Media & Entertainment Law

Tribute to Harvard Law School Professor Paul Weiler

Posted on January 27, 2008
I was recently asked by Harvard Law School to write a tribute for Professor Paul Weiler, my former sports law professor who is retiring from teaching this year. I was deeply honored by the request. My tribute appears in the most recent issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin and I have excerpted it below...

Florida Coastal Database of College Coaches Contracts

Posted on January 26, 2008
In December of 2006, I wrote a post titled, "Lawyers in Demand at University Athletic Departments?" At the 2006 Street & Smith's Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, NCAA president Myles Brand and other panelists were asked what they thought would be the most important story to follow in 2007, and they said "coaches' contracts"...

The Substance of WVU v. Rodriguez

Posted on January 25, 2008
In an interview yesterday about West Virginia's suit against Rich Rodriguez, I made two points to a reporter (prior posts here and here). First, I think the case is going to end up back in state court--the university is an arm of the state and not subject to diversity jurisdiction in federal district court, not to mention the uncertainty about where Rodriguez was living on December 27...

Agent-Author Ron Shapiro at Toledo Law on Monday

Posted on January 25, 2008
For anyone within driving distance, I'll be introducing famed Baltimore baseball agent and author Ron Shapiro on Monday, January 28 (at 11:55 am) at a public event at the University of Toledo College of Law. Known for his books and instruction on negotiation ( The Power of Nice: How to Negotiate So Everyone Wins, Especially You; Bullies, Tyrants & Impossible People: How to Beat them Without Joining Them, and Dare to Prepare: How to Win Before You Begin), Shapiro has represented the likes of Kirby Puckett, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken, Jim Palmer, and Brooks Robinson...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Baseball Salary Arbitration

Posted on January 25, 2008
I am pleased to have the opportunity to share with Sports Law Blog readers some of my insights and research concerning baseball salary arbitration. Going back to my time teaching a seminar on the regulation of the sports and entertainment industries at Loyola New Orleans in the 1990's, I have been interested in the arbitration process...

A Catholic Perspective on Rick Majerus

Posted on January 25, 2008
Rick Garnett at Notre Dame, who blogs at the Catholic-legal-theory site Mirror of Justice, offers some thoughts on the Majerus matter.Two points on Rick's post. First, he wonders whether the reaction from SLU or much of the sports-media world would have been different if Majerus had "appeared at a Tom Tancredo rally and complained about immigration, or at a League of the South rally and complained about Emancipation...

More on Rick Majerus

Posted on January 24, 2008
The story, first mentioned here, of Saint Louis University Men's Basketball Coach Rick Majerus' comments at a Hillary Clinton rally supporting reproductive choice and stem-cell research, and the calls by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke for university sanctions against Majerus, is becoming a national controversy...

Proposed Three-Prong Anti-Steriod Strategy for Baseball

Posted on January 23, 2008
University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt has a good post over on Freakonomics that discusses a plan by Aaron Zelinsky (who last week on our blog wrote a guest piece on steroids in baseball) for a three-prong anti-steroid strategy for Major League Baseball...

Sports Mixing With Religion and Politics: Majerus, Abortion, Basketball Arenas, and Tax Abatements

Posted on January 22, 2008
This morning at the March of Life in Washington, D.C., St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke criticized Majerus' support of Hillary Clinton, publicly stating that he supports stem cell research and abortion rights (Majerus was interviewed by KMOV Channel 4 in St...

More on WVU v. Rodriguez

Posted on January 22, 2008
Last week I talked about West Virginia University's lawsuit against former football coach Rich Rodriguez. Rodriguez removed the case to federal court based on diversity-of-citizenship jurisdiction, arguing that he became a citizen of Michigan prior to the filing of the lawsuit on December 27...

ESPN Relies (in part) on CDM Fantasy League Case to Renegotiate Licensing Fees

Posted on January 21, 2008
In today's edition of Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal (subscription required), John Ourand and Eric Fisher report that ESPN is renegotiating its digital rights deal with MLB Advanced Media, looking to pay a significantly lower fee after finding several pieces of the original agreement it signed in 2005 no longer cost effective ("ESPN Seeks Better MLBAM Terms")...

Attorneys for Gabbibo Respond

Posted on January 20, 2008
Last month, I blogged about an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by Western University University in an Italian court against Mediaset, an Italian company, for trademark and copyright infringement, claiming that Gabibbo, the mascot for the satirical show "Striscia la Notizia," is a carbon copy of Big Red, the Western Kentucky mascot since 1979, and which is depicted to the left...

