Oral arguments will be made in St. Paul before a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The NFL hopes for a quick ruling that would let it suspend the players for four games at the start of the season.

The players took the weight-loss supplement StarCaps, which contained an unlisted but banned diuretic that can mask the presence of steroids.

Their legal fight remains alive in a Minnesota state court. But the NFL is asking the federal appeals court to rule that the players' union contract and federal law trump state law in this case.