Row Over Merchandise Sends NFL to the SC | IXGAMES

The National Football League, while in its off season, still got a bit of action itself.  The league is not embroiled over player contracts or salary negotiations among its members.  Instead, it is currently in battle over headgear, with a spill over effect on hats, jerseys, and other gear with its current apparel manufacturer American Needle.  What may seem to be a trivial matter at the surface has now reached full-blown proportions that the case has reached the Supreme Court. The case with NFL headgear The court drama over the official NFL headgear manufacturer might as well have a huge impact not only on how professional sports leagues address this issue, but also the entire business arena in the United States.  Everybody seems to agree that the case has widened in gravity that even the National Football League Players Association’s executive director, DeMaurice Smith, has been quoted as saying that the situation is more than just about hats. Wednesday will be the start of the hearings when the Supreme Court will hear each camp’s arguments.  The opening salvo will come from a former NFL apparel maker, American Needle.  They will argue for a prior ruling to be overturned.  The ruling stated that an antitrust complaint is not applicable to the National Football League since it is one business and not 32 separate teams working together. A Supreme Court ruling that would enforce NFL as a single party would give owners freedom from competition when it comes to almost everything, not just headgear costs, but with other matters as well such as ticket prices and player salaries.  That would mean that players will have to negotiate with the league instead of each individual team.  This may trickle down to the other leagues such as the NBA, MLB and NHL, which would mean the league will have authority to lower player salaries across the board or raise game admission prices.  Even non-sport business practices may be affected. Antritrust law For some time, American Needle was one of the many companies that produced headgear for the NFL.  This continued until NFL awarded an exclusive contract to manufacture headgear in 2001 to Reebok International Ltd.  American Needle then sued the league and Reebok, claiming that antitrust laws were violated by NFL awarding the contract to one company.  The lower courts junked the case, claiming that antitrust laws still allow NFL teams to cooperate on licensing apparel.  Now, the NFL is asking for the High Courts to give them a blanket antitrust exemption, which would then make all antitrust suits against the league void. Whatever the result of the case will definitely impact the manner professional sports leagues will be conducting business in the future.  As such, victory for them would be favorable to the league and other companies acting as one like credit card companies.