Opinion ID: 179935
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: nflpa

Text: 14 As part of the NFLPA’s Financial Advisors Program, the NFLPA created a list of registered financial advisors. To be included on this list, an advisor had to apply with the NFLPA, pay a fee and meet the NFLPA’s eligibility requirements. The NFLPA would deny an application if the financial advisor failed to meet all of the eligibility requirements or if a background check indicated that specific judicial or regulatory actions had been taken against the advisor or revealed “[a]ny misrepresentation, material omission, or other evidence of misfeasance or malfeasance,” which “may also cause the NFLPA, in its sole discretion, to deem an Applicant unqualified to be a Registered Player Financial Advisor.” (Doc. 180, ex. 2 at 14-15.) In support of their negligence claim, Plaintiffs specifically alleged that the NFLPA owed them a “duty to exercise reasonable care while performing due diligence background checks on Wright, Bond [and] IMA,” a duty to exercise reasonable care in the evaluation and approval of Wright’s and Bond’s applications as Registered Financial Advisors under the Program requirements and [a] duty to exercise reasonable care in the monitoring of Wright’s and Bond’s compliance with the Program requirements while they continued to be registered in the Program. (Doc. 10 at 27.) 15 These duties arose directly from the CBA’s mandate that “[t]he parties will use best efforts to establish an in-depth, comprehensive Career Planning Program,” which would include “provid[ing] information to players on handling their personal finances.” (Doc. 180, ex. 1 at 80 (2002 CBA Art. LV § 12).) Undisputed evidence connected the NFLPA’s Financial Advisors Program to the NFLPA’s efforts to meet its obligations under the CBA to provide such a program. For example, Richard Berthelsen, the NFLPA’s general counsel and senior manager, stated that “[t]he Financial Advisors Program is part of the Career Planning Program mandated by the CBA and part of the NFLPA’s effort to comply with the CBA’s requirement that the NFLPA ‘provide information to players on handling their personal finances.’” (Doc. 180, ex. 4 ¶ 14.) NFLPA Director of Player Development Stacy Robinson also indicated that the Financial Advisors Program was part of the Career Planning Program. On appeal, Plaintiffs unsuccessfully attempt to dispute this evidence linking the NFLPA’s Financial Advisors Program to the CBA-mandated Career Planning Program in three ways. First, Plaintiffs point to an assertion that the NFLPA made to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) when the NFLPA was seeking an opinion from the 16 SEC that its Financial Advisors Program would not be subject to SEC regulations pertaining to financial advisors. In distinguishing its Financial Advisors Program, in which participation by both players and advisors is voluntary, from the CBA’s mandate that all player agents must be certified by the NFLPA, the NFLPA noted that “financial advisors are not covered by this framework” that applies to contract agents. (Doc. 180, ex. 4, attach. K at 10.) Contrary to Plaintiffs’ argument, this statement to the SEC does not address whether the Financial Advisors Program itself arises from the CBA. Second, Plaintiffs point out that when the NFLPA’s Board of Representatives approved the Financial Advisors Program, there was never any mention that it was part of the CBA-mandated Career Planning Program. But that also does not contradict the NFLPA’s undisputed evidence linking the Financial Advisors Program to its compliance with the CBA’s provision mandating a Career Planning Program. Finally, Plaintiffs assert that there is no evidence that there is any Career Planning Program at all. But undisputed evidence in the record established that there is. Stacy Robinson stated that “[t]he NFLPA and the NFL have collaborated and jointly developed a host of Career Planning 17 programs and activities,” including the coaches intern program for NFL Europe; a “Broadcast Bootcamp” for current and retired players interested in a second career in broadcasting; officiating clinics for current and former players interested in officiating as a second career; a networking program; a pilot program for NFL players transitioning to second careers; an exit symposium for players who have applied for severance benefits, which includes information for players on how to manage their lives after their football careers have ended; and a business and management entrepreneurial program at the business schools of Harvard, Stanford, Penn and Northwestern Universities. (Doc. 180, ex. 7 ¶¶ 7-14.) In an effort to dispute Robinson’s declaration, Plaintiffs presented only the affidavits of Plaintiffs Crockett and Smith stating that they had never heard of the “Career Planning Program.” That is not enough to create a factual dispute sufficient to preclude summary judgment. See Holifield v. Reno, 115 F.3d 1555, 1564 n.6 (11th Cir. 1997) (holding non-movant’s “conclusory assertions” made “in the absence of supporting evidence” are insufficient to withstand summary judgment in face of movant’s undisputed relevant evidence). 18 The district court, therefore, properly held that § 301 preempted Plaintiffs’ negligence claim against the NFLPA because the duties underlying that claim arose directly from the CBA. See United Steelworkers v. Rawson, 495 U.S. 362, 369-71(1990) (recognizing “that a state-law tort action . . . may be pre-empted by § 301 if the duty” underlying the tort claim “is created by a [CBA]”); see also Clarke v. Laborers’ Int’l Union, 916 F.2d 1539, 1541-42 (11th Cir. 1990); cf. Brown v. Nat’l Football League, 219 F. Supp. 2d 372, 379-83 (S.D.N.Y. 2002) (holding NFL’s duty to train its employees properly did not arise from CBA but instead was a duty owed to any member of the public and, therefore, § 301 did not preempt state-law tort claim based upon that duty). Even if the NFLPA’s duty to conduct an adequate background investigation before including an applicant on its list of vetted financial advisors did not arise directly from the CBA’s Career Planning Program provision, which it clearly did, a court would still have to consider the CBA’s Career Planning Program provision in determining the scope of any duty the NFLPA owed Plaintiffs. Specifically, a court would have to consider the effect of that provision’s language, “that players shall be 19 solely responsible for their personal finances,” (Doc. 180, ex. 1 at 80), in determining the legal relationship that existed between the parties and their expectations stemming from that relationship. See Williams, 582 F.3d at 880-81; see also Stringer, 474 F. Supp. 2d at 908-11; Holmes v. Nat’l Football League, 939 F. Supp. 517, 527-28 (N.D. Tex. 1996). 14