What is Jackson vs National Football League?

Answer 1

That was an antitrust lawsuit filed by 10 players against the NFL in 1992 challenging what, at the time, was known as 'Plan B' free agency. Plan B allowed each NFL team to reserve the rights to 37 of its players and required any of those players who negotiated with another team to also negotiate with his old team prior to being allowed to sign with another team as a free agent.

Jackson v. NFL was filed shortly after another antitrust lawsuit, McNeil v. NFL, had been through a jury trial with the jury ruling in favor of the players involved. Realizing that the McNeil decision would not take effect immediately the ten players, led by Keith Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles, filed to be immediately freed from the effects of Plan B. Six of the ten players were traded or released prior to the hearing of the case and, when the case was presented, the court (the judge was the now infamous David Doty) ruled that the remaining four players would have five days to sign contracts with other teams without restriction. All four did sign with other teams and, since all ten players that filed the suit were no longer with their original teams, Judge Doty dismissed the case.