Among the more notable features of Monday’s landmark decision by the National Labor Relations Board declining to recognize Northwestern football players’ unionization efforts was the time it took to make it. A petition was filed in January 2014. An N.L.R.B. regional director recognized its legitimacy in March 2014, prompting an appeal to the federal board. But before Monday, it had been more than a year since anything appeared on the case’s docket.
The delay was uncommon, but in the interim, the facts on the ground had changed in a way that favored athletes — and, paradoxically, made it easier for the board to endorse the status quo.