News Post

American Needle Won! NFL Exclusive Deals May Be A Thing Of The Past

11:13 AM - May 24, 2010 by aholbert32

Check out the coverage at ESPN.

Quote:


	"WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday turned away the National Football League's request for broad antitrust law protection, ruling that the league can be considered 32 separate teams -- not one big business -- when it comes to selling branded items like jerseys and caps. The high court unanimously reversed a lower court ruling throwing out an antitrust suit brought against the league by one of its former hat makers, who was upset that it lost its contract for making official NFL hats to Reebok. American Needle, Inc. sued, claiming the league violated antitrust law because all 32 teams worked together to freeze it out of the NFL-licensed hatmaking business. The company lost and appealed to the Supreme Court but the NFL did as well, hoping to get broader protection from antitrust lawsuits. Major League Baseball is the only professional sports league with broad antitrust protection. The National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the NCAA, NASCAR, professional tennis and Major League Soccer supported the NFL in this case, hoping the high court would expand broad antitrust exemption to other sports. The Supreme Court turned away the league's theory that its 32 teams operate as one business, and sent American Needle's antitrust lawsuit back to the lower court. "Decisions by NFL teams to license their separately owned trademarks collectively and to only one vendor are decisions that 'deprive the marketplace of independent centers of decisionmaking ... and therefore of actual or potential competition," said the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the court."

Member Comments

# 321 super44444444 @ 10/18/10 12:36 PM

Look it will be nice to have a choice again with different nfl games. But how great will be when your cable provider can also offer the 32 team Sunday Ticket..... Allowing you to see any out of market game you want.... That will be better then any game... Just my feeling......

# 322 erickonasis @ 10/18/10 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Only1LT


	I hope your version never sees the light of day lol. Maddens visuals use a ton of polygons and are hi-res, because... well because we have HD gaming systems. That's about all the good I can say about them. In terms of what they do with all the polygons and hi-res graphics, however, isn't pretty. Player models are the worst of any Football game ever made. This has always been the case with EA Sports games. They do not know proportions, at all. Their player models also have an extremely high tendency to have their limbs be bent at 90 degree angles, far, far, far too often. They look like marionettes. They also tend to like their players on the anorexic side. In short, although the tech, and therefore, the potential is there for EA to make some visually stunning sports games (this pertains primarily to EA's Football and Basketball games, although FIFA and NHL also exhibit these issues to a lesser degree) they don't seem to know how. You are correct when you say that Madden doesn't move well, but to say that that is the only reason that Madden doesn't look all that real, would not be correct. I'm sure I am not alone when I say that even in still pictures, Madden doesn't look all that realistic either. Hi-res, and hi polygon count? Yes, but when those hi-res, high polygon count players don't represent human beings all that well, it's all for naught. PS, Maddens pre-snap controls, are not in the same league as 2K's.

agreed....madden 11 looks very cartoony to me in comparison to NCAA

# 323 Skyboxer @ 10/18/10 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by super44444444


	Look it will be nice to have a choice again with different nfl games. But how great will be when your cable provider can also offer the 32 team Sunday Ticket..... Allowing you to see any out of market game you want.... That will be better then any game... Just my feeling......

Ok...........

# 324 Skyboxer @ 10/18/10 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erickonasis


	agreed....madden 11 looks very cartoony to me in comparison to NCAA

For what it worth.... If the gameplay was stellar and had great ai and all the offseason bells and whistles Id take sub par visuals.

# 325 BezO @ 10/18/10 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PGaither84


	I would say that graphics should remain EA. Madden looks* amazing. It just doesn't move that well.*

Agreed!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PGaither84


	Madden does ...playbooks...

Sheeeeeeeeeet! The playbooks are the beginning of the end. The defensive playbook is not tiered. Even for folks that like it like that, there are way too many basic stunt/blitz/coverage combinations missing. EA either needs to beef the defensive playbooks up 5 fold, at least, or tier it.

