Maybe Sen. Arlen Specter, R.-Pa., is tired of seeing the Philadelphia Eagles fail to win the Super Bowl. Otherwise, why else does he want to end the NFL's antitrust exemption?
One of the great aspects of the antitrust exemption is the NFL's TV profit sharing, which allows all 32 teams, regardless of market size, to remain profitable. Thanks to the exemption, the league negotiates all TV contracts on behalf of the teams. However, Specter's plan to introduce a bill that would eliminate the antitrust exemption that dates back to Pete Rozelle's stewardship of the league, would eliminate the NFL's monopoly over negoatiating TV contracts and therefore with it the profit sharing.
Without the exemption, the NFL would devolve into a league that resembles all that is bad in Major League Baseball where the big city teams dominate year after year. Sure, the NFL has its perennial favorites and even a few dynasties, but it takes only three Super Bowl victories to baseball's dozen or more World Series titles. This would surely change without profit sharing. Instead large market teams like the New England Patriots and the Dallas Cowboys would corner the market on the best talent to assure supremacy. As a matter of fact, it would be a safe bet that an AFC East and NFC East team would regularly meet in the Super Bowl simply because both have teams in some of the biggest media markets in the country.
For example, the 2005 AFC South champion Indianapolis Colts are a frequent contender for the playoffs, but without profit sharing, odds are the team couldn't afford star quarterback Peyton Manning, who could find himself replacing his brother in New York or a guaranteed chance to face off against Tom Brady twice a season for the AFC East's NY Jets or Miami Dolphins.
Luckily for Colts fans, Specter will no longer chair the Senate's Judiciary Committee, which oversees antitrust issues, after the Democrats take control of Congress next year. Consequently, it is a safe bet that the Democrats will brush aside his proposal under the guise that there are more important issues facing America. However, for most football fans, there is nothing more sacred than their Sunday rituals, and the prospect that come Sunday any team has a chance to win.—Matthew Wurtzel
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