pursuant to a partial statutory exemption for professional sports leagues from the antitrust laws,7 which exemption pertains to the telecasting of games, the member teams in the NFL bargained collectively for the sale of television rights.  In December 1965, Commissioner Rozelle agreed to a television contract with the CBS Television Network, pursuant to which CBS received the right to televise NFL games during the years 1966 through 1969 and, in exchange, agreed to pay the NFL's members the following total amounts for all teams during the four-year term of the contract:


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Television revenues were an important element of team income for all clubs, and were crucial to Five Smiths.  Before the June 29, 1965 letter of understanding was even executed, counsel for Rankin M. Smith had beenSmiths' right to receive television revenues under the February 14, 1966 agreement had a fair market value of approximately $4.3 million and a useful life of four years and thus this right was also a depreciable asset.  The district court, rejecting both contentions, held that the television rights under the four-year contract with CBS had a present value of $4,277,043.9 However, construing the February 14, 1966 agreement between the NFL, the NFL member teams and Five Smiths, the district court found that Five Smiths had also acquired rights to share ratably in a League television pool, which rights would last as long as the Atlanta club remained a member of the League, and that it was impossible therefore to ascertain a definite limited useful life of those