NFL looks greedy and petty in suit vs. CBS over fantasy stats

Fantasy Football Examiner Brad Hostetter wrote a piece last week about the ludicrous lawsuit between CBS and the NFL regarding fees for use of the NFL's football related information on the cbssportsline.com fantasy football site.

CBS started the ball rolling when it decided not to renew its agreement with the league that required payment of the fees. It's reason was the federal appeals court decision in a recent case by a pay for play fantasy site against MLB. The decision in that case declared that no fee must be paid if a site uses only what the court called  "historical" data such as that listed in box scores and game roundups in newspapers, In other words, names and stats.

The NFL is livid about CBS' independent action and has fired back in its responsive filing in the case, challenging whether or not the baseball decision will be limited to the facts of that particular case (fantasy site used no MLB logos, trademarks, or faces of the players) or used widely as a general proposition that stats and names are fair game for use by anyone.

One of the things that the leagues -- both football and baseball -- hide behind is the money they claim isn't being trickled down from them to the players if fees aren't paid. Sports Business Daily reports today that the agreement CBS decided not to renew was worth only $1.49 million to the league. The truth is that the league doen't funnel all of it to the players and if you asked any one football player what he gets out of deals like this he won't even know. There are 50+ players on the roster of each of the 32 teams in the league.

So what are we really talking about? Pure and simple, it is a control issue. The control of the huge pots of money that the NFL needs to feed the beast that is their players' union. But without the use of player photos with official NFL gear, or reproduction of team or league logos, the fight to control what a newspaper uses without fear just seems silly. As a lawyer I will be interested to see what theory the league will use to argue that the baseball case doesn't control the same facts for a different sport. In the meantime it is a colossal waste of time and money on something that just seems to be common sense.