THE CONSTITUTION: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The United States Constitution protects the rights of individual citizens from abusive, unregulated government monopoly power.  The term "government" means the political officials, offices, agencies, and state actors who and that run our nation's official affairs. 

 

A government official or state actor is one who acts on behalf of a government officer or office.  He or she may not infringe upon the individual constitutional protections provided by the United States of America to its citizens.  This includes the 14th Amendment.  This Amendment protects the individual U.S. citizen's right to civil due process, to life, liberty, and to individual property.

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THE ISSUE:  

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The question raised today is whether the NFL and its teams are in reality "State Actors" subject to the checks and balances found in the United States Constitution?  

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THE ANSWER: 

 

"YES",  THE NFL AND ITS RESPECTIVE TEAMS ARE OFFICIALLY "STATE ACTORS" AS THEY REPRESENT THE STATE AND WIELD HEAVY TAX POWER ON BEHALF OF THE STATE THAT THEY REPRESENT. 

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As found below, the NFL and its respective teams are more like state actors than they are like private incorporations under the Constitution of the United States of America.   Thus, they are subject to the constraints found in the U.S. Constitution of America, including the 14th Amendment due process clause and the civil liberties, or Bill of Rights,  clauses.  

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"Due process" means that a state or a state actor, in this case the NFL and its teams, must respect all the legal rights afforded to an American citizen under the laws and the United States Constitution.  Amendments 1 through 10 of the Constitution are just congressional restatements of the "Bill of Rights".)

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SOME EXAMPLES OF  14th AMENDMENT VIOLATIONS FROM 3 RECENT NFL PLAYER CASES AGAINST THE NFL:

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If the NFL and its teams were officially declared "state actors", then they would be subject to the U.S. Constitution and more specifically to the 14th Amendment due process clause.   Is this relevant?  Yes it is.  For example, see how it would change the following recent negative player case outcomes:

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• The famous New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady, 2014, "Deflate Gate" due process case: 

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Tom Brady, a Quarterback for the New England Patriots, was denied proper due process in the NFL and in the federal court system when he was accused by the NFL of "being aware of" deflated playoff game footballs so he could win the game by getting a better grip on the football. 

 

The NFL's only appeals process for the complaining Quarterback Mr. Brady was a grievance process that was presided over by the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell himself.   Mr. Goodell was the NFL Commissioner that issued the very charge and discipline that Tom Brady was complaining about in his grievance against the NFL.    That was hardly fair or impartial.   To the contrary, it was a glaring due process error.  But no one could help the victim player.  He won in the New York Federal District Court, but that was later overthrown in the Court of Appeals. 

Had the 14th Amendment been applied to his case however, Quarterback Tom Brady would have prevailed on due process grounds alone.  Instead, the former NFLPA union steward lost four weeks of play and pay, and an opportunity to break a Hall of Fame record that he can never get back again. Plus all the court time, slander, and hassle for what amounted to nothing in the end.

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• The Famous San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin K.aepernick 2017 "kneeling during the national anthem" case in the NFL.   Mr. Kaepernick was a San Francisco 49ers Quarterback, but not a very good one, when this case came up.  As a starting Quarterback, he was only  2-11 win/losses at San Francisco at the time.   

 

Quarterback Kaepernick would kneel during the national anthem as a public protest regarding police brutality against minorities during arrests.  The NFL rules were unclear and very outdated regarding this area of player misconduct.  However, it was alleged by Mr. Kaepernick's defense team that the NFL teams were officially boycotting, or had "black-listed", Mr. Kaepernick from playing in the NFL or getting signed to another team because of his public anthem protest.  Under the current legal environment, Mr. Kaepernick lost his appeal. However, had he been protected by the Constitution, he might have prevailed on his protected free speech and due process complaints alone.  

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• The Famous Adrian Peterson, 2014 Disciplinary Suspension Arbitration Dispute:  NFL star football player running back rookie star Adrian Peterson was charged, but not found guilty, of a domestic dispute involving the physical abuse of his four year old son in Texas. 

 

Adrian was considered at the time to be potentially one of the best running backs in the history of the NFL.  (See wikipedia.com, Adrian Peterson page.) 

