Mayfield battling not only NASCAR, but sports history (cont'd)

When sports leagues get sued, settlements are often the result. NASCAR has gone that route before, settling with Texas Motor Speedway shareholder Francis Ferko in 2004 -- a decision that led Darlington and Rockingham to lose races -- and with Mauricia Grant, the former Nationwide Series official who filed a $225 million racial discrimination lawsuit last year. The NFL has done the same thing, settling with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones over a marketing dispute in 1996, with the widow of Korey Stringer, the Minnesota Vikings player who died of heatstroke at training camp, in 2001, and with journeyman wide receiver Antonio Bryant over a disputed drug test in 2007. A settlement in the Mayfield case would be something of a surprise, given how acrimonious things have become between the two sides, and that the driver's ultimate goal is to get back on the race track. And yet, history tells us that it's a far more likely outcome than an outright Mayfield victory.

Because it's hard to beat a big league in court. Just ask the seven players who sued the NFL in 2006, claiming the league sanctioned an investment firm with a shaky past that cost the players millions of dollars. They lost. Or the folks at Kentucky Speedway, who following Texas' lead tried to wrangle a Sprint Cup date out of NASCAR with a lawsuit. They lost. Or the New York Rangers, which sued the NHL claiming that the team and not the league should control the franchise's official Web site. They lost. Or the three former players who sued baseball in 2003, claiming that reverse racism had cost them pension and medical benefits. They lost. Or the owner of a Baltimore ballclub shunned by the National League in 1922, who filed an antitrust claim. He not only lost, he instigated a suit that went to the Supreme Court, which rendered a decision that baseball was not interstate commerce and therefore exempt from antitrust laws. That little legal loophole has kept Major League Baseball almost impervious to challenges for nearly a century now.

Obviously, none of these incidents serve as real legal precedent in the Mayfield case. And obviously, there are times when the leagues get beaten. There's a good chance of that happening next year, in fact, when the NFL goes before the Supreme Court to try and protect its apparel licensing deal by claiming it is a single business entity rather than 32 separate ones. Baseball may have a legal headache on its hands as well if former slugger Jose Canseco makes good on his threat to file a class action suit for lost wages and defamation of character. And then there's NASCAR, mired in legal proceedings against Mayfield, potentially waiting on a trial that could take months to become a reality.

Should that happen, you'd have to think that NASCAR would like its chances. After all, it's tough to bring down a sports league in court. The old United States Football League tried in 1986, filing an antitrust lawsuit that claimed the NFL held a monopoly in areas like television rights and stadium access. The USFL asked for $567 million, an amount that under antitrust law would have been tripled. They actually won the case, too -- and were awarded damages of $3 by a jury. When it comes to lawsuits, sometimes the big leagues win even when they lose.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.