Judge Dismisses NFL Drug-Pushing Class Action Lawsuit

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A federal judge tossed an NFL drug-pushing class action lawsuit, deciding that the collective bargaining agreements negotiated by players’ unions pre-empted many of the state law claims.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup noted that the plaintiffs, including the defensive end Richard Dent who ended up third on the all-time sack list and who, along with flashy quarterback and co-plaintiff Jim McMahon, led the Chicago Bears to victory in Super Bowl XX, had adequately pleaded state law claims on their own.

They included allegations in the NFL drug-pushing class action lawsuit by Dent that he had “hundreds, if not thousands, of injections from doctors and pills from trainers, including but not limited to [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs] and Percodan.” Judge Alsup did not delve much into these details, although he acknowledged they were plausible on their face and may otherwise survive a motion to dismiss.

However, Congress has put the rights negotiated by labor unions, including the National Football League Players Association, above state law claims since the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947. Specifically, the judge wrote in the decision to dismiss the NFL class action lawsuit that “it would be impossible to fashion and to apply new and supplemental state common law duties on the league without taking into account the adequacy and scope of the CBA duties already set in place.”

So while Dent, Jim McMahon and others may have suffered as a result of the individual negligence of doctors, the National Football League itself created clear guidelines regarding medical care provided by the individual clubs. To go further in depth, the judge added that “no decision in any state (including California) has ever held that a professional sports league owed such a duty to intervene and stop mistreatment by the league’s independent clubs.”

Therefore, the fact that individual clubs may have hired or continued to maintain relationships with doctors that engaged in negligent activity or improper prescription and administration of medications does not mean that the NFL did not act diligently. Instead, players may need to focus on the medical professionals themselves rather than actions against the league.

The former NFL players are represented by class action lawyers William N. Sinclair, Steven D. Silverman, Andrew G. Slutkin, Stephen G. Grygiel and Joseph F. Murphy Jr. of Silverman Thompson Slutkin White LLC and Thomas J. Byrne and Mel T. Owens of Namanny Byrne & Owens PC.

The NFL Drug-Pushing Class Action Lawsuit is Richard Dent, et al. v. National Football League, Case No. 14-cv-02324, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.