 

Absent a criminal finding against Mr. Peterson, he was suspended anyway by his team the Minnesota Vikings until the case was resolved.  In an attempt to get back sooner, Mr. Peterson plea bargained with the Texas court system to settle the case. However in the end it did not matter because NFL formally suspended Mr. Peterson anyway for the remainder of the year for violating the player misconduct rules. 

 

As a result Mr. Peterson sat out his entire rookie year with the Minnesota Vikings and he lost his initial grievance with the NFL.   He plays now only because he quietly transferred to another team and has "made no waves".   To a player like Adrian, that has to be your worst nightmare.  You helplessly have to watch your entire star career that you have worked your whole life for come crashing down all around you and no one will help you change that outcome. Yet you know in your very gut that it is rotten and wrong. 

 

The issue in his case ripe for judicial review was not only the lack of due process procedures in his case, but also the clear labor relations civil rights violations that occurred when he was materially disciplined on a public criminal accusation absent a finding of guilt by the Texas court of law.  Worst of all, he is a celebrity, so he has even more rights to union labor relations protections and civil protections than just an average union employee would have had.  And even average union employees are entitled to union-based civil protections and safeguards in cases of criminal off-duty misconduct like the one at issue here.  Clearly he should have and would have won.

 

​As one can easily see from these 3 current examples alone, the NFL pro football players are being treated harshly and cruelly to their permanent detriment.  They are not getting the typical civil due process and union human rights protections that they should be getting under the law.   And the damages are permanent and game ending.  

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THE UNCONTESTED FACTS  THAT PROVE THE NFL IS AN OFFICIAL "STATE ACTOR" UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION:

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The NFL is a State Actor and is therefore subject to the balances imposed by the U.S. Constitution. 

 

First, I want to point out something that initially surprised me when I learned of this.  The NFL and its respective teams are non-profit organizations.   This means that, contrary to popular belief, the NFL structure is not a corporate "C" Microsoft Inc. scenario.   It has always been a not-for-profit enterprise like the Legal Aid Society, the YMCA, or an American public church.  

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So don't be too surprised that many public officials, including the NFL executive order itself, are already aware that the NFL is much more like an official public government agency and much less like a private company or corporation.   i.e. They know that the NFL is like a public MTA bus company,  i.e. a "state actor" that is checked and balanced by the U.S. Constitution to protect the nation's private citizens from the NFL's potentially abusive government-like powers.    And that the NFL is not like a private Target Inc. or Microsoft Inc.,  i.e.  akin to a private citizen that is afforded the protections of the U.S. Constitution itself. 

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A "state actor" is an entity that acts on behalf of an official State or government entity. ​  The key question is does the entity wield the official state power of the government itself?  If yes, then it must be regulated to protect the rights and dignities of the people themselves from its potential monopolistic government reach and powers.    The underlying fear is, if this entity is left unchecked and unchallenged,  then its  "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." 

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So where does the NFL show this government state actor monopoly-like power?   In football stadium issues, the NFL shows its teeth in its control of State governmental legislative bodies and in the state taxes issues.   Left unchecked with this official government power in their arsenal, the NFL has already shown its official  tyrannical oligarchy.  (An oligarchy means few are in control.  The power structure and form rests with a small number of people.) 

 

You can see that in the above player cases for example.  They have no fear of repercussions.  They have no due process procedures in place, nor do they care.  They show complete, detached apathy for the players in general.  They are harsh, arbitrary, and capricious in their dispute processes.  And they know it, but it is like they have nothing to fear - >  government-wise.   

 

But don't just take my word for this, see for yourself.  Here are some facts that prove that the NFL is an official "state actor"​, and not a private competing entity like they would have us believe.

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• Every team officially represents a State:  the "Minnesota Vikings", the "New York Giants",  the "Dallas Cowboys".  (The City official is an adjunct for the state.), etc.  There are 32 of these so take your pick.  

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• The NFL and its teams are "nonprofit" entities.

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• Every NFL Team takes full advantage of their familiar state nexus or their intimate state relationship. They get tax incentives and tax benefits from their exempt state status.  They get subsidies, tax write offs, hotel taxes, official sales tax allocations directly from the State, bonds, earmarks from official State lottery revenues and gambling revenues.  

