The Starcaps Case and the Impending NFL Labor Fight

The recurring drama of the National Football League season is off to a great start, except for the part where my beloved Patriots took it on the chin last week against the hated Jets. Looming over all the optimism of a new season is the much-anticipated labor crisis that threatens a return to the strike-filled era of the late part of the last century, an era in which sports unions flexed their young muscles against entrenched management interests. All football fans are hoping for an interruption-free continuation of America's most popular spectator sport.For the most part, the job of the courts is to stay on the sidelines during labor negotiations. Their limited role is to police unfair labor practices and keep the parties negotiating. On occasion, in the course of a negotiation or immediately afterwards, courts are also called on to affix the scope of the non-statutory labor exemption. The importance of this exemption cannot be overstated. The non-statutory labor exempt...