Jerrell Powe Sacks the NCAA

Jerrell Powe, a prized football recruit for the University of Mississippi, has secured an important court victory in his quest to gain NCAA eligibility. Here's the story: Powe, rated as the country's top defensive tackle prospect and a top 25 overall prospect, is a learning disabled student who has played at Wayne County High School in Mississippi and also Hargrave Military...

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An Accommodationist Season Begins

College football begins here in Toledo at 8:00 pm EST tonight when the Toledo Rockets game against the Iowa State University Cyclones arrives via satellite. The other games of the day are the ESPN-featured Mississippi State – South Carolina matchup and Northwestern’s game at Miami of Ohio, which has been dedicated to the memory of late NWU coach Randy Walker.This season promises...

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The Workaholic

My name is Charlie, and I am a workaholic. I am not in recovery, and I hope to always suffer from this affliction.   Some of my coworkers have been getting on me for working so much. I don't actually put in as many hours as a lot of other people. I usually work about 60 hours a week. But they say it has to do with my attitude towards work than the actual amount that I work.   When I am working, I feel as if I have some control over my life. I feel like I am making some headway against the forces and circumstances arrayed against me....

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Stupid Ass Women

"Where are all the good men?"   It always surprises me when I hear this from the mouth of some female. The reason is because I know a lot of good men, and I like to think I am one of them. I work with a couple of them, and I am related to some others. The real question is why these women are so blind that they can't see what is in front of their faces.   I have been AWOL on the C-blog here for awhile because I have been assisting in a situation involving domestic violence and two females. It is shit straight from Jerry Springer. I couldn't...

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What’s Wrong with Tony Kornheiser

The hiring of Tony Kornheiser for the Monday Night Football announcing team continues an unfortunate trend. Increasingly, commentators don’t talk about the game they are supposedly covering. Instead, they talk about "sports issues," usually sports law issues, while the game goes on in the background. Both baseball and football give us the worst of this, as the many dead spots during the action give ample room for the commentators to pontificate about the state of the game, the commissioner’s doings, player-manager disputes, and the like. Last year’s...

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Muslim Footballers Sue New Mexico State for Religious Discrimination

My colleague Howard Friedman's Religion Clause reports that three Muslim students dismissed from the New Mexico State football team have sued the school and coach for religious discrimination. The students are represented by the ACLU. As Howard explains, The suit, filed on behalf of Mu'Ammar Ali, Anthony Thompson and Vincent Thompson by the ACLU of New Mexico, alleges that...

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Should male college athletes be allowed time off for paternity leave?

That's the question posed by a pending lawsuit filed against the NCAA by Kansas defensive tackle Eric Butler, who was denied an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA after missing the 2001 season following the birth of his daughter, Angelina (Kelly Whiteside, USA Today, 8/24/06, "Suit tests ban on leave for father-athletes"). NCAA regulations give a student-athlete 5 years to complete 4 years of playing season eligibility. However, the NCAA's pregnancy exception states a school "may approve a one-year extension of the five-year period of eligibility...

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New Sports Law Scholarship

New this week:Aaron J. Hershtal, Note, Does Title IX work after school? California applies the three part test to municipal sports, 12 CARDOZO JOURNAL OF LAW AND GENDER 653 (2006)Lacie L. Kaiser, Comment, Revisiting the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961: a call for equitable antitrust immunity from section one of the Sherman Act for all professional sport leagues, 54 DEPAUL LAW REVIEW 1237 (2005)Toni Wehman, Comment, Not part of the game plan: school district liability for the creation of a hostile athlete environment, 77 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO...

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FIFA Election Monitors En Route to Nigeria

Back in May, I posted on FIFA efforts to suspend Cambodia's soccer federation after the ruling government engaged in manipulation of the federation's elections. In an effort at preventative shaming, FIFA has now decided to deploy election monitors to Nigeria to monitor Tuesday's election of a president for the country's soccer association. Given Nigeria's soccer prowess...

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Why Do We Love Hating Maurice Clarett?

Harvard Law professor Jon Hanson and I have an op-ed in today's Providence Journal: Jon Hanson and Michael McCann: The psychopathology of athlete worship Providence Journal Thursday, August 24, 2006 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. TO SPORTS FANS, it probably wasn't a surprise to learn that former Ohio State University football star Maurice Clarett was arrested again the other week. The evasive running back who had carried the Buckeyes to the 2002 National Championship was unsuccessful in evading the police in a car chase that occurred near the home of a...

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Hollywood Talent Firm Consolidates Sports Agent Biz

SFX, Octagon and IMG, collectively, once dominated the player representation business. Consolidation in the sports agency industry involving these companies, which began in 1995, dramatically changed the sports agent market and transformed the industry from a "mom and pop" environment into the world of big business in which few independent sports agents remain prominent today. [However, one independent agent, Scott Boras, continues to flourish in the baseball industry and is arguably the most dominant agent in any single sport. In 2005, Boras...