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• Since 1986, over 17 billion dollars in tax exempt debt has been used to build professional stadiums in the United States.   

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• When financing, the government treats a standard NFL football stadium build like it does a standard state road or bridge build.

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• In 2018, the entire Los Angeles Rams NFL Football Coliseum was built 100% with tax payer dollars. 

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• According to a 2012 Bloomberg financial report, stadium tax-free bonds cost the average United States citizens and treasury $146 million dollars per year.  

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• Despite that the St. Louis Rams have now relocated back to Los Angeles, CA, the Missouri taxpayers are still paying over 6 million dollars per year in tax debt for their now defunct NFL football stadium that was built to host the NFL Rams in St. Louis, Missouri.

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There is much more where this came from but that alone proves the point.  These teams wield a powerful state weapon - taxes.  So under the definition above, they should be known as "state actors".

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CONCLUSION:   

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The NFL is a State Actor subject to the U.S. Constitution, and specifically the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

 

The 14th Amendment clearly applies the bill of rights and the due process clause to the 50 states of America.  Before then, the 5th Amendment only authorized due process protections to federal government acts, not to the states.  And the 1st through 10th Amendments, i.e. the substantive "Bill of Rights" only applied to the federal government not to the states.  The 14th amendment fixed that flaw.

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The totality of the facts prove that the NFL wields the actual power of an official state actor.  It is not just a football team anymore.  This is most obvious in the area of the special tax breaks and authority the NFL team is given to support their team in a particular state.  Tax is one of the most powerful state weapons of all.  So that alone confirms that the NFL team is a state actor for the respective state that they represent.  

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And the truth is they do act like an unchecked government power.  It shows its horns in the way the NFL looks like a "fat and lazy" monopoly on its face.  Monopolies are per se illegal in America.  (See the congressional "Sherman Act" of the United States of America.)  This law was enacted because monopolies hurt democracies and the people.  Absent the competition that drives product innovations, product know-how, lower prices, and better value; a company or incorporation has no incentive to do good by America. To the contrary, like the NFL has been demonstrating, it can actually cause harm to our country and to its people if left unchecked by our laws. 

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Thus, our country as a public policy statement has found monopolies and "illegal restraints of trade" bad for our economy, counter-productive, and therefore illegal.  Companies or corporations found guilty of this can be fined, broken up, dissolved, reorganized, punished, and their key parties can even be imprisoned according to the Sherman Act and the Supreme Court of the United States of America.  

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Now the problem with a Sherman Act violation, or a monopoly, is that it assumes a private commercial enterprise.  The NFL is not.  To be exact, it is an association of American football professionals who are, in theory, "not for profit".   So it is more than likely that the NFL's forks of abusive, unregulated power are coming not technically from a "Sherman Act" violation, but from the taxes/state actor issues instead.  The end result is an illegal monopoly regardless.  

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Left unchecked, the NFL shows all the monopolistic woes that we Americans were warned about.   The challenge to our nation then is as follows.   Can we still identify the victim when that person is wealthy instead?  This is the theory of an average football player - that they have wealth. 

 

However, that is technically irrelevant.  A violation of the constitution and of a person's civil liberties is just that.  The constitution is blind on its face.  Thus a person's economic status does not matter.   Whether rich or poor, they are still vested with independent rights granted by the "We the People" preamble to the American Constitution and by the Constitution itself.  (Lest we need reminding, see the blind-folded Statue of Liberty in New York for proof that our country was founded on these principles.)

 

What is relevant is that an American citizen's rights are not trampled upon by a corrupt corporate or governmental goliath in violation of our United States constitutional authorities and the supreme powers vested in the average tax-paying American citizen.  In closing, please keep in mind what the American scholar and politician John Adam said, "Liberty once lost is lost forever".  Today we stand on top of a major challenge to our constitution.  Will we honor it in "sickness and in health"?  If the answer is "no", then we have ultimately failed our challenge, and our nation is no longer the represented democracy that it purports to be.  Which would be a tragedy and a loss to all.  

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