Radovich V. National Football League - Trial and Appeal

Trial and Appeal

Radovich and Alioto brought suit under the Clayton Act, which allows private parties to seek damages from unfair business practices, against the NFL, all its member franchises, commissioner Bert Bell, the PCL (by then defunct) and its commissioner at the time, J. Rufus Klawans. He alleged he had been the victim of a group boycott intended to ruin the AAFC and sought $35,000 in damages. The defendants, primarily the NFL, argued in a pretrial motion that the antitrust exemption for baseball should apply equally to football, barring the lawsuit, and that even if it didn't, it should be dismissed for failure to state a cause of action.

The district court accepted those arguments, as did the Ninth Circuit. The latter distinguished football from boxing, which the Supreme Court had already denied the exemption, by noting that it and baseball were both team sports, unlike boxing.