Rozelle Testifies That He Negotiated TV Contracts Without USFL in Mind

National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle said Thursday that he had no thoughts of United States Football League competition when he negotiated his league’s $2.1-billion television contracts. He maintained his position despite the insistence of the USFL’s lawyer that he had to be mistaken.

Rozelle, called by the USFL as the first witness in its $1.32-billion antitrust suit against the NFL, said under constant prodding by USFL attorney Harvey Myerson that what added up to the biggest deal in sports broadcasting history was negotiated with only one thing in mind--the largest possible profit to the NFL and its teams.

“You remember some things in precise terms,” the contentious Myerson said at one point after Rozelle, who had said he could not remember certain events, specifically detailed his thinking on the 1982 negotiations with all three major networks.

Replied Rozelle: “You don’t forget things that add up to $2 billion.”

After interrogating Rozelle on a variety of subjects during the morning session, Myerson zeroed in on television negotiations during the afternoon testimony.

Television is the key issue in the suit. The USFL, unable to gain a network contract after it decided in 1984 to switch from a spring season to the fall, is seeking to have the NFL thrown off at least one of the networks.