Armstrong Cleared of Doping...Sort Of

It's been widely reported today that cyclist Lance Armstrong, to be blamed for starting the rubber bracelet fad, has been cleared by Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman of charges of doping in connection with the 1999 race. Armstrong has taken Vrijman's findings as a sign of his absolute innocence, although Vrijman's findings actually seem a bit more cautious. Vrijman concludes that...

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NPR on New Jersey High School Drug Testing

On Monday, the NPR show All Things Considered had a nice feature on New Jersey’s new random drug testing plan for all high school athletes, which will take effect next fall. You can listen to the story here. There are some good stories about the new plan here and here as well as a post by Guest Contributor Jennifer Wieland here. The NJSIAA has now released the list of 80...

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Does he need a warrant for that jump hook?

The New York Post's Page Six reports on an interesting sideline developed by the Miami heat center who we might as well start calling Deputy Diesel: helping U.S. Marshals arrest child pornography offenders. According to the Post, "The 7-foot Miami Heat center has helped make 30 busts in his crusade against kiddie-porn pervs. 'I do not have to run after the people or tackle...

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Minor League Umpires to End Strike

Minor League umpires, who had been on strike and rejected a previous deal, approved the latest contract today. CNNSI has the story here; I have earlier post on the strike here and he...

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Bagwell Insurance Dispute Litigation Documents

The Jeff Bagwell insurance coverage litigation complaint & answer are on-line at SABR's invaluable Business of Baseball site. See earlier posts on this dispute here and he...

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130 Teams in the NCAA Tournament? What's Wrong With That?

Vito Forlenza, a sports writer for Comcast.net, wrote a column last week concerning recent proposals to expand the NCAA tournament beyond the current 65-team field ("130 Teams in the NCAA Tournament? That's Just Wrong"). The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the Atlantic Coast Conference each have recently expressed support for expansion and both are prepared...

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Gilbert Arenas on Arrest Immunity for NBA Players

This needs no comment, only an appreciation for those who live in The Bizarro World: Gilbert Arenas and Awvee Storey, both of the Washington Wizards, have been arrested on charges of disobeying police.According to police reports, Storey was blocking traffic in the middle of a busy street in Miami Beach when an officer told him to get back to the sidewalk Saturday night. Storey didn't get out of the street, and the officer arrested him and charged him with failure to obey a command.Arenas got out of a vehicle and walked toward the arresting officers....

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Sports Lawyers Association Annual Conference

The SLA Annual Conference is this week (June 1-3) in Toronto, Canada. The brochure for the three-day event is attached. I am a member of SLA, and the Dean of our law school, Peter Goplerud, is a member of the SLA board of directors and will be presiding the event all day on Friday. All of the panelists are highly-respected in their fields, and the conference attracts the attendance...

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Why Books Are Better Than Movies

I've been reading The Da Vinci Code recently. Is it a good book? Not really, but I found myself unable to put it down. But I've heard people who've read the book and seen the movie tell me that the book was much better. This does not surprise me.   I can't think of any movie that was better than the book it was based on. So, why are books better than movies? This is an easy question to answer. When you read a book, your imagination is way more vivid than any movie with CGI special effects and costumes could ever be. In addition, the writer...

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The Mutants are Coming!

Yesterday afternoon, I snuck away from writing my law review article to catch a matinee of the movie X-Men III: The Last Stand, and I’m pretty sure steroids are old news. The next big thing may well be performance enhancing surgery, but surely, the mutants are coming. Will genetic mutants be eligible to participate in American sports, or international competition? Of course,...

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Agents Who Bully NBA Mock Draft Websites: "Don't Post That!"

DraftExpress provides mock NBA drafts and background information/observations on prospective draft picks. I read it regularly, just as I read NBA Draft Net and Chad Ford's ESPN draft website regularly--they are well-written and informative.In its latest mock draft, DraftExpress predicts that LSU freshman Tyrus Thomas will be taken 7th overall, by the Boston Celtics. The prediction is surprising, as most other mock drafts have Thomas going 2nd or 3rd.But what's surprising to some is apparently offensive to others, and specifically Thomas' agents,...

