Sharpe v. National Football League Players Association

Sterling Sharpe (plaintiff) was a player for the Green Bay Packers (club) of the National Football League (NFL). Sharpe’s contract with the club required that any dispute be decided via final and binding arbitration pursuant to the procedure set forth by the collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) between the NFL Players Association (union) (defendant) and the NFL. Sharpe underwent surgery after the 1994 season. According to Sharpe, he was not injured at the time and did not require surgery, but the club coerced him into agreeing to the surgery and led him to believe that it would pay his salary for 1995. Sharpe was physically unable to play football after the surgery, leading the club to cut him. The CBA provided for injury grievances and noninjury grievances, both of which were subject to binding arbitration. Sharpe filed an injury grievance against the club in which he claimed that it wrongfully terminated him in violation of the CBA and sought payment of his full 1995 salary. Sharpe also sued the union in federal court, alleging that it urged him to withdraw his grievance against the club and that when Sharpe refused to do so, secretly agreed with the NFL that the union would expedite the grievance and not treat the grievance as an injury grievance. Sharpe further alleged that the union left the NFL with the impression that it did not believe that Sharpe’s grievance was meritorious. According to Sharpe, the union’s alleged actions breached its duty of fair representation to him. The union moved to dismiss Sharpe’s complaint.