Former Cardinals executive Terry McDonough has filed an arbitration claim with the NFL regarding his former team. The NFL has exercised its prerogative to appoint an arbitrator.
Via Tisha Thompson of ESPN.com, former NBA chief legal officer Jeffrey Mishkin will handle the case.
The parties were informed of the selection by NFL general counsel Jeff Pash on April 18.
Mishkin worked for the NBA for seven years. He leads the sports practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He has represented, per the firm’s website, leagues including the NFL. Which means that he and/or his firm hope to do so again in the future. Which means that he’s hardly impartial.
While more impartial than the Commissioner would have been, Mishkin’s appointment puts the “rigged” in the “secret, rigged kangaroo court” label that we sometimes use to describe a process in which the referee is working a game between a team that employs him and a team that doesn’t.
In this case, McDonough opted not to challenge the NFL’s habit of serving as the judge in cases against its teams. That’s his prerogative. But it also doesn’t make the practice appropriate or fair to both sides of a legal fight.
