and/or rookie salary cap that would limit first-round draft pick compensation. The players wanted guaranteed a higher percentage of league-wide spending and cash spend by every team per the salary cap on players, more benefits for former players, and changes made to improve health and safety including offseason and in-season training. Anticipating an owner-imposed lockout, players on every team voted unanimously in Fall 2010 to agree to renounce collective bargaining rights if a CBA extension could not be reached prior to expiration of the current CBA. Renunciation of CBA rights would expose the owners to potential antitrust lawsuits. The players would then lose the ability to collectively bargain with the owners. The league is exempt from most facets of antitrust laws as a result of Public Law 89-800, passed in the wake of the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, thus complicating any potential lawsuit against the league. The NFL hired firms to lobby members of the U.S. Congress on their behalf, and the NFL's political action committee, Gridiron PAC, made several large donations to lawmakers who oversee the league in numerous capacities, as well as several other influential lawmakers. The players union also hired firms to lobby members of the U.S. Congress on their behalf, claiming that a lockout could potentially cost each NFL city $160 million in lost business, based on a study by consulting firm Edgeworth Economics. Congressmen also indicated a willingness to intervene if necessary. The NFL had negotiated contracts with television networks to provide over $4 billion in 2011 to the NFL even if the owners shut down the league and no games were played in 2011. On March 1, 2011, judge David S. Doty ruled that the NFL had been actively strategizing for a lockout of the players for more than two years. It was determined that the purpose of the NFL's deliberate actions were to "advance its own interests and harm the interests of the players." Lockout Renunciation of CBA rights Following the end of the 2010 season, the players and owners had not resolved the labor dispute. Although the CBA was set to expire on March 3, the players and the league owners agreed to extend the negotiations by one week, changing the expiration date to March 11, 2011. After a one-week extension, negotiations failed to result in a new agreement. At midnight on March 11, the CBA expired and the owners imposed a