The NFL was looking for broad protection from anti-trust laws, but the highest court in the land denied the league that protection.
The court said that the NFL is 32 seperate entities, not one large corporation.
A ruling in favor of the NFL would have given the league the ability to basically tell everyone what their salary was, among a list of other things.
The case starter when American Needle, Inc. sued the league, claiming the league violated antitrust law because all 32 teams worked together to freeze it out of the NFL-licensed hatmaking business and gave Reebok an exclusive 10-year license.
Lower courts had rejected American Needle’s suit, so the company appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. The court’s ruling Monday sends the case back to the appealate level.
Major League Baseball is the only professional sport with broad Anti-Trust protection.
