Sunday’s ticket trial moves toward a jury verdict

With extensive accounts of The judge’s mini tantrum against the plaintiff’s case Creating a reaction from some that the case is about to be thrown out of court, it is easy to forget that the litigation is still on the right track. It was not rejected. It goes to the jury’s verdict.

After a break on Wednesday in the Sunday ticket trial, testimony resumed on Thursday. Via Craig Clough of Law360.com, Stanford economist Douglas Bernheim He returned to the positionHe spent a full day testifying, and will finish his testimony when the trial resumes on Monday.

With Bernheim being the NFL’s last scheduled witness, the question then becomes whether prosecutors will present a rebuttal case. If they do, there will be one or more additional witnesses. If they don’t, it will be time to finalize jury instructions and conduct closing arguments.

As for Bernheim, the NFL has used it to paint a parade of horrors regarding the potential collapse of the NFL’s current television model, which entails the league, not the teams, selling broadcast rights to the networks. Although the current case focuses solely on the way the NFL prices the package out of the market, the league is trying to promote the idea that the entire process would collapse if teams were asked to sell their own rights.

Essentially, popular teams would make a lot more money, less popular teams wouldn’t make nearly as much, the salary cap could collapse, and football could diminish due to competitive imbalance.

These should not be concerns for the present case, which does not extend widely. Without being in the courtroom, it’s hard to know why the plaintiffs’ attorneys didn’t object to any and all questions and testimony intended to make the jury believe this rather narrow case could be the first domino in the league’s collapse. Clearly, that’s the impression the league is trying to create.

So here the issue stands. (On Thursday, Joe Reidy of The Associated Press Published a strong summary On how the case got to where it is.) Bernheim will finish his testimony on Monday. Prosecutors will or will not call rebuttal witnesses. The NFL will argue (without a jury present) that the judge should issue the ruling as a matter of law for the league. The judge, as almost all judges do at this stage of the trial, will allow the jury to resolve the matter. The jury will do so after instructions and closing arguments.

Then the judgment will come. If the plaintiffs win anything, it will be tripled under antitrust laws.

remember this. If the NFL loses, the judge can still issue a ruling regardless of the league’s ruling. This is a real possibility, in light of his statements on Tuesday. (It’s also possible that he was simply venting his frustrations, performing for the media, and/or trying to convince prosecutors to move the case.)

If the judge upholds the ruling, the NFL will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. If the NFL loses in the appeals court, it will almost certainly take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Before the Supreme Court can rule on this case, it must first decide whether to accept it.

According to the US government, the Supreme Court It accepts 100 to 150 of more than 7,000 cases He is required to review it every year. So at least four of the nine judges will have to agree to accept the case, before at least five of them can rule in favor of the NFL.

Given the current business-friendly makeup of the Supreme Court, this is not far-fetched. If nothing else, it will give Judge Clarence Thomas a chance to win The Super Bowl ring he once received From Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.