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Comparing Baseball Salaries to Income Inequality in the United States

Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly (probably my favorite non-sports blog) has a very interesting post on growing income inequalities in the United States, as he uses the growth of baseball salaries to explain his position (which, in sum, is that while aggregate wealth keeps increasing in the U.S., the rich and powerful have the greatest access to it, so they take most of it):[I]t's...

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Floyd Landis and Justin Gatlin Doping Scandals: Should Congress Get Involved?

Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press has an excellent article on whether Congress should conduct new hearings on performance-enhancing drugs in the wake of the Floyd Landis and Justin Gatlin doping scandals ("The Politics of Steroids," Aug. 20, 2006). As you know, Landis is an American cyclist who won the 2006 Tour de France and who was recently fired from the Phonak team...

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World Series of Poker Champion to Face Lawsuit? SPOILER WARNING

For those still awaiting ESPN's September 26 broadcast of the August 10 World Series of Poker Main Event final table to find out who won it all, please STOP READING NOW.The Las Vegas Review Journal gossip column reports that WSOP main event champion Jamie Gold may soon face a lawsuit from financial backers who will seek to claim some share of his WSOP $12 million payday.There...

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New Sports Law Scholarship

New this week:Kevin J. Cimino, Note, The rebirth of the NBA - well, almost: an analysis of the Maurice Clarett decision and its impact on the National Basketball Association, 108 WEST VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 831 (2006)Jonathan Deem, Note, Freedom of the press box: classifying high school athletes under the Gertz public figure doctrine, 108 WEST VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 799 (2006)Leslie Ann Dougiello, Casenote, Inequitable procedures win gold in Olympic arbitration, discussing Jacobs v. United States Track & Field, 374 F.3d 85, 2d Cir. 2004, 24 QUINNIPIAC...

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Are golf courses good for economic growth?

At the Conglomerate Blog, Maryland Law Professor Lisa Fairfax asks whether building golf courses can spur economic growth in developing countries. She's done some research on the subject, and found studies that indicate golf courses promote growth. While there are some obvious endogeneity issues here, I wonder whether the same can be said for American states. Is building golf courses a route to economic developme...

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Golfer's Suit Against Agent Heating Up

Discovery battles have surfaced in pro golfer David Toms' suit against his agent, Links Management Group, LP. In a slip opinion available at 2006 WL 2355865, a federal magistrate judge denied Toms' motion to compel a deposition of Chad Campbell, another golfer and client of the same agent. Toms' lawsuit claims, as reported by a Baton Rouge TV station, "breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty -- not looking out for Toms' best interest -- and seeks the termination of the contract and compensatory damages with interest." The federal magistrate...

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NHL "Stealing" Russia's Star Hockey Players?

There's an interesting story released this week on NHL.com as well as in USA Today about hockey star Evgeni Malkin, who bolted from his Russian professional hockey league team, the Metallurg Magnitogorsk, last Saturday after it arrived for training camp in Helsinki, Finland. Malkin is widely considered the best in the world not currently playing in the NHL. Malkin's agents in the U.S. will not confirm where he is at the moment, though they believe he is "out of harm's way". This is good news for the Pittsburgh Penguins because, although Malkin...

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Sixth Circuit Rules Michigan High School Sports Seasons Discriminatory

In the latest opinion in a long-running dispute, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit yesterday upheld a district court opinion finding that the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) violated federal and state law in the scheduling of girls' sports season. A news article on the case can be found here, and the court's opinion can be downloaded here. While this case may head back to the Supreme Court (which remanded the issue on a technical point in 2005), the 6th Circuit's decision also makes it likely that major changes...

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Shoud Physicals Come Before Trades?

The recent failed Lee Suggs trade raises a curious aspect of the NFL regime for player trades. Two teams negotiate for the terms of a player’s reassignment, and once terms are “final,” the traded player reports to his new team. Only at that point does the new team conduct a medical examination of the traded player. The team gaining the player then faces a dichotomous choice:...

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New Federal Lawsuit on Whether Fantasy Sports Are Forms of Gambling

Tresa Baldas of the National Law Journal has a feature story on a complaint recently filed in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey asserting that ESPN.com, CBS.sportsline.com, and Sportingnews.com are engaging in illegal gambling by hosting pay-to-play fantasy leagues with lucrative prizes (also available on Law.com, 8/14/2006). The claim is being brought by Charles E....

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Marquette Conference on Individual Performer Sports

Marquette's National Sports Law Institute will be hosting an interesting conference (CLE credit available) on October 8 entitled Individual Performer Sports: Current Legal and Business Issues. Panels include:Internal Regulation Issues in Individual Performer Sports and Public Law Limits on AuthorityTranssexualism and Athletic CompetitionLegal and Business Issues in Tennis, Golf & Track & FieldLegal and Business Issues in Emerging Individual Performer SportsFor more information, or to register, go to this si...

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New Sports Law Scholarship

New this week:Melissa Steedle Bogad, Note, Maybe Jerry Maguire should have stuck with law school: how the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act implements lawyer-like rules for sports agents, 27 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW 1889 (2006)Kenneth B. Franklin, Note, A brave attempt: can the National Collegiate Athletic Association sanction colleges and universities with Native American mascots?, 13 JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW 435 (2006)Jacob Jacoby, Sense and nonsense in measuring sponsorship confusion, 24 CARDOZO ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW...

