Roone Arledge, former president of ABC sports,...

Roone Arledge, former president of ABC sports, denied that the National Football League had expressed unhappiness with his network’s contract with the United States Football League.

Arledge, testifying in the USFL’s $1.5-billion antitrust suit against the NFL, said the only time he was aware of any unhappiness was in 1984, when there were rumors among NFL owners that ABC was helping finance the USFL’s signing of high-priced players. He insisted, however, that the NFL never pressured him to break the contract.

The NFL had earlier introduced a document written by owner Tad Taube of the Oakland Invaders in which Taube had said, “The central focus of all USFL strategies must be to bring about a merger or accommodation with the NFL.”

NFL attorneys said the document showed that the USFL’s desire to bring about a merger was more responsible for the new league’s financial problems than anything the NFL did.