It’s appeals week in the StarCaps case

The NFL Players Association responded to appeals made by the league by filing appeals for the union’s case. That means that just about everything that has been ruled upon in the StarCaps case involving Vikings Kevin and Pat Williams has been appealed.

Calling all lawyers!

On a day where Fran Tarkenton not only threw Brett Favre under the bus, but opted to drive the bus himself and run him over a few times, and Pat Williams made headlines when he said in a radio interview that Tarvaris Jackson doesn’t work hard enough, the latest court filing in the Pat and Kevin Williams saga took a quiet and less discussed turn Wednesday.

A day after the NFL announced that it was going to appeal the two counts left in the case filed by the Williamses against the league, the NFL Players Association, which had all of its claims thrown out in last Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, announced that it, too, will be heading to the U.S. Appeals Court to have them look at the decision.

Because the Williamses are part of the suit that was thrown out, they have a vested interest if the potential exists that the ruling could be overturned at the appellate court level. The two cases are completely different, in that the NFL is appealing the two claims that were sent back to the Minnesota state courts and filed as a separate suit by the Williamses. The NFLPA is looking to have the portion of the claims dismissed by Judge Magnuson reinstated.

The delays expected on any resolution to the first claim for an appeal can likely only get longer now that the federal case that was thrown out is also under appeal to be reinstated. It is unclear at this time whether the appellate courts will rule on both issues at the same time or take them separately. If the issues in the Williamses’ case are allowed to come back to state court, there may be the possibility that would have to wait for the federal court cases to run its course.

There are a lot more questions than answers at this point, but it looks more and more likely that this story may drag out longer than anyone planned, expected or intended.

THURSDAY NOTES

There has been a lot of negative backlash directed toward Fran Tarkenton for the comments he made about Brett Favre contemplating another return to the game. It will be hard for Tark to defend using terms like “despicable” in describing Favre’s desire to continue playing. It doesn’t help his case when he added that he hopes he does return and fails. It seems a lot like sour grapes, but it seems to be in keeping with a lot of the comments made by players from previous eras about today’s stars. Whether it’s a little bit of jealousy about how the pay scale for star players has jumped so far out of whack with what previous generations of players have made or that Tarkenton bears a legitimate resentment of Favre, it will be hard for Tarkenton to get away from those comments any time soon. He is scheduled to appear on KFAN Thursday morning to address those comments.

Things aren’t all sweet in Packerland. Both of the starting safeties – Nick Collins and Atari Bigby – were no-shows at the team’s voluntary workout. The reasons given are that Collins, who is entering the final year of his contract, is dealing with a “serious family issue.” Bigby is allegedly still recovering from December ankle surgery, which is contrary to Twitter messages sent by Drew Rosenhaus that he has fully recovered from the injury and it ready to get back to work. Stay tuned.

Speaking of Rosenhaus, he said a third team is interested in signing WR Plaxico Burress. The two teams that have already had the finger pointed as being interested are the Jets and Buccaneers. There are rumors surfacing that the third team might be the Bears, who need a go-to receiver to catch Jay Cutler’s passes.