My defensive experience usually goes like this: Search for defensive play similar to the scheme in my head. Don't find it. Decide whether I want to match the stunt/blitz I want or the coverage. Pick one. Hope the other will due since I'm not about to hot route my way into the defense I really want. Shake my head at the inability to press individual DBs, the inability to shade and the inability to bring my SS into the box w/o effecting my CBs. Watch the play with disgust.

The offensive playbook needs to be re-tiered so that personnel precede formations. For example, if I select base personnel (2 WRS, 2 RBs & TE), I should be able to use ANY formation with that personnel. I shouldn't have to look for specific formations with my RB split out, for example.

And the offensive playbook needs to duplicate play types in similar formations. For example, every 2-back run play should be in ever 2-back set. As it is there are too many plays that exist in only I formation or I Strong or I Weak. Most, if not all plays that can be run from one can be run from the others.

EA wants to know why people spend so much time in the playbooks, this is why.

# 326 huskerwr38 @ 10/18/10 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BezO


	Agreed! Sheeeeeeeeeet! The playbooks are the beginning of the end. The defensive playbook is not tiered. Even for folks that like it like that, there are way too many basic stunt/blitz/coverage combinations missing. EA either needs to beef the defensive playbooks up 5 fold, at least, or tier it. My defensive experience usually goes like this: Search for defensive play similar to the scheme in my head. Don't find it. Decide whether I want to match the stunt/blitz I want or the coverage. Pick one. Hope the other will due since I'm not about to hot route my way into the defense I really want. Shake my head at the inability to press individual DBs, the inability to shade and the inability to bring my SS into the box w/o effecting my CBs. Watch the play with disgust. The offensive playbook needs to be re-tiered so that personnel precede formations. For example, if I select base personnel (2 WRS, 2 RBs & TE), I should be able to use ANY formation with that personnel. I shouldn't have to look for specific formations with my RB split out, for example. And the offensive playbook needs to duplicate play types in similar formations. For example, every 2-back run play should be in ever 2-back set. As it is there are too many plays that exist in only I formation or I Strong or I Weak. Most, if not all plays that can be run from one can be run from the others. EA wants to know why people spend so much time in the playbooks, this is why.

Exactly. The way they have their playbooks set up now is pretty much been the same since 1994. I like they went with a radical new idea like gameflow, but it was poorly implemented and executed.

# 327 huskerwr38 @ 10/18/10 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlc12576


	Church! I could spend from now til infinity on this very point. This is the root cause of why I have such contempt for Madden at this point. Many people have said and I agree with them, that NBA 2k11 is so realistic. What 2k did is not rocket science, they just simulated NBA basketball. Visually simmed what we see on tv, acoustically simmed what you hear at the stadium and miscellaneously simmed what goes on throughout the actual league, BRILLIANT! I read so many posts on OS where people are saying recreating football is "so hard". Granted I know little about software design but seems just copying what the NFL alrady does in real life would be easier than reinventing the wheel. I will not go on and on about this but for pete's sake and mine EA, please just copy what the NFL does.

Exactly, Ian Cummings should have one of the easiest jobs ever as the Creative Director, because you don't have to be creative at all! Just copy what someone else does and you will have done your job!

# 328 Kaanyr Vhok @ 10/18/10 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BezO


	The offensive playbook needs to be re-tiered so that personnel precede formations. For example, if I select base personnel (2 WRS, 2 RBs & TE), I should be able to use ANY formation with that personnel. I shouldn't have to look for specific formations with my RB split out, for example.

you mean like this?

# 329 Kaanyr Vhok @ 10/18/10 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BezO


	Agreed! The offensive playbook needs to be re-tiered so that personnel precede formations. For example, if I select base personnel (2 WRS, 2 RBs & TE), I should be able to use ANY formation with that personnel. I shouldn't have to look for specific formations with my RB split out, for example.

U mean like this?

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American Needle Won! NFL Exclusive Deals May Be A Thing Of The Past