The Lesson

Christians assume that I am mad at God, and this explains my atheism. This simply isn't true. I honestly do not believe that God exists. I can't hate what does not exist.There was a time when I was very angry at God. I hated him. I hated him because he let my roommate kill himself. We were both seminarians, and I discovered after his death that my roomie was a closeted homosexual. I remember this Bible verse from Isaiah 42:3 echoing in my brain:A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.My roommate was the smoldering...

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The Private Journal of Mr. C.

Shrinks and therapy are a waste of money. I don't mean to imply that therapy is not beneficial. Talking about your problems certainly helps. But as studies indicate, talking to a mental health professional is about as beneficial as talking to a friend or your local bartender except that it costs way more.I remember watching a story of survivors of 9/11 and how they coped by drawing pictures or writing in journals about the trauma they had undergone. The practice helped them to overcome their distress much more quickly and easily than those who...

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New Sports Illustrated Piece on Roger Clemens and his Legal Strategy

I have a new SI.com piece tonight on Roger Clemens. It examines how the House Oversight Committee regarded Clemens' legal strategy for the proceedings. Hope you have a chance to read ...

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Baseball and Union Ask Supreme Court to Review Eighth Circuit's Fantasy League Ruling

Eric Fisher of Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily reported today that MLBAM and the MLBPA have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that a series of prior lower court rulings involving First Amendment and right of publicity issues have created an inconsistent mess, and that "the appropriate legal test for balancing state-law publicity rights and First Amendment interest is a recurring and important question on which this Court's instruction is needed. ... The same use of a famous person's identity...

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Second Annual National Sports and Entertainment Law Symposium

I am honored to be speaking at the Second Annual National Sports and Entertainment Law Symposium, to be held at the University of Virginia School of Law next Thursday and Friday, March 6-7. The event is sponsored by the Virginia Continuing Legal Education and the Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal. Other speakers include Sports Law Blog's Chris Callanan and Gary...

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Alan Milstein to Speak at Syracuse University College of Law

The folks at the Entertainment and Sports Law Society at Syracuse University College of Law have let us know about a couple of upcoming speaking events: one with our friend and colleague Alan Milstein, the other with ESPN college basketball analyst Len Elmore, who is also an attorney. If you would like to attend either event, please contact Steven Saperstein, president of the society, at sbsapers@syr.edu. Here are the details:February 29, 2008 1 p.m.Len Elmore, ESPN broadcaster and AttorneySyracuse University College of Law room 275March 5, 2008...

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Rusty Hardin Needs to Stop Talking

The latest from Rusty Hardin, Roger Clemens' lead attorney and possibly the worst example of the grandstanding lawyer we have seen in a while. Upon learning that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform had requested that DOJ open an investigation into possibly perjury or obstruction by his client, Hardin said:Now we are done with the circus of public opinion, and we are moving to the courtroom, . . . Thankfully, we are now about to enter an arena where there are rules and people can be held properly accountable for outrageous statements.Please...

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Student Fans Acting Badly

Grant Wahl at si.com decries this basketball season as the "ugliest in years" and calls on schools and conferences to take some action to get fans and fan speech under control. I have written enough about fan speech in this and other spaces that my views are pretty obvious. Jump over and read the piece to get a sense of the laundry list of incidents.One problem is the way Wahl lumps too many dissimilar incidents together into an overall picture of bad fan behavior. Without question, threatening messages on the cell phones of players and families...

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BoyRacers and The Christchurch Community

"I was a Boyracer Once, Silverstone, Donington, Monaco""Where were you trying to get to?""Peckham"That was a small part of a comic routine by English Comedians Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones.I never used to have a opinion of Boy Racers, I never use to care, what they did, what their cars look like, or what music they listen to, until their behavior directly effected me.In fact I thought a Boy Racer was a Michael Schumacher or Geff Murphy or a Lewis Hamilton, not some dickhead driving down Bealey Ave.You see I live in a nice long street, which...

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Can Women Be Happy?

You can file this post under "sexism."Aristotle said that women were without virtue. Because virtue was necessary for happiness, women could never be happy. Virtue is essentially reason, and women are notorious for not possessing reason. Because of this, they are miserable.To give an example, I was discussing with a friend today about the tendency of women to hold grudges. Women say they forgive, but this isn't true. They merely store the wrath for the rest of their lives as a slow smouldering rage just beneath the surface. I thought this was very...

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Would Legislation Providing for Mandatory Drug Testing of Professional Athletes Pass Constitutional Muster?

The answer to that question could be, and has been, the subject of an entire law review article. But I want to touch upon it today because the timing is right in light of today's hearing in front of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. In his opening statement, Chairman Bobby Rush said: "If Congress can play a role in shaping public policy to eradicate all sports at every level of these substances, then this subcommittee is prepared to act. I resent all the elitists and cultural critics who dismiss this as an issue...

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Duke Lacrosse II: Some First Amendment Issues

Continuing my thoughts on the latest Duke lacrosse lawsuit.One interesting feature is the role that the First Amendment might play for the defendants. Much of the conduct described in the complaint, and much of the conduct that presumably forms the basis for the players' claims against Duke and Duke officials (and to law-enforcement officials to a lesser degree), centers on all sorts of public statements that stated or suggested that some or all the players had done something wrong. Consider several categories.1) Statements by Duke and its officials,...

