There are two major themes from the past couple months that you need to understand about this Department of Justice. First, the administration forced out its own antitrust chief and this week we learned that the senior litigators running the government’s biggest antitrust matters are also bolting the Department of Justice following the surprise settlement with Ticketmaster. The administration used the threat of arbitrary enforcement to shunt a media consolidation deal toward a deep-pocketed donor. And we learned that one right-wing lawyer has built a reputation for successfully leaning on the administration to approve suspect deals for his clients.
Second, after Pam Bondi got fired, her interim replacement Todd Blanche held a press conference where he said that Donald Trump has the “right” to influence DOJ investigations.
So, given that this DOJ doesn’t give a shit about faithfully enforcing antitrust law, what are we to make of today’s Wall Street Journal exclusive report that the Justice Department has opened an investigation into the National Football League over potential anticompetitive practices? Other than this being the dementia-fueled fulfillment of Trump’s revenge arc against the NFL for never letting him own a team and publicly humiliating him in an antitrust trial 40 years ago.
The DOJ is reportedly examining whether the NFL’s media rights deals — which now spread games across broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming platforms — are harming consumers by forcing fans to subscribe to an ever-expanding patchwork of services just to watch their team play.
The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 granted the NFL a limited antitrust exemption so that teams could collectively negotiate TV deals. Back then, that meant games on free broadcast television. Now it means forking over cable and streaming subscription fees. Senator Mike Lee has questioned whether the statutory exemption should still apply when games end up behind paywalls, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr opened a public comment period in February examining how the streaming migration has affected consumers.
The answer is “yes, the exemption still applies until Congress does something about it.” Apparently textualism isn’t Lee’s strong suit.
But congressional action would require taking responsibility for something, which is anathema to a body that won’t even vote to approve Trump’s attack on Iran, and so lawmakers like Lee would prefer to sit back and beg the executive branch to do what he and his colleagues lack the courage to.
Is the NFL a monopoly? Sure. In fact it’s been adjudicated as one!
When Donald Trump’s bid to buy the Baltimore Colts was rejected in 1981, he bought the New Jersey Generals of the upstart USFL. But Trump didn’t care about building a contender, he just wanted a litigation vehicle. In 1986, Trump convinced the other owners to abandon their successful spring schedule and go head-to-head with the NFL in the fall, a move that was intended to fail and set up a $1.69 billion antitrust suit.
Who cooked up this doomed legal gambit? Roy Cohn. It was always Roy fucking Cohn.
The jury found the NFL was indeed an illegal monopoly, but awarded the USFL… one dollar. Trebled under antitrust law, the USFL collected a grand total of $3. With interest, the NFL eventually paid $3.76. The USFL folded days later. If you wanted a preview of Trump the MASTER STRATEGIST in Iran, you needn’t look much further than the time he launched an expensive assault to shake up a steady equilibrium, declared victory, and ended up with 3 bucks for his trouble.
Trump tried to get into the NFL a couple times since then. He tried to buy the New England Patriots in 1988 and lost out on the Buffalo Bills in 2014. Former Commissioner Pete Rozelle reportedly told Trump to his face that he would never be allowed to own a franchise.
So four decades later, Trump is the president of the United States and noticeably sundowning. Trump reportedly told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith that if the league screwed him on his 2014 attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills that he’d “run for president” and “get them all back.” It’s not really a conspiracy theory when they’ve been telling reporters about it for over a decade.
Speaking of reporters, it might not be a coincidence that the Wall Street Journal — owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox, which is currently in a leverage war with the NFL over broadcast rights fees — got an exclusive. Fox has been fairly openly lobbying the FCC and Congress to strip the NFL’s antitrust exemption so the league can’t squeeze networks for more money. What a coincidence that Murdoch’s newspaper had an inside line on the DOJ deciding to heed Murdoch’s plea.
The NFL is absolutely using its power to squeeze the media and the media is passing that on to the consumer. But this administration just let Ticketmaster’s monopoly walk and put themselves behind a consumer crushing media merger. They don’t care about sports fans getting gouged. This is Trump’s revenge tour for the league humiliating him and permanently barring him from the cool kids’ table.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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