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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Fantasy Football Group|at War With the NFL

DALLAS (CN) - Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo's National Fantasy Football Convention has been postponed for a second consecutive year due to the National Football League's "blatant and continued interference," the convention said Tuesday evening.

The NFFC said it was "deeply disheartened" to announce the postponement of the inaugural event planned for July in Pasadena, Calif., and said the NFL's interference has "fractured beyond recovery our capacity to deliver" the event.

"The NFFC is not going away," the convention said in a statement. "We now leave it in the hands of the courts in full confidence that we will ultimately be able to bring the NFFC's events to life."

The first Fantasy Football Convention was scheduled for July 2015 in Las Vegas. Romo's company, The Fan Expo LLC, sued the NFL in Dallas County Court that month, claiming the league pulled its support from the event and told players and league employees they could not participate because the venue, the Sands Expo and Convention Center, violated the league's gambling policy.

Fan Expo's attorneys called the NFL "corporate thugs" for making the alleged threats and for selectively enforcing its anti-gambling rules to force Romo to cancel the event.

The trial judge dismissed Fan Expo's fraud, tortious interference with a contract and business disparagement claims in March. The company's breach of contract and estoppel claims survived and will move forward.

Romo's company filed a second lawsuit against the NFL in April, claiming the NFL pressured sponsor EA Sports to pull out of this year's event. Fan Expo said the video game maker confirmed that it was canceling its sponsorship "as a direct result of communication from the NFL."

"On Tuesday, April 26, 2016, another confirmed sponsor of the 2016 NFFC event and one potential sponsor of the 2016 NFFC event canceled their participation abruptly and within fifteen minutes of one another," the complaint stated. "Both cancellations were without explanation. On information and belief, they had likewise received communication from the NFL."

Romo is not a party in either lawsuit.

A California-based charity filed a similar lawsuit against the NFL two weeks ago in Dallas County Court. Strikes For Kids claimed the league forced it to change the venue of a celebrity bowling event from the Sunset Station Hotel & Casino due to gambling policy concerns.

The kids charity claims the new NFL-venue approved venue had substantially fewer bowling lanes that resulted in lost revenue. It claimed that after the event in July 2015, the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell sent it $5,000 in "hush money."

Follow @davejourno
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