Ed Glennon fought to get free agency and other rights forplayers. The owners thought it would doom the league, but instead it strengthened it.
by Jay Weiner, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
October 14, 2006 – 5:46 PM
Last summer, during a routine hearing on an NFL labor relations matter, U.S. District Court Judge David Doty halted the proceedings. He acknowledged a Hall of Famer in his Minneapolis courtroom.
No, not NFL Players Association President Gene Upshaw, the former Oakland Raiders guard, who was sitting in the spectators' gallery.
It was the sports law Hall of Famer, if ever there was one, sitting at the union's counsel table, Ed Glennon, 82, the legal warrior in the cool khaki suit.
Doty wondered aloud if Glennon had anything to add to the discussion underway about the NFL's new collective bargaining agreement.
"I wanted to make a nod, at least, to history," Doty said.
Slowly, Glennon walked to the lectern in the middle of the cherry-wood-paneled courtroom. The other seven lawyers fell silent, reverent, leaning in to hear his soft words.
"Things have come a long way," Glennon said.
He should know.
Representing a bunch of brave players, Glennon challenged former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and his feudalistic owners, in Minneapolis federal court in 1975.
In so doing, Glennon outlawyered a Washington, D.C., attorney named Paul Tagliabue in the famous John Mackey case. Tagliabue would go on to succeed Rozelle.
But Glennon would change the face of the league, too.
The Vikings, who are enjoying their bye today, have been led this season by a host of players who were acquired via free agency, such as kicker Ryan Longwell, offensive guard Steve Hutchinson and running back Chester Taylor.
They came to Minnesota because of a system that might not have existed but for Edward M. Glennon.
Big cases
It started with Mackey in 1975, when the NFLPA was broke and powerless.
"They had to beg for things," Glennon said of players then.
Mackey was Glennon's first sports law tour de force, even though he would try other major NFL cases in Minneapolis federal court.
A one-time railroad lawyer, he'd already established himself as a wicked trial attorney for Lindquist & Vennum, the respected Minneapolis firm.
"Watching Ed Glennon in the courtroom is like watching Leonard Bernstein conduct a symphony," said Ed Garvey, the former NFLPA executive director, and a Glennon protegé. "It's a thing of beauty."
There, in 55 days of testimony, from February to July in 1975, examining 63 witnesses, dealing with more than 400 exhibits and generating 11,000 pages of transcript, Glennon grilled NFL legends about something known as "the Rozelle Rule."
Under that provision, Commissioner Rozelle rendered the movement of a player from one team to another virtually impossible. There was, per se, no free agency.
Rozelle alone determined what compensation a team would get if it should lose a player to another team. If very average players tried to jump from one team to another, the new team would be forced to award high draft choices as compensation. This discouraged movement.
A working-class kid from Chicago who worked his way through the University of Minnesota Law School as a waiter, Glennon took no prisoners when it came to NFL legends.
"To me, an enemy is an enemy," Glennon said recently. "He's an enemy until one of us is dead."
Garvey said: "There's this sense that lawyers argue in court and then they go out for a drink. Ed's not that type. If you're on the other side, then you're on the other side. It doesn't mean you have to be nasty all the time, just when you're awake."
Glennon beat up on Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas, who said lifting the Rozelle Rule would harm "competitive balance."
He lashed into Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll, who backed the league's argument that free agency would topple the economics of the league.
In the end, U.S. District Court Judge Earl Larson sided with Glennon and ruled the Rozelle Rule violated federal anti-trust law.
The union had a victory that would keep on giving.
"If the Mackey case had come out the other way you would have a very different NFL today, characterized by labor instability and a less successful business model," said Prof. Stephen F. Ross, director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy & Research.
Rozelle's iron fist limited player freedom. But, in making the league's internal rules more flexible, Larson didn't bring about the death of the league, either. To the contrary, Ross said, the advent of free agency has benefitted fans, players and owners, driving salaries, revenues and competitive balance in a league that now prides itself on parity.
Glennon gleefully watched this offseason as the Vikings signed all their free agents.
"People say the players get too much money," Glennon said. "I say, where should it go? Should it all go to the owners? No. The dumbest owner in the world could not lose money in the NFL."
