NFL could potentially give Los Angeles Chargers a whopping $450 million bill

Travis Wakeman

NFL could potentially give Los Angeles Chargers a whopping $450 million bill image

The Los Angeles Chargers could be heading to the team vault to take out a massive lump sum of cash due to a recent ruling in court.

As reported by ESPN, the league was on the wrong end of a decision in the 'Sunday Ticket' case as an 8-person jury decided that the league violated antitrust laws. That leaves it staring at a $14.39 billion payment in penalties. 

The league made its intentions known that it plans to appeal the decision in the following statement that was released following the proceedings:

"We are disappointed with the jury's verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.

We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge [Philip] Gutierrez throughout the trial."

 

Chargers could be left with a nearly $450 billion bill

Post-trial motions will be heard in late July but if the verdict is not set aside, the league will have to file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court. Should the league lose that appeal, the 32 teams in the league would split the $14.39 billion fee and that rounds out to about $449.6 million per team. 

That would likely lead to drastic changes within the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which is currently part of YouTube TV but was held by DirecTV from 1994-2022. 

Travis Wakeman

Travis Wakeman Photo

Travis Wakeman has been covering the NFL since 2012 when he started with Bleacher Report. After reporting about the Broncos there until 2016, he joined the FanSided network as a site expert covering the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers while simultaneously covering the Broncos at Broncos Wire when that site launched. He then took over the Broncos site at FanSided in March 2020 and covered the team there until spring of 2024. A lifelong Broncos fan and fan of the game, Travis is filled with sometimes useless NFL knowledge, but it always serves him well in any trivia contest. You can follow him on Twitter/X @traviswakeman10.