NFL Issues Statement On American Needle Case

The league has issued a statement on the ruling in the American Needle case. The statement comes from NFLLabor.com:

“In today’s decision, the Supreme Court recognized that ‘special characteristics’ of professional sports leagues, including the need for competitive balance, ‘may well justify’ business decisions that among independent competitors would otherwise be unlawful. The court noted that the NFL teams’ shared interest in making the league successful and cooperating to produce NFL football provide ‘a perfectly sensible justification for making a host of collective decisions.’ The decision will simply result in American Needle’s claim being sent back to the federal district court in Chicago, where the case will resume in its early stages. We remain confident we will ultimately prevail because the league decision about how best to promote the NFL was reasonable, pro-competitive, and entirely lawful. The Supreme Court’s decision has no bearing on collective bargaining, which is governed by labor law.”

Note the last sentence in there. The union used the court’s ruling to call for a “renewed effort” in labor negotiations. The NFL apparently doesn’t think the two are connected.

We’ll have more updates on this story coming soon.