The NFL was always going to find a lawyer with sterling corporate credentials to become its next general counsel. What makes Ted Ullyot stand out is his equally strong background in government, regulatory and political circles -- and his robust identity as a Republican at a time when that seems to matter a lot more than usual.
Ullyot led venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s policy and regulatory team and was general counsel at Facebook and for AOL Time Warner’s European operations. But Ullyot was also a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, deputy to future Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the White House staff of President George W. Bush and chief of staff to Attorney General Antonio Gonzales. Kavanaugh even wrote the NFL a letter of recommendation for Ullyot, according to a senior league source.
His business experiences will serve the NFL as it navigates the substantive challenges it faces on streaming, global expansion, tech and investing, to name a few. But the political connections may matter even more in a time of Republican dominance of the U.S. government, with the memory of President Trump’s attacks on the NFL in 2017 still fresh in the minds of many top league officials and owners.
“He’s a man who’s dealt at high levels,” said Patriots owner Robert Kraft. “We’re at the top of the heap. We’re going to be a target in antitrust, and in a lot of other ways, we’re going to need legal representation that knows how to go on the offensive and play defense to protect where we’re going.”
Party politics
Ullyot has been hired for these dual traits before. At anti-regulation advocate Andreessen Horowitz, his job was to “build a bridge between Silicon Valley and D.C.” The NFL may well be in serious need of a bridge on both tax policy and antitrust enforcement, just to name two areas.
One source cautioned against assuming that Ullyot’s Republican bona fides necessary translate into a skeleton key to Trump 2.0. The 2025 White House, this source notes, is a machine driven by the whims of one man, and traditional conservative establishment connections don’t necessarily go very far (Ullyot’s co-founder at Torridon Law is Bill Barr, who went from Trump cabinet member to pariah).
The one relative weak spot in Ullyot’s resume is labor relations, which figure to be a dominant theme around the NFL in the coming half-decade. The decision to hire him, therefore, lends weight to rumors I’ve heard that Larry Ferazani, longtime top counsel to the NFL Management Council, will be newly empowered to fully own NFLPA matters. The league had no comment on that aspect.
Outgoing General Counsel Jeff Pash will stay on as a consultant once Ullyot gets started May 1. Falcons owner Arthur Blank called Ullyot “a very impressive guy” before praising Pash. “He’s replacing a giant, to be clear. Jeff is a special attorney,” Blank said. “Not only a special attorney, but a special person. He gave great counsel to the league for a long time.”
Commish in the making?
About a year ago, I speculated that the new general counsel could be a future commissioner.
At this moment, it’s tremendously difficult to picture Ullyot in that category, considering that ownership politics are the hardest part of the top job and he just met most of them.
But Ullyot fits with all the reasons I laid out when Pash retired, and he’s got some time to build the relationships -- especially if Goodell gets another contract, which I’m told is highly probable.