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Boston Bruins Hire Sports Lawyer Peter Chiarelli as General Manager

The Boston Bruins are set to hire Attorney Peter Chiarelli as their new general manager. Chiarelli, 41, has been assistant general manager of the Ottawa Senators. He has an interesting background for those who aspire to front office jobs. In 1987, he received a B.A. in economics from Harvard, where he was captain of the Crimson hockey team. After college, he played pro hockey...

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Do Colleges Need “Pregnant Athlete” Policies?

For anyone with an interest in college athletics, Amy Rainey’s “What Athletes Can Expect When They’re Expecting: Many colleges are ill prepared for pregnant athletes—and some players suffer as a result,” in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education (May 26, 2006) is worth a read. The story highlights the potential legal exposure for schools that don’t have pregnancy policies for athletes. One story is that of Tara Brady, a student at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, who sued her former basketball coach for discrimination, claiming that...

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Indiana Basketball Embraces Recruiting Hurdles

The NCAA Committee on Infractions yesterday issued a ruling that: (1) bans new Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson from calling recruits and visiting them off-campus for one year, (2) requires Indiana to adopt the restrictions Oklahoma placed on Sampson, where he coached before Indiana hired him earlier this year, and (3) disciplined Oklahoma by adopting its self-imposed sanctions.Sampson was identified as making 233 of 577 "impermissible" phone calls while at Oklahoma from 2000-04, in which the NCAA concluded those calls constituted a recruiting advantage....

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Linking Casinos to Olympic Bids

Chicago attorney Tim Epstein, who in January blogged here on Chicago's Olympic bid, had a related letter to the editor published by Crain's Chicago Business this week. Crain's shortened it quite a bit, but here is the original:Could Gaming Help Chicago become an "Olympic" Kind of Town? Is 2016 Chicago’s best chance at getting the Olympics since 1904? The 1904 games were given to Chicago, then taken away and given to St. Louis to coincide with the World’s Fair. While the U.S. Olympic Committee has yet to make any decisions on whether...

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How 'Bout Them Tigers!

What's going on with the Detroit Tigers this year? It's not very often that you see a team go from "worst to first". As of right now, they have the best record in all of baseball (32-14). They also currently rank 1st in team ERA, 2nd in team slugging percentage, and 7th in team batting avg.I'm a Detroit native and, up until two and a half years ago when I moved to sunny Florida,...

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Could the NBA Ban Timeouts?

At Slate, "Sports Nut" Josh Levin argues that the NBA should ban time outs. According to the Nut, timeouts are "despicable," "indefensible" and a "buzzkill." I'm not particularly concerned with the merits of this proposal (which, other than employing more coarse language, is not terribly original, see here and here) Instead, I'm interested in its legal feasibility. Particularly,...

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Jeb, Not Condi, as NFL Commish?

Last week, I reported on speculation that Secretary of State Condi Rice was closer to the NFL Commish's office. Now, it seems, no-longer "private conversations" have been afoot involving Florida's Governor Jeb Bush. Apparently, Steelers Owner Dan Rooney is conducting the search.UPDATE: According to an AP wire story from yesterday, which the NFL put on its own web site, "The leading candidates for Tagliabue's job, which must be approved by 22 of the 32 teams, continue to be Roger Goodell, the NFL's chief operating officer; Atlanta general manager...

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Double-A Team to Host Frivilous Lawsuit Night...Seriously

The Altoona Curve, a Double-A Pirates affiliate, will host a "Frivilous Lawsuit" night on July 2. The team's press release is here. Hat tips to the Journal's Law Blog and Overlawyer...

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Marquette to Host Labor & Employment Scholarship Mini-Conference

Marquette's law school will host a Colloquium on Current Scholarship in Labor and Employment Law on Friday, October 27, 2006. The conference web site and call for paper presenters is here. Given the overlap between sports law and labor / employment law, hopefully some of our readers and contributors will submit papers and be represented in October. Conference co-organizer Scott Moss explains the genesis of the conference (and makes a dubious prediction about the Brewers' World Series prospects) he...

