Submissions for Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law

Earlier this month, I blogged on the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, which is a brand new law journal published by Harvard Law School. The Journal's Editor-in-Chief, Aswhin Krishnan, has let me know that the Journal's website is up. He and Josh Podoll (Submissions Editor), also have some additional info on submissions:

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On behalf of the editorial board, it is my distinct pleasure to announce the formation of the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law (JSEL). JSEL will provide the academic community, the sports and entertainment industries, and the broader legal profession with scholarly analysis and research related to the legal aspects of the sports and entertainment communities.

JSEL, published under the auspices of Harvard Law School, is accepting articles, essays, book reviews, notes, and comments regarding legal and/or public policy issues from academics and legal practitioners for its upcoming inaugural issue in Spring 2010. JSEL is one of the few journals in the United States that focuses exclusively on legal topics related to sports and entertainment.

As you are probably aware, legal topics that affect sports and entertainment include antitrust law, civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, corporate law, copyright law, labor law, and real estate law. In addition, there are many other legal topics that have an impact on the sports and entertainment industries, or otherwise have an application to sports and entertainment.

Submissions are being accepted on a rolling basis. To be considered for our first issue, due to be published in Spring 2010, please send completed submissions no later than November 15, 2009. An indication of your interest before that date would also be greatly appreciated.

All submissions must be sent to Josh Podoll, Submissions Editor, as an attached Microsoft Word document via email to jselsubmissions@gmail.com. Please visit our website for further details regarding the submissions process at www.HarvardJSEL.com. Also, please feel free to contact Josh regarding any questions you may have concerning citation format, topic, or other issues involving the submissions process. If you know of other scholars, practitioners, or students whose work seems appropriate for our journal, please encourage them to submit their work to JSEL.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Sincerely,

Ashwin Krishnan
Editor in Chief

Josh Podoll
Submissions Editor

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SportsLeader football team builds home for family in need

A SportsLeader high school football team from Mt Angel, Oregon is doing something very special: they are building a house for a family in need. They wanted to put the virtue of charity into practice and they wanted to do something "big".

They teamed up with an organization that can build a very good house for a family in Peru for $10,000. The football players raised the money and the house should be built soon.

Below is a letter one of the players sent to his family members and a team photo with the check to be sent once they raised their goal.

Head Coach Randy Traeger said that this was a transforming event for this whole team. They would like to do this every year now!

God bless, Lou

KENNEDY FOOTBALL PLAYERS BUILD A HOUSE FOR THE POOR

Dear Uncle Jim and Aunt Dianne,

I am a proud member of the Kennedy Football team. We are doing some great things in Mt. Angel. You may have heard about our SportsLeader program where our coaches teach Kennedy football players “virtue” and character development. Our coaches are teaching us a code of conduct for manhood and they are holding us to standards higher than victory on the playing field.

As our team’s commitment to demonstrate the virtue “charity”, we have undertaken the mission of raising enough money to build a house for an impoverished family. The Rossana and Geremías Durand family and their three children live in a one room cardboard/scrap lumber house with a dirt floor and corrugated tin roof. We intend to change that.

Out football team recently sponsored a BBQ Benefit dinner and raised over one half of the funds needed to complete the house. The local support for this project has been incredible. In order to raise the remaining funds needed to complete the house we are reaching out beyond the Mt. Angel community for help.

My teammates and I would very much appreciate any contribution you can make. Please make your check payable to “Kennedy High School” and mail it off in the enclosed envelope. Any amount will help, $1000, $500, $250, $100, whatever you feel comfortable giving.

Thank you for helping us demonstrate how “Charity” can change peoples lives.

Will Bochsler

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Raleigh DL-1: Vintage Dream Come True!

Oh what a happy September 1st! I have a new bicycle!! More accurately, it is a newly-acquired old bicycle. This was completely unplanned, but the opportunity presented itself and I could not pass it up.

This is a Raleigh DL-1 Lady's Tourist - one of the best known original loop-frame bicycles. I got it from a very nice local collector, and I really can't thank him enough. The 22" frame feels tailor made for me. The actual height of the saddle is the same as on my 21" Lady's Sports, because the seat tube on the DL1 is considerably more slack. This bicycle is in great condition. We will replace the tires and brake pads, and she will be ready to roll.

As you can see, it is missing a chaincase - but I already have a lead on a full chaincase that should fit it. I also have a lead on a set of vintage-style rope skirtguards, the kind that connect to holes in the fender. I love the vintage bicycle community.

Here is the 3-speed Sturmey Archer hub. Filthy but so sexy!

And here is the gear shifter. The DL-1 has rod brakes, which I would not want on a commuter. But I am fine with them on a collector bicycle that I only plan to take on quiet rides.

