The NFL gets a date with the Supreme Court

June 30, 3:01 PMSports Business ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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The actual lawsuit in question here is the NFL’s exclusive contract with Reebok for NHL merchandise. However according to CBSsports.com, the actual issue the NFL wants a ruling on is to declare itself a single business entity, instead of a loose collection of 32 separate business enterprises.

Essentially the NFL wants a permanent decision by the Supreme Court that would allow it to avoid all anti trust lawsuits. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the NFL, that they will be free to squash team relocation plans, merchandising deals, and virtually anything that the league doesn’t agree with. This would make the NFL offices the ultimate decider of all things related to NFL business, even stuff at the franchise level.

Now there is some prior court precedence to look at there. The New York Rangers sued the NHL over its online website. The NHL held that the league had the right to decide how the league and its teams were marketed on the internet, in the end the court agreed.

This seems to suggest that the courts believe the laws of our country allow sporting leagues to operate in their own best interest and that sports league are truly one business entity.

Currently only the MLB has an anti trust exception that stems from a 1922 Supreme Court ruling. The NFL wants this decision, since it already won this specific case in the appellate court, to save itself the cost of litigating other frivolous antitrust lawsuits.

The original suit in this matter was filed by American Needle, when the NFL gave its exclusive merchandising contract to Reebok. The case is titled American Needle V National Football League.

It is interesting to note that the NFL has been on the losing side of a few legal arguments of this nature in its history. According to oursportscentral.com, the USFL sued the NFL after its second season for, “the NFL pressured the networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) to not televise the USFL in the fall. The league also claimed that the NFL had followed the practices outlined in the Porter Presentation, a package compiled by a Harvard professor to show the NFL how to conquer its new competitor. In particular, the USFL maintained that the NFL had conspired to harm the Oakland Invaders and New Jersey Generals.” The USFL also maintained that in this way the NFL had violated the Sherman Antitrust act.

Ultimately the jury in this case found that the NFL was at fault here, but awarded the USFL one 1 dollar in damages. In the end that award was tripled to 3 dollars, but spelled the end of the USFL.