Former Arizona Cardinals executive Terry McDonough filed a lawsuit against owner Michael Bidwill and several others for defamatory statements made in a press release last year.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported the lawsuit was designed to avoid any claims by the NFL that the situation was settled in arbitration. On Friday, an NFL arbitrator found the Cardinals made "false and malicious statements" in last year's press release and gave McDonough a $3 million judgment.
"Despite what we consider to be a fundamentally unfair arbitration process, Terry McDonough is the first person ever to win against an NFL owner," McDonough's attorney, Mike Caspino, said in a statement Monday.