Are You Ready for Some Football? How Antitrust Laws Can Be Used to Break up Directv's Exclusive Right to Telecast Nfl's Sunday Ticket Package‪.‬

I. INTRODUCTION Vince Lombardi, one of the National Football League's ("NFL") most famous and well-respected coaches, once said that "football is a game for mad men." (1) For those that ascribe to Lombardi's theory, Sunday is a day for both enjoyment and analysis. Sunday is the day when most of the NFL's games are telecast on broadcast television. Football fans love rooting for their teams, cheering against division rivals, and viewing other games to see league-wide developments as they occur in real time. To provide fans with the opportunity to watch all games being played, instead of just the ones being locally broadcast, the NFL has granted to DirecTV the exclusive right to offer a package known as the Sunday Ticket. Sunday Ticket allows subscribers to view any NFL game occurring at that time. Although ingenious on the surface, underneath lies potential antitrust violations by NFL franchise owners. Sunday Ticket is only available to DirecTV subscribers at a high premium. The NFL is granted several antitrust privileges by Congress, as discussed below, but Sunday Ticket should not fall within these exemptions.