Former NFL Players Suing for Royalties from Video Games

A former NFL star is back in competition, this time to win some of the royalties he feels he and other football players are due from video games. The NFL retirees have filed a class-action suit on behalf of more than 2,000 retired players set to begin Tuesday in San Francisco.

AP
Published: October 21, 2008

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A former NFL star is back in competition, this time to win some of the royalties he feels he and other football players are due from video games.

The NFL retirees have filed a class-action suit on behalf of more than 2,000 retired players set to begin Tuesday, in San Francisco. They accuse the NFL Players Association of cheating them out of millions of dollars in royalties in video games, trading cards and other sports products.

NFL Hall of Famer Herb Adderley is the lead man in the court action. He played for the 1967 Green Bay Packers and the 1971 Dallas Dallas Cowboys, both Super Bowl winning teams. His name isn’t mentioned in the Madden NFL video game by Electronic Arts, replaced by an anonymous figure with his vital stats.

Retired players say even though they signed licensed agreements with the NFLPA, they have earned little from the union’s deal with video game makers and other who trade on the name and likeness of NFL players, past and present.