NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit could cost Ravens nearly $450 million

The National League of American Football suffered a major defeat in the highly publicized Sunday Ticket lawsuit.

A U.S. District Court jury found that the league violated antitrust law by selling the Sunday Ticket package at an outrageously inflated price.

The jury awarded damages of $4.7 billion to individuals and $96 million to non-injured individuals.

However, it is not over yet, as the NFL will appeal the verdict. The league also released a very strong statement condemning the result.

“We are disappointed with today’s jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which includes all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in participating team markets and nationwide distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by a variety of additional options including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.” the league said in a statement to ESPN.

Because this is a federal case and involves antitrust violations (a more legalistic way of describing the abuse of monopoly power), the total damages could triple to $14.39 billion.

If the appeal is unsuccessful and the “shield” is forced to pay the full compensation, all 32 teams will have to face the consequences.

Like every other NFL team, the Baltimore Ravens will have to chip in to that hefty bill, which comes to $449.6 million per team.

Yes, that’s nearly half a billion dollars.

But you can also look at it this way: it’s equal to Lamar Jackson’s contract ($260 million) times 1.72.

It doesn’t seem so bad now.