This story comes from Pro Football Talk, and given what Florio says in his commentary about the subject, I think the NFL is pretty much righteously screwed on this matter.
The NFL was hoping to take the Williams case back to federal court rather than a Minnesota state court, where their trial is set to begin on Monday. District Judge Paul Magnuson, who sent the Williams case back to state court last May as well, rejected the NFL's attempt to move the case to the federal court system with, as the kids today might say, "the quickness." Here's part of what Magnuson had to say:
"In remanding the statutory claims, this court determined that, because all preempted claims had been dismissed, the court no longer had federal question jurisdiction over the case," Magnuson wrote in his three-page ruling. "Nothing in defendants' submissions today establishes that the court has somehow recovered jurisdiction over plaintiffs' Minnesota statutory claims. Defendants' removal seems calculated only to avoid trial on the merits, and in this court's opinion, borders on abuse of process." Ouch. . .that's gonna leave a mark. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello called the decision merely a "procedural matter." I'm beginning to wonder at this point if the NFL isn't represented by Lionel Hutz, Attorney at Law. ("Works on commission? No! Money down!") As Florio so succinctly puts it. . ."now the NFL has to stand trial before a state-court judge who might have reason to be a little bit miffed, to say the least, about the league's eleventh-hour shenanigans." I'll put the standard Harvey Keitel-based disclaimer out here, as I should for things like this that seem to be great news for the Vikings. But this is nice. EDIT: Kevin Seifert is now saying that the Williams Wall trial has been delayed "indefinitely." In a related story, I believe I've just strained one of my glutes, because I'm laughing my ass off at Roger Goodell and company.