The widow of a ‘Hard Knocks’ production assistant sued NFL Films for his death. A second lawsuit over the same car crash has made things messy.

Michael Antell worked late into the night for the show Hard Knocks, the NFL Films and HBO show that became infamous last year for footage of the New York Giants releasing Saquon Barkley, his team earning the nickname “night riders” for their hours.

In the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2022, the 33-year-old production assistant from Drexel Hill was driving home from New Jersey exhausted. He drifted in front of a medium-duty truck on a Burlington County road, suffering fatal injuries, according to a New Jersey lawsuit blaming NFL Films for his death.

But over the last two weeks, the NFL has been trying to get the case tossed or delayed because of another wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Philadelphia, which blames the other driver involved in the crash and a car manufacturer.

Rebecca Antell, the production assistant’s widow who was pregnant when her husband died, filed a lawsuit in New Jersey in the fall, alleging that the “night riders” had complained to supervisors and each other about the long hours, and worried about their safety driving fatigued.

“Mr. Antell and his coworkers checked on each other’s safety after driving home during the overnight shifts, and referenced falling asleep behind the wheel, specifically identifying the danger created by [NFL Films] that ultimately caused Mr. Antell’s death,” the Burlington County Superior Court complaint says.

In a complaint filed in August in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the widow had sued Korean car manufacturer Kia and the business that employed the driver of the truck involved in the collision, Day & Night Transport. According to the Philadelphia suit, the truck driver was “careless and negligent.” And had the passenger-side air bag in Antell’s Kia Sportage deployed even without a passenger, Antell’s fatal injuries could have been prevented.

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It is not uncommon for personal injury and wrongful death attorneys to make allegations against multiple defendants, attributing liability to multiple people or corporate entities. And there are times in which a defendant can’t be sued in a specific court — for example, if a company doesn’t conduct business in that area.

Now a New Jersey judge is tasked with untangling whether the two lawsuits, with two explanations for the crash, can coexist.

Attorneys for NFL Films, Rebecca Antell’s New Jersey attorneys, an attorney for Day & Night Transport, and a Kia spokesperson declined to comment. Antell’s Philadelphia attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

The New Jersey lawsuit accuses the NFL of unsafe working conditions and violations of state employment law by denying Antell overtime and benefits. That was the backdrop to the crash, the lawsuit says, in which an exhausted employee had to drive home late at night.

The lawsuit lists three previous crashes members of the Hard Knocks production team, including Antell himself, were involved in, all within a month of his death.

But none of those details are included in the Philadelphia lawsuit. The NFL says Antell’s widow acted “inexcusably” in filing two suits.

The NFL says it found out about the previous suit earlier this month, and last week asked a New Jersey judge to dismiss the case, combine the two lawsuits (a complicated feat across state lines), or pause proceedings in the Burlington County court until the Philadelphia case is resolved.

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In a letter to New Jersey Judge Richard Hertzberg, Cozen O’Connor attorneys representing the NFL accuse Antell’s estate of attempting to take “two bites at the apple.”

“The Kia complaint does not allege that Mr. Antell was fatigued, let alone that his death was proximately caused by workplace-related fatigue attributable to the NFL,” the March 17 letter said.

Things are more straightforward, according to Rebecca Antell’s New Jersey attorneys, of the Berkowitz, Lichtstein, Kuritsky, Giasullo & Gross firm.

The widow filed the complaint in Philadelphia while she was negotiating with the NFL through a mediator, and she filed the New Jersey lawsuit after those talks failed, the lawyers said in a response letter to the judge. NFL Films is headquartered in Mount Laurel and couldn’t have been sued in Philadelphia, requiring a second lawsuit.

And the NFL should have known about the lawsuit because it was mentioned in filings months prior, the attorneys said.

“The NFL’s attempt to leverage a separate proceeding as a basis for dismissal or other extreme relief appears calculated to manufacture delay and create a tactical advantage,” the response letter says.

The existence of a second lawsuit hasn’t been brought up yet in the Philadelphia case, according to a review of court filings. It is now up to the judge in New Jersey to decide whether to accommodate the NFL requests, or allow Antell to proceed with the two lawsuits simultaneously.