Just Win (or get fired for cause), Baby.

Espn.com is reporting that Al Davis has fired Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin. The news isn’t surprising, but what has caused a stir is that Raiders announced that they do not plan to pay Kiffin the remainder of the salary due under his three-year, $6 million contract. The question is, can they do this? Or, perhaps, how can they do this? Well, the Raiders are apparently...

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UCLA Sports Law Panel Today on NCAA Compliance

Nate Jones, a 2L at UCLA Law School and author of Jones on the NBA, lets me know about a panel discussion today hosted by the UCLA Sports Law Federation on NCAA compliance and other legal issues surrounding amateur sports, including those involving Brandon Jennings, O.J. Mayo, and Andy Oliver. If you are in the L.A. area today, it definitely looks like a great event to check out: NCAA Flyer - Upload a Document to Scr...

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Just quickly ...

A very brief blog for today. A couple of pix of Aine, the first a particular favourite as captures that special moment between dam and foal. The cows are my two lovely heifers who we made the tough decision to send away this week. Tough times call for tough decisions. Nuff sa...

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The NFL Loses its Voice

Although fans of the NFL may not recognize his name, most fans can immediately recognize the distinctive voice of John Facenda. For many years, Facenda was the voice of the NFL, narrating weekly highlights for NFL films with his deep baritone voice. Along with a great soundtrack, Facenda’s narration transformed ordinary NFL action into an extraordinary television event (here’s one of his best). Facenda’s legendary voice was the subject of a recent lawsuit that raises a variety of interesting intellectual property issues. Shortly before Facenda...

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Upcoming Sports Law Conference at Marquette University Law School

Marquette University Law School Professor Paul Anderson, who is Associate Director of the National Sports Law Institute, has let me know of what should be an excellent sports event coming in October at Marquette Law:On Friday, October 24, 2008 the National Sports Law Institute of Marquette University Law School will host a conference on Professional Sports: Current...

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Reilly packs a bit of a sad!

Today I moved Maude and Aine to a new paddock. This took them, oh, a whole 10 metres further away from Reilly. Clearly Reilly did not think this was such a great idea! That said, he packed his wee sad and then went back to the very important job of 're-fuelling'! He's such a dork! ...

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Biting the Pillow

Washington is going to bail out Wall Street. This is a certainty now. We will get 24 hours to read the fine print, but do not fool yourself. You are going to take it hard and deep.The government routinely blows money and destroys wealth, so $700 billion is no big deal. But everyone knows it won't stop there just like it didn't stop with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bad economics will prevail, and we will all reap the consequences. Right now, I wonder if I should pull some spending money from my Wachovia account or whether there is someplace I can...

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Tall foal?

Amy took some photos of me standing with Aine today so I thought I would pop them on here to give some idea of her size (I am sure she is not really this ar$e high but perhaps she is!). I am 167cm. Looking less than impressed Still looking less than impressed...

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Sports Law Blog Bowl

The big sports law news is from college football:Florida International University 35, Toledo 16, with FIU scoring 21 unanswered points in the second half. Put another way: Howard Wasserman's school 35, Geoffrey Rapp's school 16.Pursuant to our geographic-native-food/government-official-style wager, I think Geoff owes me some Tony Packo's sausa...

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Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head

RIP: Paul Newman 1925-20...

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Sunday Sunday

Hooray for daylight savings - the start of which was today. More time in the evenings to do stuff outside, yay! Two of our grazers are probably leaving today. The grass has started to grow where their owner lives and the tenant there is going to take care of them as part of her tenancy agreement. Be sad to see them go and will miss the extra income but it frees up some space...

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Warriors Lose

But what a great season, to win nine out of your last twelve, to become the only team in eighth spot to beat the top ranked team in the playoffs, that hasnt happen in any sport on the face of the planet.To then go one better and win in the next round, shows what a amazing team the Warriors are. They have only finished one game short of a Grand Final, they have made the playoffs...

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The garden contd.

So the garden is coming on. The fencing is pretty much up and all but the herb beds are in. We will do the tomatoes in grow bags (we have used old horse feed bags and filled them with composts from the local tip). I have $40 worth of gift vouchers from Kings Seeds thanks to our lovely friends and neighbours Karen and John plus various packets of seeds that Nick's father bought...

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TVNZ, What are you thinking?

