Pete Rozelle

Despite the rapid ascendancy of the NFL under Rozelle's leadership, new challenges continued to emerge. A new rival, the World Football League, was launched in 1972 but was disbanded only three years later for lack of adequate financial support. Over the objections of Rozelle and the city of Oakland, California, the Oakland Raiders in 1980 moved to Los Angeles when it was able to negotiate a more favorable lease on a stadium in Southern California. The NFL and Oakland asked the courts to block the Raiders' move but were rebuffed when the courts ruled that such NFL constraints on teams' ability to move would violate antitrust laws. Another challenge arose over the matter of players' contractual rights. For most of its history, NFL rules forced players to renegotiate only with their team rather than offer their services to all NFL teams. After the merger of the AFL into the NFL, Rozelle had instituted what came to be known as the Rozelle Rule. The rule required any team that signed a player that previously belonged to another team to pay compensation for the lost player, and it had a chilling effect on the signing of free agents within the league. Players struck in 1982 and 1987 to win some form of free agency. Eventually the Rozelle Rule was suspended, and a controlled form of free agency was put into effect, along with a salary cap

With Rozelle skillfully leading negotiations, the NFL's television revenues continued to climb steadily through the 1970s and into the 1980s. In 1982 the NFL signed a five-year, $2.1 billion contract with ABC, CBS, and NBC to televise all regular season and post-season games. In 1987, the league and the three broadcast networks concluded a three-year contract worth just over $1.4 billion. That same year the NFL signed its first contract with a cable television network, agreeing to let ESPN broadcast thirteen prime-time games over the course of a three-year contract.