NFL Dealt Major Blow By Supreme Court in American Needle Decision

The NFL just lost.

It lost big. Or, rather, they lost big.

"They" referring to all 32 NFL teams, of which the United States Supreme Court ruled today are truly 32 teams that compete with each other and cannot collude to restrict free trade. In other words, according to the Supreme Court, the NFL is not one giant football corporation.

It was just a little anti-trust case.

American Needle was, once upon a time, a provider for NFL Apparel. In 2001, the NFL decided to stage a bidding war for all 32 teams' licensed apparel and Reebok won the contract—meaning that American Needle would not be making anymore NFL hats anytime soon.

So they sued.

The NFL sees this kind of lawsuit all the time, and has an entire law firm on retainer dedicated to anti-trust matters.

In fact, the NFL had already beaten the American Needle suit in circuit court and this whole thing could have been over; but, the NFL decided to tempt both fate and the Supreme Court's views on anti-trust matters.

The NFL supported the appeal to the Supreme Court, who would've never heard the case otherwise. The appeal was also supported by the NBA and MLB and, likewise, by those related unions.

This is a bigger deal than people are making it out to be.

For American Needle, they just wanted to make some money using the NFL logo—not a big deal to Joe-football fan who had already accepted that hats were now much more expensive than before the Reebok deal.

For the NFL (and the other major sports organizations), this was about being seen as one corporation—competing as one company in terms of entertainment dollars. The NFL sought a broad single-entity exemption from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

A single entity cannot conspire (read: collude) with itself to undermine free trade.

A much narrower exemption—in terms only of licensing apparel—was granted to the NFL by the lower court...but the NFL went for the jugular.

That broad exemption could've singlehandedly killed (or greatly restricted) free agency in the NFL and, eventually, every major sport—undercutting one of the biggest tools an NFL player has, a competitive market.

That same exemption would've applied to coaching and general manager candidates as well. No longer would choosing an employer be about the "best offer," because the offer would be the same with every team.

Apparel and ticket costs also likely would've skyrocketed and eventually, channels like the YES Network—the Yankee's own cable network—would've been outlawed, forcing fans to sign up for much more expensive offerings like the MLB Network or NFL's Direct TV package.

Now a Detroit Lions TV Network could be around the corner—not that anyone would want to watch it.

Perhaps the biggest loss in this court case is simply in terms of image. The NFL was, legally, an unbeatable foe. With a win against American Needle, the NFL would've been totally unstoppable.

In past collective bargaining disputes, unions have done their biggest and best damage not with a strike, but with lawyers—decertifying as a union for purposes of suing the sports organization for anti-trust violations.

With this exemption, that "nuclear option" would have been moot.

In fact, the NFLPA had often stated than any sort of agreement would have been unlikely before the outcome of this case.

Now, in upcoming labor negotiations, the NFLPA will still have that option in their back pocket and DeMaurice Smith couldn't be happier.

"Today's Supreme Court ruling is not only a win for the players past, present and future, but a win for the fans...We hope that today also marks a renewed effort by the NFL to bargain in good faith and avoid a lockout."

With the NFLPA able to fight its battle both with potential work stoppages and in the courtroom, the NFL will not get everything it wants in upcoming CBA talks.

For every non-billionaire here, that is a good thing.

Michael Schottey operates Blue And Silver Pride and is a Detroit Lions featured columnist for Bleacher Report . He also serves as a team correspondent for DraftTek.com and is a guest blogger for Mlive's Highlight Reel . Check out his Podcasts and add him on Twitter .