A Few Good Topics

MORE BONDS: Professor Howard Wasserman of Florida International University College of Law has two excellent columns on FindLaw concerning Barry Bonds and the steroid controversy (3/24/2006; 3/27/2006). A third colum, discussing Bonds' lawsuit and its First Amendment problems, will be on FindLaw on Monday. As you may remember, Howard guest blogged on Sports Law Blog last month and wrote a fascinating piece on the constitutional protection of "sport speech" or "cheering speech" (2/2/2006).

INTERNATIONAL AGENCY BIAS FOR HOMETOWN ATHLETES: University of Massachusetts sports management student Sokki Chen (who will be interning at the International Paralympic Committee in Germany this summer) alerts me to a story from Switzerland regarding a Swiss court's apparently favorable treatment of Swiss cyclist Danilo Hondo (Bradley S. Klapper, "Confusion After Swiss Court Suspends Two-Year Doping Ban," Associated Press, 3/22/2006). Hondo had been suspended by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport ("CAS") after twice testing positive for the stimulant carphedon. He challenged his ban through a provision in CAS statutes that allows residents of Switzerland--and only resisdents of Switzerland--to appeal to a Swiss provincial court, which lifted Hondo's ban. In glaring contrast, non-Swiss residents can only challenge CAS rulings at the Federal Tribunal - Switzerland's highest court - and only if the case was run "manifestly contrary to the general principles of law." In other words, there's some hometown cooking going on at the CAS, which is supposed to be an independent international agency for the settlement of sports disputes.

DETRIMENTAL RELIANCE AND COLLEGE COACHING JOBS: Mississippi College School of Law student Lance Mixon passes along a story concerning a recent lawsuit filed by former University of Miami assistant head football coach Art Kehoe--who served on the coaching staff for 25 years until he was fired Jan. 2--against the school. (Susan Miller Degnan, "Kehoe Files Suit vs UM," Miami Herald, 3/21/2006). Kehoe, who is now as assistant coach at the University of Mississippi, claims that he is entitled to a severance package that includes the loss of potential income from two possible coaching jobs at Southern California (offensive line) and Temple (head coach) he did not take because he believed his job was secure at UM. That will be a tough claim to prove unless he had concrete offers from those schools.

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