The Raiders vs NFL Trial Mike Florio Paul Tagliabue once called it a sham, a counterfeit, a shakedown. Browns co-owner Carmen Policy has said that it s based on a preposterous legal argument. Given that a jury spent five full days last week debating the merits of the Oakland Raiders claim against the NFL, it s a fairly safe bet that, taken as a whole, they disagree.
Conventional wisdom is that a quick verdict in a complex, multi-week case is good for the defense.
In contrast, the longer the jury deliberates, the greater the likelihood that the plaintiff will prevail. Here, the stakes are high. The NFL claims that the Raiders blew the deal on their own, bouncing back and forth between offers to stay in Southern California or to return to their roots in Oakland. The trial consumed seven weeks, and the jury got the case last Monday. To complicate matters, the foreman of the jury asked to be excused from the case as of Friday, due to a long-planned vacation.