After the New England Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX over the Seattle Seahawks, the discussion centered around the last second call by the Seahawks to throw the ball on the goal line rather than to hand it off to All-Pro running back, Marshawn Lynch. The play ended in an interception, and the Seahawks lost the game.

Another popular topic of discussion was the investigation, into whether the Patriots knowingly deflated the footballs used in the AFC Championship game below the legal limit.

Both of these topics are interesting and could be talked about in their own right. However, coming out of the Super Bowl, the topic that stood out to me the most was how the NFL mistreats its players and breaks just about every anti-trust law in doing it.

One example of this is in the case of Marshawn Lynch’s interviews. Lynch is notorious for either refusing to talk to the media, or giving short, sometimes nonsensical answers. Lynch has already been fined time and time again for this, despite his obvious discomfort with talking to the media.

On the outside this isn’t as dubious as it may seem; businesses fine their employees all the time. However, Marshawn Lynch isn’t an employee of the NFL, he’s an employee of the Seattle Seahawks.

The reason that such a fine can exist is the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the player’s union. Despite the fact that this violates antitrust law, the NFL negotiates on behalf of the 32 independent businesses that make up the league.

This activity was highlighted in the 2010 Supreme Court case, American Needle Inc. v. NFL, in which the Supreme Court found that the NFL is a “cartel,” of 32 businesses that are all independently subject to antitrust law.

Even more incriminating is that article 51 section three of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement states that “No club may unreasonably require a player to appear on radio or television or other news media,” yet this is exactly what the NFL is doing to Lynch on a large scale level.

The NFL is usually left alone, despite the fact that cartels violate antitrust law. This, unfortunately is detrimental to players like Lynch, who are denied the standard rights given to employees in almost every industry, rights like job security, and job mobility.

However, it seems that most consumers don’t acknowledge the unscrupulous activities that the NFL participates in, myself included. It is our job as consumers to ensure the protection of the workers in an industry, and with the NFL that has not happened.

Alex Bertsch is the Opinion Editor of The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].