Michael J. Bidwill, Class of 1990 and president of the Arizona Cardinals football team, spent a couple of hours speaking and mingling with CUA Law students on April 17 as the invited guest of the law school's Sports and Entertainment Law Society.

His remarks were perfectly tailored to law students who hope to someday practice in the growing area of sports law. Bidwill, who currently serves on the law school's Board of Visitors and who will also deliver its 2015 Commencement Address on May 22, offered a broad overview of what it is like to run an NFL team, reviewed some of the biggest issues facing the sport, and devoted a generous amount of time to Q&A with students.

Bidwill began by discussing the astonishing success and popularity of professional football. NFL revenues for the most recently completed season were in the range of $11 billion; Bidwill also noted that the top twenty most watched television broadcasts in American history are all Super Bowls.

He assured his audience that the NFL takes its unique place in American society very seriously, and expends great resources on such goals as developing a new personal conduct policy that executives consider the most advanced in the nation.

In response to numerous questions from students, Bidwill also touched on such topics as how players are paid, the off-the-field relationship between professional football teams, and the singular model of fan ownership of the Green Bay Packers, which he predicted will never be adopted by another city.