I have no place to store this bicycle, so I am still not sure how I will deal with it logistically! But this really is a vintage dream come true, so I will think of something. You can see how happy we are together, even before the chaincase/tire/skirtguard upgrades!

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The NHLPA Fires Its Executive Director

The National Hockey League Players' Association fired its executive director, Paul Kelly, on Monday. Kelly had served in the position for 22 months. Prior to joining the union, Kelly was a founding member and trial lawyer at the Boston law firm Kelly, Libby and Hoopes.

The move leaves the NHLPA searching for its fourth director in four years. With the decision, the NHLPA also joins the MLBPA and NFLPA as sports unions which will be transitioning to new leadership in 2009.

With the NHL's current collective bargaining agreement set to expire after the 2010-11 season, Kelly's ultimate replacement will have little time to get settled.

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Jason Chung on Situation of Teenage Basketball Players Who Turn Pro

Over on The Situationist, Jason Chung has a thoughtful and provocative article on why the typical life circumstances of U.S. players who would like to seek the NBA right out of high school, and who are capable of being drafted right out of high school, are often missed by advocates of the NBA's age limit. He compares those players with reactions to European players, some of whom turn pro as young as 14 years old (e.g., Ricky Rubio turned pro at 14). Here is an excerpt from Jason's piece:

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Given that all these young athletes made seemingly informed, mature personal decisions, why is that Brandon Jennings [photographed above while living in Italy] has been ostracized by some quarters while the others have largely escaped such scrutiny? The answer may lie in the fact that our moral reasoning does not rest in an evidentiary basis. As Jonathan Haidt notes, “Most people gave no real evidence for their positions, and most made no effort to look for evidence opposing their initial positions.” As long as their point of view “makes sense” there is little reason to question their knee-jerk reaction.

Jennings’ position – that of rejecting a college athletic scholarship – unquestionably evokes a stronger negative reaction in the American psyche. In America, those with higher education are often better employed, possess higher earning power, and are considered a better fit for the modern economy than those without such an advantage. It is drilled into the minds of most Americans that higher education is the way to go in order to attain professional and personal success. In addition, for student-athletes, playing in the NCAA is viewed as the traditional way in which to interest NBA teams and to raise your draft profile. Jennings bucked conventional wisdom and the resulting immediate reaction on the part of some of the public and NBA analysts like Jalen Rose was to question the motivations, financial and otherwise, behind this decision.

This initial reaction is simply not supported by facts. . . .

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To read the rest, click here.

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How to Get Your Shit Together

I talk to a lot of people, and I hear the same thing over and over again. They are having problems with a spouse or a boyfriend or they are tight on money or they want to quit smoking or lose weight blah blah fucking blah. Right now, you, Gentle Reader, have some issue in your own life you wish to resolve. Why would you be reading an essay called "How to Get Your Shit Together?"

Getting you shit together is easy as hell. Really. This is because most problems people have are the same identical problems everyone else struggles with. There is nothing new under the sun. Their real problem isn't the problem but the lack of a solution that doesn't require work, discipline, and virtue. Losing weight is not hard. It is the hunger that goes with losing weight that is hard.

This is the last essay of advice you will ever need to read. You can save all that money on self-help books and seminars and all the rest because all the answers you will ever need are right here, and they are FREE. If you are not satisfied, I can offer you a 100% money back guarantee. Let's dish the advice.

1. Stop smoking, drinking, and using drugs.

Hell, I probably solved 90% of the world's problems right there. Give up these three habits, and you will be first class among People Who Have Their Shit Together. It will amaze you how much better you feel, how much money you have, and how much better your life will go if you give up booze, cigarettes, and the crack pipe. Some will say "moderation in all things," but I've never seen those people exercise any moderation when they say that. It is just a cop-out to keep doing what they are doing.

2. Get a job.

This advice alone probably solved about 6% of the rest of the problems in this country. Having a job means an income, a place to stay, social involvement, daily exercise, etc. People will claim that times are hard, but this is bullshit. There is always a job because there is always work to be done. When people say they can't find a job, what they really mean is they still have three months of unemployment left to collect, or they don't want to take some "menial" job that involves serving food or cutting grass. I'd be more ashamed of being a bum than being a burger flipper or a landscaper. Quit your excuse making and get a fucking job.

3. Spend less than you earn.

Cut up those credit cards and quit eating out. Pay off your debts. Open a savings account and put money in it. Simple math. Put away $100 a week, and you will have $5200 saved in a year. This will fully fund your IRA for the year and give you a big chunk left over. Bank your tax refund as well, and your money problems are over.

