Tag: Curt flood


Source: New York Times

In the 1969, Major League Baseball (MLB) player, Curt Flood, fought the MLB for the right to play for whatever team he chose instead of a team basically “owning” him. Flash forward almost a century later, Colin Kaepernick has filed a grievance against the National Football League (NFL) for collusion.

During Flood’s time in baseball, a team could play, trade or dismiss a player without any input from the player. Flood was traded to a team, Philadelphia Phillies, he did not want to play with and ended up suing MLB over the Reserve Clause. Flood ended up losing the first legal battle as well as being blacklisted from baseball (collusion). However, twenty-six years later, Flood ended up winning the war with Major League Baseball the Curt Flood Act was enacted by Congress. Upon those words, free agency was born. As Gary R. Roberts, a graduate and author in the Marquette Law Scholarly Journal, explains:

[T]he conduct, acts, practices, or agreements of persons’ in the business of organized professional major league baseball directly relating to or affecting employment of major league baseball players to play baseball at the major league level are subject to the antitrust laws to the same extent such conduct, acts, practices, or agreements would be subject to the antitrust laws if engaged in by persons in other professional sports business affecting interstate commerce.”

Today, Colin Kaepernick is fighting being blacklisted by the NFL. Yep, that’s right . . . blacklisted . . . that’s exactly what is meant by collusion in this case. Kaepernick has the skills, but players with lesser skills, sometimes much lesser like Brandon Weeden, are being selected to fill holes left by injured quarterbacks within the League.

Kaepernick decided last week to file a grievance against the NFL owners for collusion. Collusion takes place within the entertainment, or sports, industry when rival teams, clubs, or organizations cooperate for their mutual benefit. In this case, the benefit would be to protect the shield from the silent protest Kaepernick has started with kneeling during the national anthem to tell the world that police brutality is not acceptable.

Kaepernick is not the first African American player to protest against such social injustices, but he is taking the blunt of fallout as he is being blackballed similar to Curt Flood. It will be interesting to see what happens with his grievance. Will the judicial body remember their mistake with Flood? Or, will it take an Act of Congress to show the citizens


Source: Content News


Source: New York Times

Few people know who Curt Flood is. If they do know who Flood is, it is usually as a baseball player who played 15 years for the Cincinnati Red Legs or the St. Louis Cardinals. He was the player who earned 2 World Series rings during the time frame of 1956 to 1971. But what most do not realize is Flood destroyed his career in a fight to what he believed to be a professional baseball injustice in 1969 known as the reserve clause.

The reserve clause, established under the Supreme Court ruling written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in professional sports contractually allows a team to retain the rights to an athlete once the initial contract has expired. In other words, a team can reassign, trade, sell, or release a player whenever it chooses to do so. A player was the property of a team for life during the early years of professional sports. During Flood’s tenure in Major League Baseball, the reserve clause continued to be standard practice. But when Flood was traded to the Phillies and decided he didn’t want to go, he sought the help of his personal attorney and Marvin Miller, founder of the MLBPA, in suing MLB.

Flood’s argument was the owners held a monopoly and were restricting trade. While Flood knew he wouldn’t benefit from his fight, he knew others would. He took the owners by himself with the support of only two others colleagues, Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg. Flood lost his suit 5-3 despite the Court agreeing with his argument due to baseball’s antitrust exemption stating it would take an act of Congress remove the exemption.

Congress did act in 1976 removing antitrust exemption for baseball and all other professional sports. Today, athletes enjoy free agency due to Curt Flood . . . proof that one person can change the world. Or in the words of Reverend Jesse Jackson, “Baseball didn’t change Curt Flood. Curt Flood changed baseball. He fought the good fight. “