Packers president speaks out on NFL lawsuit bombshell

The NFL may have lost the Sunday Ticket trial, with a $14 billion liability now hanging over the league , but it has not communicated with clubs on when and how to plan for the amount, which comes to nearly $450 million per club (and would easily exceed that with interest if the sum is affirmed).

That’s because the league is confident on appeal, and even feels it has a chance to convince the trial judge to overturn the verdict, or at least alter or eliminate the damages.

“No,” replied Green Bay Packers CEO and president Mark Murphy on the team’s earnings call this afternoon to a question on whether the league had given any Sunday Ticket verdict accounting guidance to the clubs. “All the indications are that we will appeal. It’s really up to each team to figure out whether they need to set up a separate fund. The league will vigorously defend.”

Another team president said when asked if the league had given any guidance, texted, “No they haven’t since it’s all still pending.”

A California federal jury found earlier this month the NFL had illegally colluded to keep Sunday Ticket prices high, awarding $4.7 billion, which would be trebled under antitrust law.

But the plaintiffs are a long way from getting paid, if they ever will. The first step is for the trial judge to hear what is called a Judgment of a Matter of Law petition from the NFL.  This is a motion asking the judge to change the verdict because it is allegedly contrary to law, and he has scheduled for July 31 a hearing on the matter.

The judge could leave the decision intact but change the damages, as the NFL argues they were inaccurately calculated and not based on evidence presented at the trial .

After the judge makes his ruling, and assuming he leaves the verdict intact, the next step is to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where beginning to end the timeframe can run over a year and likely will go much further. And then the next step, if the Ninth Circuit turns the league down, would be to appeal to the Supreme Court. Only if the NFL is then brushed aside will the league need to pay (there is always the chance the sides reach a settlement).

If the NFL does not whittle down the damages at the trial court level, it will need to post a bond during the appeals process. The judge would decide how much of the $14 billion the league needs to cover, but the full amount would lead to a pricey bond for the NFL.

Of course, the NFL can afford it. The Packers, the only public team in the NFL, reported annual revenue of $654.1 million, profit from operations of $60.1 million, and because of large investment gains, net income of $98.1 million. Its corporate reserve fund also now stands at $536 million.

National revenue, which comes from areas like NFL media deals and sponsorships and is shared equally among the clubs, came to $402.3 million. That would mean spread across the 32 teams, NFL national revenues were $12.9 billion. Local revenues at the 32 clubs pushes the league close to $20 billion.

One way to juice those figures even more is expansion to an 18-game regular season.  There has been a lot of talk about this recently . But Murphy, a former player himself, said he didn’t expect talks on the subject to heat up until the end of the collective bargaining agreement, which is in six years. While that is a natural time to do so,

“Probably not going to see anything in the near future, probably once we get to the end of the collective bargaining agreement, that may be an issue that is raised,” he said. “You’re right, from a player’s perspective and the Players Association, I think they’d be probably concerned about the impact that additional regular season games will have on players and potential injuries. But we’ve said that the quality of the preseason continues to be much, much lower and much less than they are in the regular season. And to go from 17 to 18, games would mean a significant increase in revenue that would benefit both players and owners. But I don’t anticipate anything in the near future.”

The NFL in the leadup to the 2020 CBA pushed for 18 games over the then 16-game schedule, but pulled back in 2019 to a 17-game format proposal amid fierce resistance from the union.  Players narrowly approved the CBA due to opposition to even the addition of one game. So how players react to 18, whenever it is proposed, is worth watching.

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