That will likely never happen due to the circumstances that follows why:
Class action lawsuits might be practically futile against them because of how much wealth they can just build right back up and will only be a tickle to them, and they still might not learn anything from it, it's the same thing time and time again.
Publicity. That is the one thing the NFL cares about. Make no mistake, the NFL does not need EA, EA desperately needs the NFL. I could make an argument that the NFL could have just set a price for their license and at least 4 companies would pay it. The NFL could actually make more money. EA originally paid 300 million for the exclusive NFL deal in 2005. It was reported they offered the highest bid out of the 4 publishing companies vying for the license. I can't find my source but I remember hearing Sony offered 250+million. So the NFL exclusive license never did make business sense and it still doesn't. Instead of charging both companies 250 million and getting 500 million the NFL decides to give it to one company for 300 million. The fix was in way back in 2005. Somebody owed somebody a favor. The same people are no longer at EA in 2024. A class action lawsuit against the publisher who has the sole exclusive NFL license for false advertising (team builder) would embarrass the NFL. That is the one thing the NFL will not tolerate. They always "try" to make it seem like they care about their fans. If there are any lawyers out there and we can get a fire going with thousands of signatures that would make a huge difference. Sure EA could pay any class action fine but that is not the point. The lawsuit does not even have to succeed. If it gets Goodell and the Owners attention and they think "Guys, EA is making our brand look bad. We can make even more money if we just put the license out there and everybody can pay us without this bad PR and our fans will love it." If EA had competition Team Builder would have been fixed day one. This is the only way.
