A “How to Conquer the USFL” presentation...

A “How to Conquer the USFL” presentation at a 1984 NFL seminar merely offered ideas for consideration, not proposals for action against the new league, witnesses said at the United States Football League’s antitrust trial against the NFL in New York.

The presentation for some 65 NFL club executives was meant to be “conversation-generating and thought-provoking” rather than strategy formulation, said Michael Bell, assistant to the Harvard Business School professor who made the presentation.

Excerpts of the pretrial statements of Bell and professor Michael Porter were read to the jury in the USFL’s $1.5-billion antitrust suit against the NFL.

The USFL has cited the “How to Conquer” presentation as one of its main pieces of evidence in its effort to prove the NFL was plotting to destroy its competition.