The class-action lawsuit against the NFL alleging antitrust violations regarding its practices in selling the out-of-market Sunday Ticket package has been a monkey on the league’s back for a decade, and the case is still far from over.
After trial in 2024, a jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and hit the NFL with a $4.7 billion bill that under federal antitrust law was to be trebled to over $14 billion. Later that year, however, a judge took the unusual step to overturn the jury’s ruling, accessing that two economic experts called by the plaintiffs misled the jury with faulty calculations used to estimate financial damages. In doing so, the judge tossed the case entirely and did not arrange a retrial.
That ruling is now being appealed by the plaintiffs and was put in front of a three-judge panel in March for oral arguments, with a decision on the future of the case supposedly coming later this year.
One legal analyst believes the panel of judges will reinstate the case, which could take on any number of possible outcomes including a new trial, or even putting the NFL back on the hook for billions in damages.
Joining Puck sports correspondent John Ourand on The Varsity podcast, Puck legal analyst Eriq Gardner suggested the case will likely be reinstated, and went through some of the possibilities for how that could unfold.
“I listened to the hearing. To me, it sounds like the ninth circuit is ready to reverse the judge and revive the case,” Gardner suggested. “Whether or not that means that the case goes back to the trial court for a new trial or whether the multi-billion dollar penalty gets reinstated, or some sort of other penalty, who knows? Ultimately, this might end up at the Supreme Court, where the Supreme Court decides whether or not there’s an antitrust violation with the sheer act of these teams pooling their rights together to sell.”
A potential Supreme Court hearing would be among the most high-profile legal decisions in modern sports history. The NFL’s business practices have been the subject of much federal scrutiny recently, particularly as it comes to the league’s ability to pool broadcast rights among its 32 teams to sell in packages to networks and streamers.
If the ninth circuit does decide to reinstate the Sunday Ticket case, a settlement could find its way back into the picture, Gardner suggests. For the plaintiffs, the threat of taking the case to the Supreme Court, where justices could take an NFL-friendly view of the matter, could inspire settlement talks. After all, the plaintiffs don’t want to walk away empty-handed after a decade of litigation. The NFL, of course, could have motive to settle as well. The league might be confident in an eventual ruling if it’s able to get to the Supreme Court, but there’s always the possibility that the high court doesn’t take the case, leaving the league stuck with whatever result it gets in lower courts. Of course, an unfavorable ruling at the Supreme Court level could also decimate the league’s business model and how it is able to sell media rights.
“Everything is on the table,” Gardner says.