Radovich v. National Football League, 14394.

• Decision Date: 27 March 1956
• Docket Number: No. 14394.,14394.
• Citation: 231 F.2d 620
• Parties: William RADOVICH, Appellant, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE et al., Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

231 F.2d 620 (1956)

William RADOVICH, Appellant, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE et al., Appellee.

No. 14394.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

March 27, 1956.

Maxwell Keith, San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.

J. Bruce Fratis, Marshall E. Leahy, John F. O'Dea, San Francisco, Cal., for appellees.

Before STEPHENS, FEE and CHAMBERS, Circuit Judges.

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge.

William Radovich is a one time football great from the University of Southern California. From there he went on to Detroit to play professional football in the years 1938-1941 and 1945, with the Detroit Lions, a member of the National Football League. His playing there was interrupted by service in the navy during World War II. With the Lions, Radovich as a professional was as successful, if not more so, than he had been as an amateur at Southern California.

In 1946 Radovich signed to play at an increase in salary with the Los Angeles Dons, a football organization outside the ties of the National Football League. Eventually, he wanted, he says, re-employment by the Detroit Lions or by other football organizations of the National League. But he says up to the filing of his complaint, he could find no further employment as a football player with teams affiliated with the National League because when he joined the Los Angeles Dons he broke his contract with the Detroit Lions. He violated the "reserve clause," long established in baseball and now a standard provision of contracts of member clubs of National. Shortly stated, the reserve clause in a player's contract ties the player to his club and he cannot go to another club without the consent of the club holding his contract. Violation of the clause results in a five year suspension which Radovich received when he joined the Dons.

Radovich, perhaps with a prescience that anticipated United States v. International Boxing Club, 348 U.S. 236, 75 S.Ct. 259, 99 L.Ed. 290, filed suit in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the National Football League and others. He alleges a violation of the federal antitrust statutes. He says his troubles are due to the defendants' violations. Carefully it is pleaded that professional football, in reality, is played on a stage or arena from which interstate broadcasting and telecasting originate; that the game is a business, the show of which is really inter-related with television and radio broadcasting. He says the latter are not mere incidents to the show. Then he asked for treble damages and for injunctive relief.

The League and other defendants, in their answer, say:

1. They haven't conspired against Radovich and they haven't hurt him.

2. Radovich at 35 is just an old man in his profession and no longer employable by major teams. (The poignancy of that, if true, is obvious.) So, they suggest he has gone into the business of litigation.

3. The business of professional football is dependent on having teams of reasonably comparable strength. The reserve clause which keeps players from being free agents prevents the players from going into the market place seeking annual bidders. Prevention of this tends to prevent the strong from becoming stronger and the weak weaker.

4. The whole thing in professional football is the "game"; the spectacle on the field which the crowd sees. The television and radio aspects are trifling.

Pursuant to stipulation of the parties, defendants' motion to dismiss was held under advisement until the decision in Toolson v. New York Yankees, 346 U.S. 356, 74 S.Ct. 78, 98 L.Ed. 64, was announced. Then the complaint was dismissed by the district judge. Radovich appeals.

The League relies on Toolson and its parent, Federal Base Ball Club of Baltimore v. National League, 259 U.S. 200, 42 S.Ct. 465, 66 L.Ed. 898. Radovich says the International Boxing case governs and his complaint should not have been dismissed. Which of the two tides catches professional football? We confess that the strength of the pull of both cases is about equal.

Federal Base Ball of Baltimore v. National League survived in Toolson, we believe, only because of the historical indulgence of the Congress in not specifically bringing the sport under the antitrust acts for 30 years after the former decision was announced. Radovich says United States v. International Boxing means that only the professional...