Kapp v. National Football League

• Decision Date: 20 December 1974
• Docket Number: No. C-72-537 WTS.,C-72-537 WTS.
• Parties: Joseph R. KAPP, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, an unincorporated association, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California

390 F. Supp. 73

Joseph R. KAPP, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, an unincorporated association, et al., Defendants.

No. C-72-537 WTS.

United States District Court, N. D. California.

December 20, 1974.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Moses Lasky, Robert S. Daggett, John E. Munter, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiff.

R. S. Cathcart, Bledsoe, Smith, Cathcart, Johnson & Rogers, San Francisco, Cal., and Covington & Burling, Washington, D. C., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

SWEIGERT, District Judge.

THE RECORD

Plaintiff Joe Kapp, once an All-American (1958) for the University of California Bears, later a Professional quarterback of considerable renown in the Canadian League (1959-1966) and with the Minnesota Vikings (1967-1969) and finally a quarterback for the New England Patriots (1970), brings this suit against the defendants National Football League (NFL), its Commissioner Pete Rozelle and its 26 member professional football clubs and other related defendants, alleging antitrust conspiracy and monopoly among defendants, whereunder defendants in July, 1971, caused his discharge by the New England Patriots with which he claims to have had an October 6, 1970 contract to play for the 1970, 1971 and 1972 seasons for a stated compensation of $600,000, alleging, further, that defendants, in effect, drove plaintiff out of professional football in the United States.

Plaintiff further alleges, as a breach of contract cause of action brought under the pendent and/or diversity jurisdiction of this federal court, that defendant Patriots breached its contract of October 6, 1970, and that the other defendants herein tortiously induced that breach of contract.

The case is now before the Court upon plaintiff's motion for a summary judgment declaring that, upon the evidentiary record now before the Court and as a matter of law, defendants have violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act to plaintiff's injury in his person and property and, further, that defendant Patriots has breached its contract with plaintiff and, further, that all defendants herein wrongfully induced that breach.

The record before the Court, as presented by plaintiff, consists, in addition to the complaint and the answers, of certain depositions on file (of Rozelle, Kensil, Finks, Klosterman, Kapp, Cook, Ridder, Winter, Sullivan); an affidavit of Rozelle (2/17/73); admissions of defendants in response to plaintiff's requests and certain answers to interrogatories by defendants Vikings and Raiders. This record has been supplemented by defendants' affidavits of Sullivan, Kheel and Retzlaff.

THE FACTS

The facts which appear from this record without dispute (except as may be otherwise expressly noted) are substantially as follows:

While Kapp was with the University of California and a prospective professional player, the Washington Redskins "drafted" him pursuant to a so-called "selection" or "draft" rule, embodied in the NFL Constitution and By-Laws, Section 14.3(A) and 14.5, providing that at a Selection Meeting of the NFL Clubs, held annually in January or February, each club participating therein can select prospective players of its own choice; the selecting club will have the exclusive right to negotiate for the services of each player selected by it and placed on its Reserve List—even if the selecting club's offer to the prospective player might be unacceptable and even if the selecting club makes no offer at all, no other league club may negotiate with him without the consent of the selecting club.

The NFL Constitution and By-Laws, Section 9.2 also contains a so-called "tampering" rule which provides that if a member club shall tamper, negotiate with or make an offer to a player on the active, reserve or selection list of another club, then the offending club, in addition to being subject to all other penalties provided in the NFL Constitution and By-Laws, shall lose its selection choice in the next succeeding selection meeting in the same round in which the affected player was originally chosen and, if such offense was intentional the Commissioner shall have power to fine the offending club and may award the offended club 50% of the amount of the fine imposed by the Commissioner.

When the Washington Redskins made no satisfactory offer to Kapp, he went to the Canadian Football League and played there for seven years (1959-1966) during which period the Redskins kept him on their reserve list until April, 1966 and thus barred other NFL Clubs from negotiating with him.

Kapp's last Canadian contract expired after the 1966 season, subject to an option of his Canadian team to renew his contract for 1967—an option which was exercised. The Canadian Club, however, then suspended Kapp because of his covert negotiations, during December, 1966, with the Houston Oilers of the then American Football League.