4. Eat healthy and exercise.

This is the one most people can't get straight in their lives. This is because we are programmed by biology to amass calories and conserve energy. Nature works. The answer is to stop eating high fat and high sugar foods. Eating healthy will not leave you hungry. Fad diets will. Just skip McDonald's and go to Subway. Have fruit instead of ice cream and cheesecake. As for exercise, walk for an hour per day. Last time I checked, this was free. The pounds will just drop off. You will have more energy. You don't need to eat like an Ethiopian or complete an Ironman to be healthy and in shape. Marginal changes in this area will produce massive results.

5. Dispose, clean, and organize.

Got a closet full of shit? Empty it. Desk full of clutter? Get a Hefty bag and throw that shit away. Storage rental full of shit you can't throw away? Rent a truck and haul it off to the dump. If you don't need it, then you don't need it.

6. Dump your piece of shit significant other.

Even if you get your shit together, other people in your life will cause you grief, and this is usually the person you share a bed with. Drug abuse can break up a relationship as well as money problems. Even becoming a runner can do this. If you have your shit together, you can't be with a person who doesn't have their shit together. It doesn't work. The disharmony will cause the whole thing to fly to pieces, and I can tell you from personal experience that you can't get someone else's shit together for them. They can tear your shit apart and almost certainly will if you stay with them. Get rid of them. Having your shit together and being alone is better than living in the shit with a fuck up.

That's it, folks. Five pieces of solid time tested advice. It is all very uncomplicated and basic. Your life won't be perfect because shit happens. But no one will ever say that it was your own damn fault, and that means a whole lot. As for me, I'm still getting my shit together. I'm sure you are, too.

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A Radical Idea

The other day while writing a post for the C-Blog, I had a radical idea. It came to me while writing about Tim Ferris and his concepts of work and leisure. It had to do with workaholism and slack. The idea was a simple one but a profound one. It was this. You should pursue your leisure activities with the same dedication as your work.

I felt the earth move a bit when it hit me, but it makes a lot of sense. I am someone who believes in work and loves to work. It is like play to me. But play time is good, too. What is the difference between work and play? The answer to that is that work comes with a paycheck attached to it. Work is something we do for others while play is something we do for ourselves.

Leisure is important, but I don't want to denigrate work to elevate leisure or vice versa. I have been guilty in the past of shitting on leisure pursuits as a waste of time, but I have changed my mind since then. Seeing hard work and play as opposed leads to imbalance. Aristotle would be ashamed.

What has made me change my mind on this are examples of men who lead dual lives of both work and leisure. The first example is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, who runs the company. The man is a rock climber, surfer, fly fisherman, etc. His business grew out of the sports he loved and also helped support him in the pursuit of those sports.

The second example is Jimmy Buffett, another surfer, sailboater, pilot, and musician. People will claim that Buffett is the epitome of laidback, but the guy works pretty hard putting out albums, performing shows, and seeing over his various businesses.

The third example is Eugene Fama, an academic and a principal at Dimensional Fund Advisors and an ardent windsurfer.

The fourth example is Dean Karnazes who is a full time businessman, ultrarunner, and windsurfer who owns his own company.

I can go on and on with these examples. There is a certain common thread in all of these men. They are entrepreneurs which gives them some flexibility with their schedule. And they avidly pursue these lesiure activities of theirs. Their leisure pursuits are as important to them as their work. Talk about a flourishing lifestyle.

These men capture in real life the essence of what Aristotle called "the great souled man" or the megalopsuchos. They are not lazy but robust in their living. They work hard, but they play hard as well. They are Renaissance Men of a sort. They are not quite on Leonardo's level, but Leonardo couldn't surf. I think this balances out.

The conventional wisdom is that you work forty to sixty hours a week, play a round of golf on the weekend, and take your two weeks of vacation or what have you. I find this pathetic. I like the idea of catching a few waves before the beginning of the workday, squeezing in a run during your lunch hour, or scheduling a day of rock climbing. This is not weekend warrior bullshit I am talking about. I am talking about a full incorporation of work and leisure in a balanced but robust lifestyle. If a 71-year-old can run a company and surf, I don't see why anyone else can't do the same thing.

I know no one in the ordinary world that lives this way. Most of the people I know work and buy shit to collect dust in the garage while they watch football on TV. Or you have someone like me who lives to work but literally will not move on weekends or days off. I write and sleep. That is it. I can hear my inner Aristotle saying, "Pathetic."

All work and no play make Johnny a dull boy. The problem is not lack of time or money but a lack of robustness. I have been getting stale lately, and this really needs to change. The reason they call it recreation is because you are "re-created" each time you get outside. The other cool thing is that you are your own boss in these endeavors.

You should pursue leisure with the same dedication as work. I don't think this means 40 hours of surfing to go with 40 hours of work. But it does mean seeing these activities as being indispensable to your life. The problem is we see these as optional. My radical idea is that they are essential to a robust and happy way of living.

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