Herbert A. Adderley, et al. v. National Football League Players Association and Players Inc.

Class of Retired NFL Players

McKool Smith represents the class of 2062 plaintiffs in this  lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleges breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty claims against the NFLPA (the union for NFL players) and its marketing subsidiary National Football League Players Incorporated (“PI”). The lawsuit alleges that retired professional football players were not marketed properly or paid royalty amounts that should have been shared with them from licensing agreements for the rights to active and retired NFL players who signed licensing authorization agreements with the NFLPA. The lawsuit alleges that 90 percent of retired players who signed Group Licensing Authorizations have received no payments from group licensing revenues. 

After a nearly 3 week trial the jurors found that the defendants breached their fiduciary duty by failing to market retired players’ licensing rights under a group licensing authorization contract covering the licensing of electronic games, collectables and other merchandise.  The verdict was ranked in the top 100 jury verdicts of 2008 by VerdictSearch.