Those negotiations had resulted in a contract between Kapp and the Oilers, dated February 10, 1967, whereunder Kapp was to be paid a $10,000 bonus to report to Houston in 1967 if his Canadian team did not exercise its option and, if it did, then he was to report to Houston in 1968 and play for two years at a salary of $100,000 a year.

On April 12, 1967, the Kapp-Oiler contract was declared invalid by NFL Commissioner Rozelle and by the then President of the AFL, acting together, according to plaintiff, pursuant to an understanding between the NFL and the Canadian League that players would not be permitted to contract during their contract periods for moving from one league to another.

Although Kapp still preferred to play for the Oilers, he eventually obtained clearance to play for the Minnesota Vikings when the latter paid Kapp's Canadian team $50,000 for his release and (apparently) made satisfactory arrangements with the Washington Redskins for any claim they might have. Kapp's contract with the Vikings, dated September 3, 1967, was for the 1967-1968 seasons with an option to have him also in 1969 for a total compensation of $300,000.

Kapp played with the Vikings during 1967 and 1968; the Vikings then exercised their option for a third year, 1969, during which Kapp contributed considerably to the Vikings' NFL championship and participation at the Super Bowl.

The Vikings offered Kapp a contract for another two years upon the same compensation terms but Kapp declined to sign. Other clubs, needing a quarterback of Kapp's ability, expressed interest—the Philadelphia Eagles and the Houston Oilers—but neither club followed up with an offer.

According to plaintiff, this was because those teams were restrained by the so-called "Ransom" or "Rozelle" rule which, as embodied in the NFL Constitution and By-Laws (Sec. 12.1(H)), provides that no league club will employ a player even if he has become a free agent by playing out his contract (as did Kapp) unless the new employing club either makes satisfactory arrangements with the former employing club, or, absent such satisfactory arrangements, employs the player subject to the power of the NFL Commissioner to name and award one or more players to the former club from the active reserve or selection list of the acquiring club as the Commissioner in his sole discretion deems fair and reasonable.

Eventually, the New England Patriots, needing a quarterback of Kapp's abilities, sought assurances from the Minnesota Vikings concerning what they would require as a ransom in the event the Patriots employed Kapp. This resulted in a transfer agreement between the Vikings and the Patriots under which the Patriots surrendered to the Vikings the Patriots' first round of draft choice for 1972 and, in addition, their number-one draft selection of 1967.

Under these conditions the Patriots contracted with Kapp under date of October 6, 1970, for his services as a Patriot for the remainder of the 1970 season and for 1971 and 1972 at a total compensation of $600,000. (Defendants contend that there is some evidence in the record that this claimed contract was merely a memorandum intended by the parties to be effective only when Kapp signed a Standard Player Contract).

Nevertheless, Kapp played for the Patriots under that agreement for the remaining eleven games of the 1970 season and was paid $154,000 of the contracted amount.

In January, 1971, the Patriots, acting pursuant to the NFL Constitution and By-Laws and at the direction of the Commissioner, sent Kapp a form of Standard Player Contract but Kapp refused to sign it. This Standard Player Contract is required by the NFL Constitution and By-Laws, Sections 15.1 and 15.4, to the effect that all contracts between the clubs and players shall be in the form adopted by the member clubs of the league, each club to have the right to modify such standard contract but subject to the right of the Commissioner to disapprove any such modification which is in violation of the Constitution and By-Laws or if either contracting party is guilty of conduct detrimental to the league or to professional football.

The Standard Player Contract (Pars. 4, 6 and 11), so required, provides that the player becomes bound by the Constitution, By-Laws, Rules and Regulations of the league and of his club, including future amendments thereto and to the discipline of the club—subject only to the right to a hearing by the Commissioner whose decisions shall be final and unappealable.

The Standard Player Contract, Par. 10 also contains the so-called "option" rule which gives the employing club an unilateral option to renew the contract for a further term of one year at a reduced rate of compensation, i. e., 90% of the amount paid by the player in the previous year—the purpose of this rule being, according to plaintiff, to coerce the player to sign a new contract on the owner's terms under peril of having to serve another year at the reduced compensation.

On May 28, 1971, Commissioner Rozelle wrote to the Patriots reminding the club that Articles 17.5(B)...