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WSJ Law Blog Interview of Lawyer with NCAA Enforcement Practice

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog features an interview with attorney (and former IU quarterback) Mike Glazier. Glazier took his law degree and sports background and joined the NCAA enforcement team for several years. He's subsequently built a practice representing colleges involved in NCAA investigations. HT to Above-the-L...

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Tomorrow

For some strange reason, I feel damn good. I feel alive. I feel free. I feel like a million fucking buc...

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Thai food is yum-o. A quality da...

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Yale Law School Panel on "The Mitchell Report and Beyond: Steroids, HGH, and the Future of Baseball"

I am honored to be speaking at Yale Law School next Tuesday as part of a panel on "The Mitchell Report and Beyond: Steroids, HGH, and the Future of Baseball." The panel was put together largely through the work of Aaron Zelinsky, a 1L at Yale Law School who wrote a terrific guest entry here last month entitled "Three Strikes for the National Labor Relations Act." If you are...

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DVD-Rescue Dawn

Christian Bale plays shot down Navy pilot Dieter Dengler who is captured by the Viet Cong in Laos/Vietnam. Dengler finds himself in a bad situation, but he shows courage and determination in his escape from captivity.Rescue Dawn touches on big themes. The biggest one is in the prison camp. Dieter disagrees with a fellow prisoner who chooses passivity in dealing with the situation....

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Another Duke Lacrosse Suit

Back in October, I wrote about the § 1983 lawsuit filed by the three Duke lacrosse players who were indicted in 2006 on charges of gang-raping an exotic dancer, then exonerated when it became clear the woman had fabricated the story and the district attorney (subsequently disbarred and convicted of criminal contempt) had repeatedly lied to the court and attempted to conceal exculpatory evidence. Last week, other members of the team (none of whom were indicted) filed their own civil action in federal court, against Duke University and several members...

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Negative and Positive

I received this email not long ago on MySpace:What is up with all the negativity? I got your friend request read your page. You totally changed my mood. Not for the better or worse, but it kindof saddened me. I don't even know why I am writing this but I felt compelled. I hate to see people go through life with such a negative attitude. If you have a negative outlook on life that is what you will get. If you wish to continue this conversation let me know. Cheer Up Tomorrow is a New Day!I felt bad because I don't want to be a negative person. I...

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Jesse Ryder

How do you Blow Millions of Dollars, just ask Jesse Ryder.Here is a guy, who should be at the top of the world, going on television a few weeks ago, saying he's curb his wild ways, cementing a place in the Black Caps at the tender age of 23, yet he blows it, and it just may cost him long term.Now of course people are talking about, how he got drunk after the deciding match and smashed a window with his hand, of course they are talking about how he verbally abused Hospital Staff that were treating him, and of course they are talking about how he...

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The Mets in Salary Arbitration

Marty Noble, the Mets beat reporter for MLB.com, posted an interesting story, "Perez wins arbitration case: Hearing was first for Mets since Cone’s 16 years ago" on Friday analyzing the Perez decision. Noble provided a chart with all of the Mets’ hearings while noting that the team had not participated in an arbitration hearing since 1992. Cleveland (7 team victories, 6 player victories) is the only team to have a longer streak avoiding arbitration. The Indians lost to Greg Swindell and defeated Jerry Browne in 1991. Stephen Goldberg decided...

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Full Contact: The Illinois Supreme Court Elaborates on the Contact Sports Exception in Karas

On February 22, 2008, the Illinois Supreme Court delivered an opinion found here in Karas v. Strevell, et al. Karas was injured during an ice hockey game after he was body checked from behind by two opposing players Strevell and Zimmerman (my client). Thereafter, Karas' father brought suit on behalf of his minor son against the two players, the opposing team, the referee association,...

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Covington & Burling's Representation of both Major League Baseball and Roger Clemens

Andrew Longstreth of The American Lawyer has a very interesting piece on concerns by Major League Baseball that one of its lawfirms, Covington & Burling, has represented Roger Clemens in his current matter with the Mitchell Report and Congress. Lanny Breuer, one of the Covington's litigation partners and former special counsel to President Bill Clinton in his impeachment proceedings, has led his firm's efforts in representing Clemens. Here are a couple excerpts from the piece: * * * Earlier this year Covington & Burling decided to add...

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TF Reilly

Finally over the virus that saw him come home from the breaker's early - Reilly is finally starting to put the weight he lost back on and is back to his normal adorable self. Here are some shots of him chillin out with us out ho...

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We Win! Now Bring on The Tests!

New Zealand has Won the One Day Series against England, now bring on the tests!!!What a summer its been for New Zealand Cricket, started off with Victories against Bangladesh in Tests and the One Dayers.Then the Might of the English came and beat us in the 20/20's, but New Zealand came back and surprised everybody by beating England in the One Day series without superstar Shane Bond.Apart from the Injuries, everything has gone right for New Zealand cricket in the past two weeks, Massive crowds, this season should see the highest crowd numbers for...

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Truth and Tact

I have become acutely aware that I disturb some people. I'm not sure why, and I have been prone to blame myself for this. But blaming myself for this would be like David Bowie blaming himself for my dad not liking his music.There are some people out there who like me a lot. They are almost rabid in their devotion to me. At the same time, there are people out there who utterly hate my guts and would like to see me come to a bad end. Sometimes, these people are one and the same but caught at different times.I cannot explain popularity anymore than...

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