"The NFL asserted in a 61-page brief filed Monday to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that a judge's decision to grant an injunction to lift the two-month-old lockout was unreasonable.

"This Court should vacate the District Court's grant of a preliminary injunction and remand with instructions to dismiss or stay the action," the NFL concluded.

Removing the lockout without a new collective bargaining agreement in place would allow better-off teams to sign the best players, tipping the NFL's competitive balance and damaging the league, its attorneys argued in advance of a June 3 hearing in St. Louis on the appeal of U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson's decision."