Mickey Posted July 21, 2005 Posted July 21, 2005 This guy is scum. What ever happened to honoring your contract? It's only a matter of time before Willis does this, too 386780[/snapback] Did you ever wonder why the teams don't sue the player for breaching the contract? The reason is: they would lose. The NFL is a monopoly and as a result, the contracts are likely unenforceable in a court of law. The "hold out" is an accepted business practice in the NFL under certain circumstances. There is a principle of contract law that states that if a party to the contract ignores a breach, the provision breached is waived and is thus no longer enforceable. Lets say the contract requires the player to wear a tie at meetings or face a fine. Lets say he shows up for 10 meetings without a tie and the team does not fine him or even complain about it. They can't then suddenly fine him when he doesn't wear the tie in the 11th meeting. He can argue that they waived that provision by not enforcing it. If you sit on your rights, you lose them. Hold outs are nothing new, they are a fact of life in the NFL and the reason they are not stopped is because the teams, the league and the players, by their actions, accept them. The reason they accept them is because they have no choice, it isn't illegal to refuse to honor a contract that is ultimately not enforceable. I would argue that the player is not committing any breach of "honor" here. This is how the business works, it is the custom and practice in the industry.
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