WhoDat!656

When the internal appeals panel issued its final ruling regarding the question of whether Commissioner Roger Goodell stayed within his lane of jurisdiction under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the reasoning arguably created a minefield for the Commissioner the second time around, forcing him to stay away from anything relating to a secret cash incentive program while at the same time re-issuing discipline for a bounty program, which necessarily relates to a secret cash incentive program.

But with the Commissioner re-issuing discipline that uses terms like bounties and offers of money, the suspended players currently don’t seem to be inclined to launch another attack against the decision under the CBA.

The thinking, we’re told, is that the CBA-based challenge will take too long, and that Judge Ginger Berrigan will most likely defer any final decisions in the lawsuits attacking the league’s investigative process until the arguments under the CBA are full resolved.

In our view, the best move would be to file the challenge under the CBA anyway. Even if it causes Judge Berrigan to tap the brakes on issuing a final ruling regarding the viability of the league’s suspensions, she’ll undoubtedly allow the players to keep playing until all various challenges are resolved.

Which could let the suspended players until they’re ready to retire.

Suspended players may choose not to pursue CBA appeal | ProFootballTalk

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."