The NFL has a new top lawyer. The NFL expects to have some old legal problems.
During the recent league meetings, owners were informed that Ted Ullyot will succeed Jeff Pash as the NFL’s general counsel. And even though the business of pro football continues to boom, challenges will persist.
“We’re at the top of the heap,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said, via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal. “We’re going to be a target in antitrust, and in a lot of other ways, we’re going to need legal representation that knows how to go on the offensive and play defense to protect where we’re going.”
Last summer, a massive civil antitrust verdict was entered against the league over the Sunday Ticket product. The presiding judge scrapped the outcome based on perceived deficiencies in the calculation of financial losses.
The issue that gave rise to the jury’s decision lingers, along with other potential antitrust issues. The proliferation of streaming, for example, falls beyond the broadcast antitrust exemption contained in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1960.
Ullyot, a Republican operative for whom Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh submitted a letter of recommendation, could tasked with lobbying for an adjustment to the current exemption — and possibly an elimination of the 65-year-old prohibition on broadcasting games on Friday nights and Saturdays from the second weekend in September to the second weekend in December.
Regardless, the NFL continues to consist of 32 independent businesses that work together in many ways. Kraft’s comments show that the league anticipates more challenges to the concerted action of its franchises in the coming years.
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