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Shedeur Sanders Fan Sues NFL for Emotional Distress Over Sanders' Late Draft Pick

Can you sue over that? Why, yes you can! ... But can you win? Not so much.

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


From Doe v. NFL (M.D. Ga.), filed yesterday:

That claim, I'm pretty confident, is going nowhere. (Claims for "intentional infliction of emotional distress" based on extreme and outrageous conduct are indeed viable in some situations, but they require highly egregious conduct, generally targeted at the particular plaintiff.)

Doe also alleges violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act ("The collusion among NFL teams to influence the drafting process and the subsequent low selection of Shedeur Sanders constitutes a conspiracy to restrain trade and limit competition within the league") and federal antidiscrimination law ("The decisions made regarding Sanders may have been influenced by racial discrimination, violating his rights as a player").

But of course he doesn't have standing to challenge alleged harms to Sanders. And Doe also claims that "The NFL may have engaged in unfair practices by misrepresenting the nature of the drafting process and the qualifications of players," which is too vague to analyze.

Plaintiff seeks a "formal acknowledgment from the NFL regarding the emotional distress caused by their actions and statements," a "retraction of the slanderous statements made about Shedeur Sanders, along with an apology," "[i]mplementation of fairer practices in the drafting process," and $100M in punitive damages "for the harm caused to [Doe] and the impact of the NFL's actions on his emotional well-being."

Plaintiff states that he's unable to pay the filing fees, so the court will screen it to determine (among other things) whether it's "frivolous," which is to say "it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact." I expect the court to indeed promptly dismiss it as frivolous.

UPDATE: Prof. Andy Geronimo (Case Western) Tweets: "Not sure it's [intentional infliction of emotional distress] to see your favorite college player fall to the fifth round of the draft, but a claim that you now have to be a Cleveland Browns fan is [plausible]."

Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any institution.