Why the American Needle V. NFL Supreme Court Case is Not a Major Concern for Professional Sports

The majority of NFL fans focus during the off-season has been on the upcoming draft and free agency moves and with little attention paid to the Supreme Court case, American Needle v. NFL.

This legal battle started back in 2004, when the NFL decided to end their relationship with American Needle and gave Reebok exclusive rights to making official NFL ball caps of all 32 NFL teams.

While American Needle was feeling slighted, they decided to file an antitrust case against the NFL. American Needle believes that the National Football League used the power of a monopoly to exclude them from the license deal.

The basis of their argument is that the 32 NFL franchises should be treated as separate businesses rather than as a single business under the NFL umbrella. This would allow American Needle to sign a licensing deal with each of the teams on an individual basis.

The NFL has been the early winners when the case was brought up before the district court and the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. American Needle has continued to appeal and has resulted in the case reaching the Supreme Court.

In mid-January of 2010, the Supreme Court Justices began hearing arguments for both sides and will reveal their decision sometime in April or May.

Aside from the direct parties involved, the American Needle v. NFL has groups like the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), along with the other major professional sports, have made their stance known.

The NFLPA have based their posture because of their involvement with the individual licensing deals that are interjected into collective bargaining agreements. They feel three things would come to fruition if the NFL is deemed to be their own unity rather than 32 separate businesses.

- The NFL would become a legal monopoly and will be able to impose salary structures as they see fit. This would translate into a reduction in player salaries.

- The NFL would be able to raise the price of their exclusively licensed merchandise and gouge the fans of the sport.

- A ruling in favor for the NFL will eventually spread to the other professional sports, creating similar problems.

Despite the hype give to the American Needle v. NFL case, sports fans should not expect to see anything major come to out of the case if the NFL wins, which is expect.If the NFL has labor issues in 2011, it will not be because of the American Needle v. NFL decision.

The biggest area where they would be some change is with any of the maverick NFL owners, like Jerry Jones or Al Davis. The Supreme Court ruling would essentially put an end to any though of outside sponsorship deals or franchise movements if the NFL is not sold 100%.

Resources

American Needle and the NFL's Single Entity Argument

An Antitrust Super Bowl

Supreme Court Briefs: American Needle v. NFL