60 Heroes: A Vital Instrument in the Players’ Defense

Jim Quinn’s involvement with the NFLPA stretches across nearly half of its 60-year existence, highlighted by his successful push for player rights and labor equality. While working alongside Jeffrey Kessler, Quinn helped pro football players gain unrestricted free agency in 1993 and later worked to break the stalemate in the recent 2011 lockout.

After the NFLPA's legal setback in the Powell Case in 1989, Quin endorsed the unprecedented step of renouncing collective bargaining rights so that owners would no longer have a labor exemption under the antitrust laws in player lawsuits. This cleared the way for the NFLPA to sponsor a new lawsuit -- McNeil v. NFL, in which Quinn served as lead trial counsel and eventually won a jury verdict finding that the NFL's restrictions on free agency violated the antitrust laws.

Afterward, Quinn was lauded for his instrumental work in a case that changed the landscape of professional sports, and led to a settlement in 1993, which paid almost $200 million in damages and brought unrestricted free agency rights to players for the first time in NFLPA history. Quinn was again vital in representing the players through the 2011 lockout when the union once again decertified.

The meticulous work of Quinn has been critical to the many gains and benefits that members of the NFLPA reap to this day.