Tom Matte and Bruce Laird don’t play video games. But the former Baltimore Colts didn’t need to know the difference between an Xbox and a PlayStation to know their likenesses were being used without their consent on versions of the popular “Madden NFL” video games.
“There was a Madden game that had a player with my jersey number, height, weight and played safety. It just didn’t have my name,” said Laird, 58, who played safety for the Colts from 1972-81. “I never received a dime from these games.”
On Monday in a San Francisco federal courtroom, a jury ordered the NFL Players Association to pay $28.1 million to retired players after finding the union failed to properly market their images.
The jury ruled the union owed the retirees $7.1 million in actual damages for failing to include them in lucrative marketing deals with Electronic Arts Inc., the maker of the “Madden NFL” video games, sporting card companies and other sponsorship agreements. It is unclear how the money will be divided because attorney’s fees and a potential appeal are pending.
Hall of Fame cornerback Herb Adderley filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of 2,056 retired players who claimed the NFL Players Association failed to actively pursue marketing deals on their behalf with video games, trading cards and other sports products.
“We applaud what Herb Adderley and others have done in this case, which proved the NFLPA has ignored the retired players once again,” said Laird, who has been an activist for retired players.
Adderley, 69, played cornerback for the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys and appeared in four of the first six Super Bowls.
“I won three Super Bowls and this feels better than all of them combined,” Adderley said immediately after the verdict was announced. “I always felt I had one big play left.”
Richard Berthelsen, the NFLPA’s acting executive director, said outside the courthouse the NFLPA would ask the trial judge, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, to toss out the verdict. If that fails, they intend to appeal.
Lawyers representing Adderley and the retired players told the jury during the three-week trial that the union actively sought to cut them out of licensing deals so active players could receive bigger royalty payments. As proof, the retirees pointed to a 2001 letter from an NFLPA executive telling Electronic Arts Inc. executives to change the heights, weight and jersey numbers of retired players in the company’s “Madden NFL” video game, otherwise it would have to pay them.
EA’s Madden game contains 143 “vintage” teams populated with no-name players that closely resemble Adderley and other retirees. Yet only active players received a cut of the EA deal, the union’s largest, which surpassed $35 million for 2008.
“Maybe this will show the active players that the retired player has been ignored now that a jury has ruled in this case,” said Matte, 69, who played running back for the Colts from 1961-72.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
[email protected]