Tomorrow, he'll turn 83, but Ed Glennon still knows his enemies.
©2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
by Jay Weiner, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
October 14, 2006 – 5:46 PM
Last summer, during a routine hearing on an NFL labor relations matter, U.S. District Court Judge David Doty halted the proceedings. He acknowledged a Hall of Famer in his Minneapolis courtroom.
No, not NFL Players Association President Gene Upshaw, the former Oakland Raiders guard, who was sitting in the spectators' gallery.
It was the sports law Hall of Famer, if ever there was one, sitting at the union's counsel table, Ed Glennon, 82, the legal warrior in the cool khaki suit.
Doty wondered aloud if Glennon had anything to add to the discussion underway about the NFL's new collective bargaining agreement.
"I wanted to make a nod, at least, to history," Doty said.
Slowly, Glennon walked to the lectern in the middle of the cherry-wood-paneled courtroom. The other seven lawyers fell silent, reverent, leaning in to hear his soft words.
"Things have come a long way," Glennon said.
He should know.
Representing a bunch of brave players, Glennon challenged former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and his feudalistic owners, in Minneapolis federal court in 1975.
In so doing, Glennon outlawyered a Washington, D.C., attorney named Paul Tagliabue in the famous John Mackey case. Tagliabue would go on to succeed Rozelle.
But Glennon would change the face of the league, too.
The Vikings, who are enjoying their bye today, have been led this season by a host of players who were acquired via free agency, such as kicker Ryan Longwell, offensive guard Steve Hutchinson and running back Chester Taylor.
They came to Minnesota because of a system that might not have existed but for Edward M. Glennon.
Big cases
It started with Mackey in 1975, when the NFLPA was broke and powerless.
"They had to beg for things," Glennon said of players then.
Mackey was Glennon's first sports law tour de force, even though he would try other major NFL cases in Minneapolis federal court.
A one-time railroad lawyer, he'd already established himself as a wicked trial attorney for Lindquist & Vennum, the respected Minneapolis firm.
"Watching Ed Glennon in the courtroom is like watching Leonard Bernstein conduct a symphony," said Ed Garvey, the former NFLPA executive director, and a Glennon protegé. "It's a thing of beauty."
There, in 55 days of testimony, from February to July in 1975, examining 63 witnesses, dealing with more than 400 exhibits and generating 11,000 pages of transcript, Glennon grilled NFL legends about something known as "the Rozelle Rule."
Under that provision, Commissioner Rozelle rendered the movement of a player from one team to another virtually impossible. There was, per se, no free agency.
Rozelle alone determined what compensation a team would get if it should lose a player to another team. If very average players tried to jump from one team to another, the new team would be forced to award high draft choices as compensation. This discouraged movement.
A working-class kid from Chicago who worked his way through the University of Minnesota Law School as a waiter, Glennon took no prisoners when it came to NFL legends.
"To me, an enemy is an enemy," Glennon said recently. "He's an enemy until one of us is dead."
Garvey said: "There's this sense that lawyers argue in court and then they go out for a drink. Ed's not that type. If you're on the other side, then you're on the other side. It doesn't mean you have to be nasty all the time, just when you're awake."
Glennon beat up on Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas, who said lifting the Rozelle Rule would harm "competitive balance."
He lashed into Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll, who backed the league's argument that free agency would topple the economics of the league.
In the end, U.S. District Court Judge Earl Larson sided with Glennon and ruled the Rozelle Rule violated federal anti-trust law.
The union had a victory that would keep on giving.
"If the Mackey case had come out the other way you would have a very different NFL today, characterized by labor instability and a less successful business model," said Prof. Stephen F. Ross, director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy & Research.
Rozelle's iron fist limited player freedom. But, in making the league's internal rules more flexible, Larson didn't bring about the death of the league, either. To the contrary, Ross said, the advent of free agency has benefitted fans, players and owners, driving salaries, revenues and competitive balance in a league that now prides itself on parity.
Glennon gleefully watched this offseason as the Vikings signed all their free agents.
"People say the players get too much money," Glennon said. "I say, where should it go? Should it all go to the owners? No. The dumbest owner in the world could not lose money in the NFL."
Tomorrow, he'll turn 83, but Ed Glennon still knows his enemies.
©2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
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