Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- A federal judge upheld a $28.1 million award to retired football players against their union for failing to market their likenesses and names.

The union told video-game maker Electronic Arts Inc. to “scramble” the identities of retired players in the John Madden vintage team game, giving them “zero from this potential bonanza,” U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote in his opinion released yesterday.

A federal jury in San Francisco awarded $7.1 million in compensatory damages and $21 million in punitive damages to retired players who had signed the Retired Player Group License Agreement. The union created an “illusion” that it would market the retired players to keep others from representing them, the judge wrote.

“Given the deference we must accord jury verdicts, the test is whether the verdict as rendered was supportable,” the judge wrote. “The answer is yes. Nor was the verdict so far against the weight of the evidence as to warrant a new trial.”

The $7.1 million was “within the bounds of reasonableness,” Alsup wrote, while the amount of punitive damages “was not disproportionate to the wrong done.”

Efforts to collect the money will be stayed until all appeals are resolved, the judgment said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 14, 2009 00:03 EST