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49 National Football League players sued the National Football League Management Council and the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, New York Giants, and the Philadelphia Eagles in two federal complaints this week. The players claim they were either injured or else aggravated prior injuries or both while playing or practicing professional football in California. They claim that an arbitration award barring them from seeking workers’ compensation in California offends state public policy and ignores Supreme Court precedent.

The ruling “offends California public policy,” which “makes clear that contracts waiving workers’ compensation benefits are illegal and contrary to public policy,” both of the 18 page complaints state.

An arbitration award entered December 12th ordered the players to cease and desist from pursuing workers’ compensation claims in California. The players state that ruling comes from an arbitration provision of an expired collective bargaining agreement and must be vacated.

The complaints went on to express that the ruling “manifestly disregards” the 9th Circuit Court ruling in Bruce Matthew v. The National Football League Management Council; Tennessee Titans, the players say, which established that an “employee who makes a prima facie showing that his claim falls within the scope of California’s workers’ compensation regime may indeed be able to establish that an arbitration award prohibiting him from seeking such benefits violates California public policy.”

The players also say that the award ignores the U.S. Supreme Court precedent that establishes that unions and management cannot bargain away state created rights. It is inconsistent with the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution which allows California to apply its workers’ compensation laws to the exclusion of other state’s law even if the employee and employer agreed to waive protections afforded by California’s statutory law.

In both complaints the players cite Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act. “The arbitration award, if not vacated, would mean that every NFL Player who sustained injury in California but agreed to a non-California choice of law and/or choice of forum provision in their NFL player contract waived the statutorily non-waivable rights, protections, and privileges of California’s workers’ compensation statute.”