Commissioner Roger Goodell was none-too-pleased with a court's decision to levy a hefty fine/payment against the NFL for what was viewed as some serious illegalities involving its Sunday Ticket package.
In case you missed it, last month a Los Angeles jury to "pay $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and another $96 million to the commercial class of a class action lawsuit that accused the league of violating antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on the subscription service," as ESPN wrote.
Goodell said the NFL intends to follow "the litigation all the way" in its nearly decade-long defense.
"We obviously disagree with the jury verdict and we are committed, obviously, to following the legal process," Goodell said Thursday during an interview with CNBC. "It's a long process and we're aware of that. But we feel very strongly about our position, our policies, particularly on media.
"We make our sport available to the broadest possible audience. Sunday Ticket is just a complementary product. We're committed to following the litigation all the way and making sure that we get this right."
There are some things the NFL can and intends to do.
"The next step is a post-trial motion hearing on July 31, when the NFL will ask Judge Philip Gutierrez to set aside the verdict," ESPN wrote. "If the verdict isn't set aside, the NFL will appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court. A petition to the Supreme Court could follow."
Changes could be made moving forward.
"We've had a tremendous amount of interest and we believe that this could make sense for us in a limited fashion, probably no more than 10% of a team," Goodell said. "But that could be something that we think could complement our ownership and support our ownership policies. We think we're moving in a very positive direction and hopefully could have something by the end of the year."
