NFLPA files motion to hold NFL and Roger Goodell in contempt of court

The NFL has gone out of its way to pick at the NFLPA the last couple of years, so it should be no surprise that the union is fighting back at every chance.

On the heels of the NFLPA on Tuesday calling for Roger Goodell to recuse himself from Tom Brady's appeal, which was expected, came the out-of-the-blue motion by the NFLPA in federal court to hold the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell in contempt of court over the Adrian Peterson case. You know, the case of the suspended Minnesota Vikings running back, who was reinstated a month ago from his 2014 suspension? Yeah, that one.

A federal judge vacated Peterson's suspension in late February, and ordered the case to go back to arbitration proceedings. The NFL appealed, and that bought enough time until the league could reinstate Peterson on its terms, in mid-April. If you question the NFL's authority, it will not be happy.

Well, the NFLPA brought up that now-seemingly inconsequential ruling, seemingly because it can.

Here's a key section of the media release, signed by NFLPA president and Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Eric Winston:

"On February 26th, the NFL was ordered to change their decision in the Peterson matter and reissue a ruling consistent with our collective bargaining agreement. The Union made multiple requests to the League office asking the arbitrator, who serves at the direction of the Commissioner, to comply with the law and avoid further litigation. Despite our attempts, they have done nothing and leave us no choice but to seek this motion.

"The delay tactics, inconsistencies and arbitrary decision making of the League has continued to hurt the rights of players, the credibility of the League office and the integrity of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In the absence of any action by the NFL's governing board of owners, the players have acted to hold the NFL accountable to our players, the CBA and to the law."

Of course the entire point of the NFL's appeal appeared to be to stall until it could reinstate Peterson at the time it deemed appropriate. It would have been easier for the NFL to just let it go in late February and reinstate Peterson after the court's ruling, but it wanted to make a point. And now the NFLPA wants to make one too.

Adding to the public battle is that the NFL told Sports Business Journal's Daniel Kaplan that the union four days ago didn't object to an extension of the deadling on filing in the appeal of the Peterson case. The NFL asked the court for more time to argue why the Eighth Circuit Court should overturn a lower court's decision that sided with Peterson, and the court granted that. In that filing, Kaplan wrote, the NFL said the NFLPA did not object to that extension.

The case itself is practically meaningless at this point, but the underlying message is not. The NFL has in many ways seemed to taunt the union since scoring what most everyone considers a decisive victory in the last collective-bargaining agreement, in 2011. The latest was Goodell appointing himself to oversee Brady's appeal, then publicly reminding everyone that the union agreed to give him that power in the CBA.

The union and league, at some level, need a cooperative relationship for the best of the sport. That relationship seems like quite the opposite of cooperative lately.