Ed Garvey
| Ed Garvey | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 18, 1940 Burlington, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | February 22, 2017 (aged 76) Verona, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Edward R. "Ed" Garvey (April 18, 1940 – February 22, 2017) was an American lawyer, politician and activist.
Garvey graduated from the University of Wisconsin (now the University of Wisconsin–Madison) and spent two years in the U.S. Army; he then returned to Madison and entered the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he earned a law degree. Garvey died in a nursing home in Verona, Wisconsin.
Soon after graduation, Garvey joined Lindquist & Vennum, a Minneapolis law firm. The firm worked for the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the labor organization representing the professional American football players in the National Football League (NFL), and in 1970 Garvey was assigned to counsel union president John Mackey regarding negotiations on a new four year contract with the league's owners. Garvey was later offered the position of executive director in the now-certified NFLPA in 1971.
Garvey served as its executive director until 1983, through two strikes (in 1974 and 1982) and frequently invoking antitrust legislation in his many court battles with the league. Garvey directed the NFLPA though a series of court battles that led, in 1975, to the ruling in Mackey v. NFL that antitrust laws applied to the NFL's restrictions on player movement. In 1976, armed with leverage regarding player movement from team to team, Garvey and the union won major concessions from the owners. Garvey's negotiations with the league exchanged the players' threat of pursuing a system of unfettered free agency for an improved package of player benefits.
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