Sports

The Jets And Giants Don't Play In New York... And Someone's Suing Over It

New lawsuit affords teams rare opportunity for a win.

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NFL FootballAs the two New York City franchises drag themselves across the finish line of another pair of dismal NFL campaigns, they may have found an opponent that they can finally dispatch. No, Jacksonville is not walking through that door. Instead, the franchises will have to settle for plaintiff Abdiell Suero, who filed a putative class action suit against the two teams for having the gall to brand themselves as “New York” when they reside in New Jersey.

At the heart of the suit is the morally sound if legally dubious complaint that the Jets and Giants trade on NYC’s goodwill, while avoiding NY taxes and contributing little to nothing to the New York economy. They take all the benefits of connecting themselves with the greatest city on Earth without contributing anything. And that’s before you consider the quality of the on-field product.

Many NFL fans would not attend live games of the Giants or Jets if they were warned in advance that they play in the State of New Jersey.

Fair.

There is some precedent to cracking down on false advertising — one of the claims in the complaint — on the part of sports franchises. California legislators passed a bill to prevent the Anaheim-based Angels from branding as the Los Angeles Angels. The bill was later withdrawn and left us with the awkward “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” moniker, but there is at least some interest in holding teams accountable to their locations.

Still, as he compares the grueling commute to East Rutherford, New Jersey to the casual jaunt to Madison Square Garden, there’s no effort to answer where the NFL could place two teams in the city that would be any more convenient. Now that Hudson Yards exists, the last central location big enough for a football stadium is gone and any future New York venue would have to be somewhere out in Queens, — a much worse commute for the Greenwich Village plaintiff.

But he nevertheless keeps hitting on the problems posed by the out-of-state location:

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However, this season the Jets are ranked #5 out of 32 and the Giants are ranked #7 out of 32 with the most-empty seats per home game, with a season long projected tally of 80,000 for the Jets and 68,000 for the Giants.

In completely related news, the teams will have the #5 and #7 draft picks (as well as #4 and #8).

Plaintiff and the class of New York Giants and Jets fans respectfully request that both teams to return to the State of New York so they can enjoy all the healthy social, psychological and physical benefits associated with sports identification of their home NFL teams.

The complaint alleges false advertising, deceptive practices, civil RICO (!?!?!), and unjust enrichment. He asks that the teams be ordered back to New York by 2025, that they rename themselves “New Jersey” or “East Rutherford” until then, and the class awarded $6 billion.

There’s not really much hope for this lawsuit and, unfortunately, the plaintiff will be stuck traveling to Jersey for the foreseeable future to watch his teams flail.

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But if he’s really adamant about watching a football team that plays in New York… Buffalo is only a 10 hour bus ride away!

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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