wednesday, the NFL vehemently denied that any collusion took place during the uncapped year. The bigger issue for the NFLPA, however, is proving that they're able to actually sue the NFL over something that took place prior to the new CBA being signed in August of 2011.
The legalese in there should make for some fun, expensive debates in Minnesota soon. For now, we just have to hang out and watch the two sides fire public salvos at one another.
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Tags: Lockout, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, NFL
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