News Update: The Sports Business Daily (subscription needed) reported yesterday that North Carolina has passed a law that will make it a felony for a sports agent to furnish anything of value to a student-athlete prior to signing a contract. High schools and colleges could sue a sports agent who violates the regulations. This would be a very interesting development in the land of recruiting, and probably will keep a number of high school camps and competitions out of North Carolina. Good for those legislators, though.



The San Diego Tribune reported yesterday that the Chargers have sued the City of San Diego to get out of their lease at Qualcomm Stadium. This has effectively ended the negotiations between the team and the city, fueling speculation that the team could move to Los Angeles (the team currently has training camp at the Home Depot Center).



ESPN reports that tennis star Kim Clijsters will not participate in the Olympics because she will not be allowed to wear apparel from her own sponsor. It is hard to decide who is most wrong in this situation: Clijsters (for choosing money over national pride), Belgium (for choosing money over having is best athletes) or Fila and Adidas, which cannot put aside sponsor wars for 2 weeks for the sake of the Olympic Games. This is reminiscent of the spectacle at the 92 Olympics, where Nike-sponsored Dream Team members used American flags to cover their Reebok warm-up logos and sadly reminds us all how money-driven the "amateur" Olympics has become. You would think, though, if the NBA stars in Barcelona (and since then) can get around sponsor agreements, Clijsters would be able to.



ESPN also reported that the Supreme Court denied cert in a case from Florida concerning a student newspaper's First Amendment right to view the Dale Earnhardt autopsy photos. More to come on this case.



Finally, ESPN reported that Jim Harrick has requested a hearing to clear his name from the allegedly defamatory statements issued by the University of Georgia against its former men's basketball coach.

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