Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Sherminator

So the Supreme court in all it's wisdom has judged that NFL Franchises, unlike the franchises of say McDonalds, Burger King or Major League Baseball, are not one large entity, but are in fact individual business. Not just any individual businesses though; uncompetitive ones that are in breach of Sherman Anti-trust laws. The case, American Needle vs. NFL, will now be sent back to the Federal district Court in Chicago from whence it came, in order to be dragged on a fresh. Honestly, I don't get it. MLB is exempt, so why not the NFL? MLB earned it's effective exemption from Anti-trust laws in 1922 with the case 'Federal Baseball Club vs. National League'. The case originally went against the league, but both the appeal courts and later the Supreme court found in favour of the League, pointing out that Baseball is essentially just an exhibition put on for the publics' amusement and thus could not be constituted as interstate commerce. A bit like Football then. I understand that a lot of people will be crying because the big corporate bad guys are conspiring to trample on the little guy, but the fact is that the NFL is just as entitled as any other business to sell or license its' intellectual property to whomever it chooses. What you're essentially saying by crying foul at the deal with Reebok is that the NFL should not be allowed to make a deal that is in its' financial interest with another business, and that neither business should be allowed to try and make as much money as they possibly can. The pursuit of happiness is fundamental to the American way, and that's exactly what the shareholders and owners of the businesses are doing. I think it's stupid and I hope the federal district court finds in the NFL's favour so we can get back to focusing on football. Oh wait, it's the off season, there is no football. Boring. As for the whole Orton/Quinn/Tebow thing going on in Denver, something has to give. You can't have all three of those guys competing for a job. It doesn't make sense. You're forking out good cash for no reason. More to the point, let's be honest, why would you bring in Quinn and Tebow if you had absolute faith in Kyle Orton? Orton did well for the Broncos, but it's obvious that he's not their guy, that they don't see him as the long term solution. I say get rid of him and be done with it. But that's just me and my subtle approach. Anyway, have a great day everyone.

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