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New NFL Commish Has His Work Cut Out for Him

Vito Sellino has an interesting piece in Sunday's edition of the Florida Times-Union, in which he addresses a common misperception in the sports world that new NFL commissioner Roger Goodell took over from Paul Tagliabue a "well-oiled machine" ("Goodell's hands full with heavy contract issues"). Sellino interviewed Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, who said the consensus of owners right now is that they need a new business model. Despite the fact that the owners passed a new collective bargaining agreement last March by a 30-2 margin, that...

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Politics and Entertainment

Oliver Stone has recently made a movie called World Trade Center which is surprising a lot of people because it is apolitical. Stone has made such a career out of indulging his left wing bullshit and his crackpot conspiracy theories that people are rediscovering that the man is actually a pretty good filmmaker. But I've heard a few people lament that Stone has "sold out." Give me a break.   There's a fine line between entertainment and politics. I don't think politics should be verboten in the context of entertainment, but it needs to...

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Philanthropy

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have made headlines recently with their combined contributions of wealth towards causes they consider to be worthy. Both men believe in confiscatory tax policies and the power of government to change things. Yet, neither one has elected to donate their fortunes to the federal government.   Gates and Buffett are idiots with money. It happens. And like lottery winners, both these billionaires seem intent on dissipating their wealth in wasteful pursuits. But hey, they made the money, so they can dispose of it as...

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Redskins Trademark Challenged as Offensive (Again)

In the latest salvo in a long-running war with the Washington Redskins, a group of Native American activists has filed a complaint with the Patent Trademark Office (PTO) seeking cancellation of the registered mark on the grounds that it is offensive. The petitioners argue that the term "Redskin" "was and is a pejorative, derogatory, denigrating, offensive, scandalous, contemptuous,...

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How Not to Teach A Softball Team to Slide

A New York appellate court has upheld a trial court's decision allowing some portions of an injured softball player's suit against her school to go forward. See Ross v. New York Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 2006 WL 2291108 (N.Y. App. 2006). The plaintiff had twisted and fractured her right lower leg while performing an exercise to practice sliding....

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Life Among the Philistines

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the po...

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Judge Rules in Favor of Fantasy Baseball League

Today U.S. District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler ruled in a 49-page summary judgment that baseball and its players have no right of publicity to their names and playing records associated with statistics generated for fantasy baseball leagues. MLB, which paid the MLBPA $50 million for an exclusive right to license the stats for this purpose, claimed that CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. (which runs CDM Fantasy Sports) violated the players' right of publicity by using their names in connection with the use of stats. Essentially, MLB is stepping...

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From Intern to Commish

The N.F.L. has made its choice for its next Commissioner from five finalists, and that choice is insider Roger Goode...

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Give It Up, Floyd

Floyd Landis is a doper. Both his A and B samples came back positive for testosterone. Yet, Landis is insisting that he is innocent, and he will prove it. Undoubtedly, the same people that framed Landis are also the real killers in the OJ Simpson case.   There is no conspiracy here. It just boggles the mind how far these dopers will go to not only deceive the public but to deceive themselves.  ...

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Chicago Panel on Title IX

The Federalist Society is sponsoring a lunchtime event tomorrow, August 8, in Chicago, entitled "Title IX and Athletics: The Debate over Surveys, Quotas, and the Three-Part Test." The panel includes former Iowa Athletics Director Christine Grant and University of Chicago Law Professor Richard Epstein, who has recently turned his libertarianism / law and economics analysis to Title ...

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10th Circuit Partially Reverses Jury Verdict in Broncos Ownership Dispute Case

On August 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit partially reversed a jury verdict that had gone in favor of former Denver Broncos owner Ed Kaiser (who had sold the team in 1984). See Kaiser v. Bohlen, 2006 WL 2130439 (10th Cir. 2006). Greg blogged about the underlying dispute and jury verdict back in February 2004 in this post. As Greg's post notes, the jury gave Kaiser a partial victory; the district court subsequently ordered specific performance allowing Kaiser to buy back an ownership stake in the company that owns the Broncos.The...

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Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. Floyd Landis tests positive on both A and B samples. This is a milestone for the Tour de France. Landis will always live in disgrace. The sad thing is that he isn't doing anything different from what I believe 90% of cycling is already doing. Like it or not, cycling and endurance sports is drenched in doping. And what about Lance Armstrong? I don't believe that fucker one bit when he says he competed clean.I think doping is here to stay, and the public will embrace it.2. Steve Spurrier is a big time shit talker, so when he says this season's...

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Welfare for Billionaire Team Owners? Paul Allen, the Portland Trail Blazers, and Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Helen Jung of the Portland Oregonian has an excellent article on Portland Trail Blazers' owner Paul Allen and what he plans to do with his franchise (Will He Hold the Ball, Dish, or Drive?, Aug. 5, 2006). Until last week, Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates and who Forbes Magazine ranks as the world's 6th wealthiest person with a net worth of $22 billion, had...

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