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What's in a Number? Apparently Tax and Contract Issues

Twelve days ago, I discussed Reggie Bush's challenge to a long-standing NFL rule requiring running backs to wear a number in the 20-49 range. Yesterday, the NFL's competition committee -- not surprisingly -- rejected his request that he be permitted to wear No. 5. A release by The Associated Press (reprinted in USA Today) noted that, since 1973, the only major change to the...

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Chief Justice of the Sports Metaphor

In Brigham City v. Stuart, released earlier this week, the Supreme Court held that police officers may enter a home without a warrant if they have an objective basis to believe an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts explained, "The role of a peace officer includes preventing violence and restoring...

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Does the NFL Have the Best IP Cops?

At the Freakonomics blog, Steven J. Dubner wonders at the absence of Washington Redskins memorabilia in a gift store into which he wandered in Washington, DC. Here's his story: "Today, I went to a huge souvenir store in D.C. . . . There was a great variety of very very cheap shirts and hats sporting the logos of the F.B.I., the C.I.A. . . . etc. But there didn’t seem to be a single item of Washington Redskins paraphernalia. I asked at the counter . . . did the clerk think that, perhaps, I was from the N.F.L.’s licensing division and was trying...

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Study Indicates Losing Soccer Games Hurts Economies

A new economic study has demontrated that "losses in soccer matches have an economically and statistically significant negative effect on the losing country’s stock market." Here's the paper's abstract: "This paper investigates the stock market reaction to sudden changes in investor mood. Motivated by psychological evidence of a strong link between soccer outcomes and mood,...

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Mark Teixeira Blasts Boston Red Sox: Legality of Pre-Draft Negotiations between MLB Teams and Amateur Players

With the Major League Baseball amateur draft to be held in two weeks (June 6-7), Alan Schwarz of Baseball America has a very interesting interview with Texas Rangers first baseman Mark Teixeira. In the interview, Teixeira recalls when the Boston Red Sox drafted him in the 9th round of the 1998 MLB Draft, as well as communications between the Sox and Teixeira prior to the draft....

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The Irrelevance of Evolutionary Biology to Sports and Law

One of my favorite college classes was Science B-29, Human Behavioral Biology. This venerable franchise (affectionately nicknamed “Sex” by the undergraduate students), long one of the most popular courses at my college, dealt with primate evolution and explored evolutionary explanations for human behavior. Along with a roommate, I even went so far as to nominate one of the...

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Court Denies Class Certification in NCAA Walk-On Football Players Antitrust Case

On May 3, a federal district court in the Western District of Washington denied class certification in an antitrust case filed by walk-on NCAA football players challenging limits on the number of scholarships. The case is In re NCAA 1-A Walk-on Football Players Litigation, W.D. Wash., No. C0-1254C (May 3, 2006). The Westlaw cite is 2006 WL 1207915. The plaintiffs in this case...

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Pitchers in California Can Intentionally Throw at a Batter's Head

Last month the California Supreme Court decided that all pitches intentionally thrown at a batter's head are "a fundamental and inherent risk of the sport of baseball" (Calif. Supreme Court: Ballplayer Can't Sue for Bean Ball). The plaintiff, Jose Avila, was a junior college baseball player who was struck in the head with a pitch thrown by a pitcher on the opposing team. The...

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Was Barbaro Abused?

Sadly, Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro broke his leg in the opening of today's Preakness Stakes in Baltimore. My thoughts are with this brave champion. And I pose the following question: Was Barbaro abused? After all, he ran a very tough race just two weeks ago. A human athlete completing the equivalent race -- say, a marathon -- would be permitted to take time off. Nearly all...

