In tomorrow’s Washington Post, Drew Brees makes the case for American Needle in a landmark case before the Supreme Court to be heard this Wednesday. While this may come as a surprise to many, athletes have brains and often show courage even after they remove their pads and helmet.
The New Orleans Saints Pro Bowl Quarterback serves on the Executive Committee for the NFL Players Association, and through writing this op-ed, is serving his fellow players and sports fans by supporting American Needle, a small merchandise manufacturer based in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. This relatively small company decided to take on the NFL, and Brees has their back.
What does that have to do with sports fans, you ask? Well, let’s start from the beginning.
After the NFL signed a league-wide contract with Reebok, this small hat maker concluded that it had been unfairly excluded from the entire hat market serving the League. Therefore, American Needle sued both Reebok and the NFL for restricting competition and in turn violating antitrust laws.
While the SFC will cheer on the proverbial David in any David & Goliath scenario in the world of sports, this case potentially could change this country’s most popular sport in a variety of facets. Attorney Mark Greenbaum wrote in a San Francisco Chronicle article that ‘an overly expansive decision could adversely affect not just football, but all the leading professional sports leagues, potentially leading to the scrapping of free agency, protracted work stoppages and higher ticket prices’.
On the surface, all of that is hard to believe, but it’s true. The NFL has used this tiny law suit to it’s power-hungry benefit, requesting that its victory in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago be heard in the Supreme Court.
The best analogy explaining this is summoned by Tulane University sports law professor Gabe Feldman repeated in the LA Times. “This is like scoring a touchdown and then asking the officials to review the replay.”
A ruling in their favor at the highest level will not just allow the National Football League to flick the flea that is American Needle, Inc. off its Gorilla-sized shoulder, but it will forever more be treated as a single entity, rather than 32 separate businesses. That ruling would trump the League’s tax-exempt status, making franchise owners exempt from collusion, exempt from any limits on lowering players’ and employees’ salaries, not to mention raising prices of sports fans’ tickets, jersees, hats, you name it!
Higher prices for tickets, merch, and the increased possibility of work stoppage? Sounds like this case is clearly in the interest of the sports fan. According to Mike Freeman of CBS Sports, this case of American Needle v. National Football League is the ‘most significant sports legal case in history’.
On Wednesday, the playoff-bound quarterback of the New Orleans Saints will take time out of his rigorous schedule preparing for the winner of this weekend’s Wild Card game to testify before the Supreme Court (which is set to make a decision about the case this summer).
No matter what team we root for on Sundays, rest assured we here at the Sports Fans Coalition are rooting for Brees on Wednesday.
