NFL Dealt Major Blow By Supreme Court in American Needle Decision

May 24, 2010   ·   Michael Schottey   ·   Jump to comments

The NFL just lost.
It lost big.
Or, rather, they lost big.
"They" referring to all 32 NFL teams, of which the United States Supreme Court ruled today are truly 32 teams that compete with each other and cannot collude to restrict free trade. In other words, according to the Supreme Court, the NFL is not one giant football corporation.
And it was just a little anti-trust case.
American Needle was, once upon a time, the provider for NFL Apparel. In 2001, the NFL decided to stage a bidding war for all 32 teams' licenced apparel and Reebok won the contract—meaning that American Needle would not be making anymore NFL hats anytime soon.
So they sued.
The NFL sees this kind of lawsuit all the time, and has an entire law firm dedicated to anti-trust matters.
In fact, the NFL had already beaten the American Needle suit in circuit court and this whole thing could have been over. But, the NFL decided to tempt fate, and the Supreme Court's views on anti...

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