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Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. Without a doubt, Barry Bonds is the most hated player in baseball, and he deserves every bit of it. The man needs to get nut cancer and die. 2. I've given Bush a lot of credit for his immigration stance but sending the National Guard to seal the border is dumb shit. It obviously won't work, but at this point, Bush is desperate to win political points and deflect attention from Iraq, Gitmo, wiretapping, and the fact that he has shit for brains. 3. South Carolina citizens and The State have been outraged at how so much taxpayer money has...

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The Real Moonlight Graham: Byron Gettis

Norm Sanders of the Belleville (Illinois) News-Democrat has an interesting story on Byron Gettis, a 26-year old who will become a freshman at Southern Illinois University Carbondale this fall. (Sanders, "Cahokia Star Finally Gets His Chance," 4/27/2006). Back in 1998, when Gettis was 18-years old and graduating from high school, he signed with the Kansas City Royals organization...

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How Best To Build A (Sports) Lawyer?

There's an article in this month's edition of the ABA Journal written by G.M. Filisko, which entails a thought-provoking discussion about how best to prepare and train people to become lawyers ("How Best To Build A Lawyer?"). Filisko notes that, "[f]or years, ideas have been batted around to improve the way lawyers are educated, ranging from allowing apprenticeships to changing...

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Northwestern Suspends Female Soccer Team Over Hazing Pics

Northwestern University has suspended its female soccer team pending an investigation of hazing of freshman athletes. The scandal erupted after the web site badjocks.com posted graphic pictures of team members, in various states of drunkenness and undress, engaging in simulated sexual activity and other forms of forced humiliation. Team alumni have denied the posted photos...

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The Power of Informal Property Rights Among Sidewalk Vendors

If you've ever been to Fenway Park in Boston, then you know there's nothing better than those Italian sausages sold by sidewalk vendors on Yawkey Way and Lansdowne Street. Granted, we may not know what's inside those sausages, but so long as we pretend that we've never read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, then we really don't care about their ingredients and instead simply enjoy...

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Indiana University Gets Creative in Drafting Coach's Contract

Mark Alesia of the Indianapolis Star reported last week that the contract of newly-hired Indiana University basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson (former Oklahoma basketball coach), contains a provision that permits IU to fire him with no financial obligations if the NCAA "imposes more significant penalties or sanctions than the University of Oklahoma's self-imposed sanctions." Oklahoma's self-imposed sanctions included recruiting restrictions and freezing Sampson's salary at $1.01 million. The NCAA is expected to announce its ruling early next month...

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Condi Closer to Commish Job?

The New York Post asserts today that Secretarty of State Condi Rice is closer to the NFL Commissioner's job. I was well aware of Secretary Rice's desire for the job; frankly, I never expected the NFL would be interested in someone with no sports industry background and no collective bargaining / antitrust experience or expertise. But according to the article, the league is...

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Hawai`i Supreme Court Says No "Fore" is No Breach

In an interesting case picked up by the Journal's Law Blog, the Hawai`i Supreme Court held that a golfer who hits another golfer with a ball is only liable if s/he acts recklessly or intentionally (the original AP story is here and the court's opinion is here). Mere negligence on the links is not actionable. This is of course consonant with the vast majority rule in American...

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The Meritorious Rise of Michelle Wie in a Time of Age-Based Nonsense

David Fay, executive director of the US Golf Association, commenting in today's Boston Globe on the decision by the USGA's Women Committee's Chairwomen to extend a special exemption to a then 14-year old Michelle Wie to play in the 2004 US Women's Open:"It wasn't even a tough call. To not exempt her, in my view, would be some sort of age discrimination."Fay is then cited for the USGA's recent decision to grant Wie a special exemption at a US Open qualifier in Hawaii:Fay was adamant that the special exemption was deserved and if there were any...

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Is There a Disney Case Against Cablevision Over the Larry Brown Contract?

For the last several days, it’s been widely reported that the New York Knicks will buy out the remaining four years of coach Larry Brown’s contract for something like $40 million. See here, here, here, and here. In all, Brown will have earned $50 million for less than 10 months service. In this coverage, James Dolan is often referred to as the “owner” of the Knicks, but...

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