Retired NFL players to sue EA and Madden

Following January's USD 28.1 million victory against the National Football League Players Association over player likeness disputes, retired American football players will now target both Electronic Arts and recently-retired commentator John Madden in further suits.

Former NFL player Bernie Parrish said in a blog post that both EA and Madden share the blame with the NFLPA for the unauthorised use of retired player likenesses in the Madden NFL franchise of games, and is calling for the same group of over 2,000 former players awarded in January to seek further compensation from them.

"In my opinion, Madden should have been included in our licensing suit against the NFLPA and so should EA," Parrish said.

"Madden's agent Sandy Montag boasts that he and Madden collected over [USD 100 million] in royalties while paying the retired NFL players used in those games absolutely nothing. Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement."

The previous suit, Parrish v NFLPA, is currently being appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which according to Parish "does not mean the decision has been overturned nor does it lessen the verdict found by the jury."

In fact, Parrish states that "irregularities" in the NFLPA trial may result in a retrial that will award retired players a sum closer to USD 100 million, "where it should have been."

Parrish is asking each of the 2,062 retired players awarded an estimated USD 13,000 in January's case to leave USD 1,000 apiece in a "litigation War Chest" to pursue these and any future legal issues.