Last summer, the NFL Players Association spent weeks playing defense. (Badly.) This summer, the NFLPA is playing offense.
Via Daniel Kaplan, the NFLPA has sued video-game licensee Saber Interactive over a partnership that was announced on June 29, 2023, one day after Lloyd Howell became the NFLPA’s new executive director.
The case got started in November 2024, with the NFLPA invoking the arbitration clause in its contract with Saber. The union won the arbitration a year later, but Saber has allegedly failed to pay the amount of the final award, wiring only $1.44 million of the amount Saber was required to pay: $1.75 million in unpaid guarantees; $286,774.19 for the license agreement; $172,947.93 in interest; $878,216 in attorney fees; $40,936 in other costs; and $102,953.69 in arbitration fees.
The NFLPA has now filed suit in federal court, seeking the full amount of the award.
The biggest takeaway? The law business remains undefeated.
More than $800,000 in fees for a fairly straightforward commercial dispute? More than $100,000 for the arbitration of a fairly straightforward commercial dispute? (And that’s probably only half of the total amount, since the arbitration costs typically are shared by the parties.)
Regardless of whether and when the money is paid, the Saber partnership was a failure for the NFLPA.
Which raises the question of whether the deal was done during the De Smith regime, or whether it was something Howell brought to the table as part of his candidacy for the job.
If it’s the latter, the outcome is a fitting microcosm of Howell’s entire two-year tenure.