How could you call the first debate for McCain? Not only did you call it for McCain, you said he dominated, you said he was like a headmaster and Obama was a school boy? Did Karl Rove come into the news room and put a gun to ya head?That debate was either a tie or a close victory to Obama? McCain got several facts wrong about Obama and was called on it, and Obama didn't attack...

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Sports Media Ethics (or lack thereof), Part III

Steve Donohue of SportsBusiness Journal has an interesting piece this week in which he discusses the recent trend of news outlets cutting costs on sports coverage, for example by reducing headcount in recent years, slashing travel budgets and not allowing beat reporters to cover as many away games (Newspaper Cutbacks Slice into Sports Coverage, 9/22/08). Donohue writes:The trend has sports properties looking for ways to maintain their coverage and exposure, even with steps such as offering discounted hotel rooms to help lower travel expenses for...

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What a smarty pants!

I was mucking out Reilly's paddock this morning and something obviously caught Aine and Maude's attention - perhaps it was me? Maybe it was the boogey man? Who knows but they thought it was a bit exciting for a moment! ...

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A Long Week

Well its been a long week, so here's another video of Garth to enjoy, I will rant on about some other topic in the weeke...

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Did someone say fertiliser?

At last the wind died down enough for us to put fertiliser down. Here is Nick the 'farmer' putting some down. It's the most gloriously gorgeous day here in the wonderful Wairarapa. Clearing a blockage Goin' up! Goin' down Check out that view!...

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TF Aine - Super Model

Every morning when I muck out I make the mistake of taking my camera with me. This inevitably means that mucking out takes twice as long as I spend so long sitting and watching Aine with my camera. Anyway, here are some pix from this morning. Man she is something - I can't wait to get some decent video of her. Usually all the best bits I miss because I have my back turned...

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Hell is being stuck behind a cripp...

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Foals, such delightful creatures ...

Today Aine had a very dirty botty (nor surprising when you see what she has been eating!) so she came in for a little halter training and a bum clean. Amy wielded my camera and took some of the following photos and I have to say, I am pretty impressed with them, esp. for a 4 1/2 year old! Aine was great, only one little oopsy moment when we took them out of the yards and she...

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I am a fifth gear man in a second gear wor...

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1 week old Aine video

She seems to be getting a hang of her legs - she likes to go faaasssssst too! ...

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Welfare for Wall Street

It sickens me to see all of these corporate bailouts. Now, to top it all off, W. and others have proposed buying all of these toxic assets and letting us, the American people, take it straight in the ass while these rich fat cat motherfuckers get to preserve their companies and their profits. I want to fucking puke.This is not capitalism. In a free market, you suffer for your mistakes. It is this danger that keeps things like the housing bubble from happening in the first place. But everyone knows Uncle Sam will be there to bail you out when you...

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Random Stuff

If you take the time to watch the video of the donk and her pony friends, please excuse Nick's Werewolf impression towards the end. I forgot to edit out the sound when I was editing the video. The clips were taken through the kitchen window (which needs a clean) the other evening. Portia is quite the antagonist - a very wicked donkey but such a personality that you cannot...

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Pirates sign draft pick, avoid labor confusion

A couple of weeks ago, I linked to commentary on a brewing dispute between the Pittsburgh Pirates and their top draft pick, Pedro Alvarez, that threatened to raise some open issues of the labor agreement. Well, the question is moot (the car is mine); the Pirates and Alvarez have agreed on a contract worth approximately $ 6.4 million, slightly more than the original purported agreement, but over a longer term.Update, 6:30 p.m. E.D.T., Monday:Mark Fenster at PrawfsBlawg (whose original commentary I linked to and who comes at this as a life-long Pirates...

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Be nice to nice people. Be nasty to nasty people. Punch mean people in the fa...

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Monday is my favorite day of the week. Everyone else is pissed off that the weekend end...

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A Sad Indictment on New Zealand Sporting Journalism

This book is a sad indictment of New Zealand sporting journalism, it shows the complete ignorance of Joesph Romanos one of our leading sport writers to the point of embrassement, it is so bad, that one may have to come up with a bizarre conspiracy theory to explain the total lack of knowledge not only in this book but by our leading sporting Journalists.But first, this book...

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Ghost Town

The funniest man in the world today has done it again it would seem. Ricky Gervais the creator of The Office and Extras has now moved on the big screen with his Comedy-Drama, Ghost Town.As of writing, Ghost Town has an astounding 100% on film review site Rotten Tomatoes, which is unheard of except if your The Godfather.I have yet to see this movie, and have only browsed...

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