Testimony Ends in NFL-USFL Trial

Testimony came to an end in the trial of United States Football League’s antitrust case against the National Football League with a four-sentence deposition Tuesday from Raider owner Al Davis.

In it, Davis said he had been informed that a USFL owner had been told “that he would be an owner in the NFL.”

Summations in the USFL’s $1.69-billion antitrust suit, which began May 12, take place today, and the case will go to the five-woman, one-man jury Thursday.

In Davis’ statement, which had been ruled inadmissible during Davis’ earlier testimony, the Raider owner said that he had been told by Ralph Wilson, owner of the NFL Buffalo Bills, of dealings that Wilson and Commissioner Pete Rozelle had with A. Alfred Taubman, owner of the USFL Michigan Panthers and then part-owner of the Oakland Invaders.

“I knew that the league had already talked to Mr. Taubman, by Mr. Wilson, an owner in our league, and by Pete Rozelle,” Davis said. “Wilson told me that he had already informed this fellow that he would be an owner in the NFL.”

One of the USFL’s contentions in its case is that the NFL tried to “co-opt” influential USFL owners. That tactic was outlined in a study by a Harvard Business School professor that USFL lawyer Harvey Myerson maintains was the older league’s master plan for defeating its fledgling rival.

However, during its case last week, the NFL introduced a deposition from Taubman, who said his only meeting with Rozelle took place at a social event where football wasn’t discussed.