Antitrust Formalism Is Dead! Long Live Antitrust Formalism! Some Implications of American Needle v. NFL

Introduction Few cases before the Supreme Court have been preceded by so many rival interpretations and grand predictions—from the death of modern antitrust policy to the end of professional football1—as American Needle v. National Football League.2 The Court’s decision reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which had held that with regard to licensing NFL intellectual property, the NFL and its constituent teams constituted a single-entity outside the reach of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Thus, the Court held, American Needle’s claims would survive another day, remanded to the district court for evaluation under the Rule of Reason. While unanimous, the Court raised nearly as many questions as it resolved; observers have depicted the opinion as everything from an antitrust sea change3 to an idiosyncratic application of a niche doctrine with