THE RULING

Excerpts from U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin’s decision permitting suspended Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett to be eligible for April’s NFL draft:

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“Maurice Clarett’s goal is to play in the National Football League next year. The only thing preventing him from achieving that goal is the League’s rule limiting eligibility to players three seasons removed from their high school graduation. The question before the Court is whether this Rule violates the antitrust laws.”

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“Clarett’s decision to seek eligibility for the 2004 draft may have resulted, in part, from this suspension. The NFL may be his only real option for playing football next year.”

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“This case has progressed rapidly, virtually rushing toward the goal line because of the imminence of the 2004 draft.”

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“[In the NFL’s three-year rule] nowhere is there a reference to wages, hours or conditions of employment. Indeed, the Rule makes a class of potential players unemployable.”

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“He is not permitted to be drafted allegedly because the NFL and the union agreed to exclude players in his class. But Clarett’s eligibility is not the union’s to trade away. Indeed, the Rule does not deal with the rights of any NFL players or draftees.”

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“The market defined by Clarett is narrow -- it is the market for NFL player services. That is the only commodity that Clarett has to sell and the only commodity the NFL seeks to buy. Accordingly, the Rule harms both Clarett and competition in the market for player services. A purchaser’s bar on an entire class of sellers harms competition.”

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“Clarett alleges that the Rule constitutes a ‘group boycott’ that restrains trade in the relevant market (the NFL player market) by denying market entry to certain sellers (players less than three years removed from high school graduation). This is precisely the sort of conduct that the antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”

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“Because the Rule violates the antitrust laws, it cannot preclude Clarett’s eligibility for the 2004 NFL draft. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that Clarett is eligible to participate in the 2004 NFL draft.”