“I thought he could be rehabilitated until he started writing scathing letters to the NFL,” the judge said.
Some members of the jury pool were eliminated before they were ever brought into the courtroom, based on their answers on a juror questionnaire on the case. Judge Gutierrez struck some because they appeared to be class members or for potential bias in the case, including one who expressed negative views on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Near the end of the day, eight jurors and two alternates were seated for the trial, with opening statements scheduled for Thursday morning.
The class action features two sets of plaintiffs: one of at least 2.4 million residential subscribers who purchased the Sunday Ticket package after June 17, 2011, and another of at least 48,000 bars, restaurants and other establishments that subscribed during the same period.
DirecTV and the NFL have been fighting those antitrust allegations for the better part of a decade. In late 2015, more than 20 lawsuits from bars, restaurants and fans were centralized into multidistrict litigation. The classes are seeking more than $6 billion in damages, which could also be trebled under antitrust law.
