New England Patriots Doing Battle with Beer Giant

The New England Patriots have had a deal with MillerCoors for nearly 10 years and they’ll continue that relationship for another seven — if the company wins the lawsuit it filed against the team on Monday, according to CNBC.

The suit claims that the Patriots went back on a contract that it signed with the beer giant in order to go through with a different contract for the same time period with the archrival of MillerCoors, Anheuser-Busch InBev, CNBC reports.

The deal with MillerCoors (a joint venture of SABMiller and MolsonCoors) was supposedly so far along that not only was it signed, but celebrated “with a dinner by the marketing agent working on behalf of MillerCoors and the Patriots sales team,” according to the report. All MillerCoors would like is for the original deal to be put back into place and to get some extra dough to help out with “costs and goodwill,” CNBC notes.

"We expect to win and when we win we will be a great partner to the Patriots," said Jackie Woodward, VP of media and marketing services for MillerCoors, according to the site. "We look forward to bringing our marketing muscle and activation prowess to bringing football to fans in New England."

So fear not, Pats fans — there's still hope that Tom Brady can once again be Miller Lite's player of the week.