re: If I Was La'el Collins...

quote:

---

I don't get why people think Roger makes the rules? He just enforces them. This is collective bargained, this isn't changing. Collins played chicken and lost.

---

He makes it up as he goes along. See the Ray Rice case. The same offense was a two-week suspension until the video got leaked to the public. Then he went back and changed it.

Getting in trouble with the law can be a suspension or no suspension based on his whims. Big Ben got six games without even being charged in the Milledgeville case. Greg Hardy got 10 games for the same offense as Ray Rice. Suh got fined for a perfectly legal play (pushing a ball carrier to the ground). There's no rhyme or reason to the way Goofdell operates. If he's going to make it up as he goes along for common situations, he can make it up for a unique situation.

quote:

---

That being said, proving collusion would require proving that the NFL head offices actively discouraged teams from drafting him. And that would be near impossible without an admission or written communication stating such.

---

Ask the MLB owners how difficult it was for the players to prove collusion. It shouldn't be difficult for Collins to prove that the purpose of any communication between the league office and the individual franchises was to dissuade them from drafting, or offering Collins an undrafted free agent contract. Since the value of a rookie's contract in governed by these, the effect of any communication reduces the economic value of Collins' services. Such behavior is illegal. You already pointed out that Collins suffered economic damage, and the NFL's defense is weak in your first paragraph.

quote:

---

Also, suing the entity that you will soon rely on for employment seems like a bad idea

---

If the NFL looks at the history of lawsuits against professional sports leagues the NFL will likely settle with Collins as soon as Collins name is cleared because they will not risk the possibility of losing a triple damages verdict. The amount of the settlement will be larger than the guaranteed money that the first pick in the draft will get because it will also include Collins' legal fees, and Collins will likely be given unrestricted free agent status. Thus, he will make veteran money on his first contract.

The NFL has an internal security operation that investigates people connected with the league. Their investigators are ex-law enforcement officers. Their investigators likely contacted Baton Rouge law enforcement agencies to find out what they could about all draft eligible players from LSU, Southern and those who resided in Baton Rouge who went to other schools. It is more likely that someone from the BRPD informed one of the NFL's investigators as a matter of professional courtesy, for some sort of perceived personal benefit, or to punish Collins for not making himself available immediately than that someone from the BRPD reached out to Adam Shefter to provide him with the information.

That being said, it doesn't really matter how the league found out. What matters is how the league used the information. Do you think 32 franchises saw the ESPN story and individually did their own investigating before losing interest in Collins? Highly unlikely that all of the franchises separately contacted the BRPD to make a determination about the risks of drafting Collins. The actions of 32 supposedly competing franchises were too unified for there not to have been some sort of coordinated approach to dealing with the situation. The coordination, in my opinion, amounts to collusion that caused economic damage to Collins.

The NFL has suffered public relations problems recently with players being involved in violent crimes. Despite concrete evidence connecting players to those crimes they have not been damaged like Collins, whom they have zero evidence was involved in the killing other than being personally acquainted with the victim. How many players, and draft prospects do you think have had acquaintances with murder victims? Do you realize how many players had connections with gangs and gang members growing up? Do you think any of those acquaintances might have committed, or been the victims of, violent crimes? How many players, or prospects, can you think of who were ostracized by the NFL prior to Collins?