Pennsylvania man files motion against the NFL, claims Steelers should be in playoffs

[downside52]

Cmon man. If you hate the Steelers, it's totally fine. I do too.

But when you start bashing Pittsburgh, you are making Baltimore look even worse. Pittsburgh outshines Baltimore badly, and the distance is widening. Pittsburgh is a city on the rise, and Bmore is heading down the toilet quickly to the point that there are very few livable areas anywhere. There is simply no comparison to the quality of schools in Pittsburgh compared to Baltimore. None whatsoever.

That's an interesting observation you have there on the state of Baltimore.

Despite having nearly double the population (source: US Census http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population) Baltimore maintains an edge in many crucial education categories, such as percent of residents with a college education (source: NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...tro-areas.html).

There are a lot more socio-economic indicators that contradict your opinion, but I think I made my point.

[Brien Jackson]

This would be a somewhat interesting claim if the payoff had been a division title and a home game for the Steelers. It'd be interesting to see how a court would treat a claim brought by a group of bar owners near the stadium claiming that they'd been materially harmed (and remember, sports leagues are quite insistent that games produce huge economic multipliers for local businesses) by the refs' screw up.

[downside52]

This would be a somewhat interesting claim if the payoff had been a division title and a home game for the Steelers. It'd be interesting to see how a court would treat a claim brought by a group of bar owners near the stadium claiming that they'd been materially harmed (and remember, sports leagues are quite insistent that games produce huge economic multipliers for local businesses) by the refs' screw up.

An excellent point, and definitely a troubling question for the league to have to answer. My best guess on their defense would be based around the concept that the league has no duty to provide a playoff game based on any criteria outside of the referee's on-field determination of the game outcome that the league was in fact not negligent since the officiating likely graded out within a normal tolerance for mistakes made during a game.

Regardless of defense, the discovery phase of any lawsuit related to fairness in the NFL would likely surface all kinds of unflattering data that we never hear about as fans and be a can of worms the NFL would stop at nothing to prevent opening. Let's not forget how hard the NFL worked to keep "Spygate" out of the federal courts, with Goodell ordering destruction of potential evidence and Bob Kraft calling in favors in congress to help keep things quiet, despite the fact that the incident clearly violated several federal statutes.

[HoustonRaven]

If y'all think this is going to go anywhere past a trash can, I have a tunnel under the harbor I'd like to see you.

On a lighter note .... Ryan Succup = Ray Finkle

[HoustonRaven]

Regardless of defense, the discovery phase of any lawsuit related to fairness in the NFL would likely surface all kinds of unflattering data that we never hear about as fans and be a can of worms the NFL would stop at nothing to prevent opening. Let's not forget how hard the NFL worked to keep "Spygate" out of the federal courts, with Goodell ordering destruction of potential evidence and Bob Kraft calling in favors in congress to help keep things quiet, despite the fact that the incident clearly violated several federal statutes.

Outside of the anti trust exemption and union issues, what statutes govern the NFL exactly?

Can you back up these claims with some links?

[Brien Jackson]

Outside of the anti trust exemption and union issues, what statutes govern the NFL exactly?

Can you back up these claims with some links?

Well, general business practice and contract law issues would. So, for example, if it was found out that the league office was actively fixing games through the refereeing, a lot of their business partners would have grounds for civil lawsuits on the basis of not getting what they paid for, and the league officials involved could potentially be looking at criminal fraud charges.

But yeah, short of that, it'd be impossible to redress the issue, and I suspect the court would accept a rationale that "human error" through officiating is simply a part of the game that has to be tolerated short of any outright malfeasance.

And I'm not sure what federal laws Spygate violated either.