Playing for the Coach or Playing for the School? A Modest Proposal

Posted on January 19, 2008
While I recognize that college sports are a corrupt and unfair sewer in many ways, I never have been on the bandwagon for radical changes such as paying players. But I would support the proposal that NPR's Frank Deford makes in this NPR commentary arguing that student-athletes should be able to transfer freely, without having to sit out a year, if the coach who recruited them leaves mid-contract to go to another school or to coach in the pros...

Not Exactly Nostradamus

Posted on January 19, 2008
In December 2006, I predicted in this space that George W. Bush would be the next commissioner of baseball. Bud Selig had just signed a new contract but basically had promised to step down in 2009--right about when W would be out of his current job.So much for accuracy...

Aaron Zelinsky's "Three Strikes for the National Labor Relations Act"

Posted on January 18, 2008
We received an excellent submission from Aaron Zelinsky, a 1L at Yale Law School, concerning the National Labor Relations Act and the steroids scandal in baseball. Without further adieu . . .* * * Three Strikes for the National Labor Relations Act It?s baseball season again in Washington...

Golf Week and the Noose: Context Matters

Posted on January 18, 2008
Dre Cummings discusses the new wrinkle in the Kelly Tilghman/Lynching controversy--the Golf Week magazine cover featuring a photograph of a noose and the headline "Caught in a Noose." Dre asks whether this "represent[s] a collosal lapse in judgment on the part of Golfweek editor Dave Seanor or is this a merely a nefarious attempt to grab attention ...

golfweek magazine and judgment

Posted on January 18, 2008
As the Kelly Tilghman maelstrom had begun to abate in connection with her Tiger Woods "lynch him in a back alley" blunder, Golfweek has just published the image of a noose in connection to Tilghman's ignorant commentary in this weeks edition of its magazine...

Randy Moss Hit With Temporary Restraining Order

Posted on January 17, 2008
Last wrote, I wrote a piece on SI.com concerning New England Patriots' wide receiver Randy Moss' newfound legal troubles. I hope you have a chance to check it out.

When Academic Interests Meet: Thank you, Rich Rodriguez

Posted on January 16, 2008
I got involved in this forum because of the overlap between sport and one of my primary scholarly interests--free speech. It is nice to see one time in which sport meets my other scholarly interest--civil procedure geekiness.West Virginia last month sued former football coach Rich Rodriguez in state court in West Virginia seeking to recover on a $ 4 million buyout clause in Rodriguez's contract, after the coach left WVU to become head coach at Michigan...

Illinois Joins NJ, FL, and TX With High School Drug Testing

Posted on January 15, 2008
Yesterday, the Illinois High School Association's Board of Directors voted to implement a performance enhancing drug testing program beginning this fall for state championship competitions. The Board's vote came after reviewing the results of a survey sent to all 765 member schools on December 11, 2007...

Preview of Tomorrow's Congressional Hearing with Major League Baseball

Posted on January 14, 2008
Earlier today, I wrote a 12-part Question/Answer for SI.com that previews tomorrow's Congressional hearing featuring former Senator George Mitchell, Bud Selig, and Donald Fehr.I address such topics as:The types of questions likely to be asked of Mitchell, Selig, and FehrWhether there will be finger-pointing by Selig and FehrWhether Roger Clemens' name and situation will come upWhether Donald Fehr will argue against new testingWhether other pro sports leagues will be following the testimonyWhether Congress should be spending its time on the topic of steroids and baseball and how might this topic influence the 2008 Presidential ElectionIt's lengthy (about 2,500 words), but I hope you have a chance to check out the Q/A...

The thorny and challenging issue of disabled track and field athletes

Posted on January 14, 2008
Track and field competition presents unique challenges when it comes to how to handle disabled athletes. The latest example is the international track and field governing body's decision to bar from the Beijing Olympics "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius, a South African double-amputee who participates in sprint racing using prosthetic limbs...

New Sports Law Scholarship

Posted on January 14, 2008
New this week:N. Jeremi Duru, Friday night ?lite?: how de-racialization in the motion picture Friday Night Lights disserves the movement to eradicate racial discrimination from American sport, 25 CARDOZO ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 485 (2007) Arturo J...

Sad Injustice

Posted on January 12, 2008
Another African American superstar athlete has been prosecuted by the Justice Department for perjury arising from the Balco Grand Jury. Now Marion Jones, winner of five Olympic medals and probably the best female athlete of our time, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison by a federal judge in New York...

Should Role Model Status Influence Sentencing Decisions?

Posted on January 12, 2008
I woke up this morning and read a very disturbing quote made by Federal Judge Kenneth Karas who gave Marion Jones the maximum sentence recommended under Jones' plea deal: The use of performance-enhancing drugs "sends all the wrong messages to all who follow the athlete's every move," Karas said, apparently referring to children...

Did Clemens' Attorneys Violate Ethics Rules with Phone Conversation?

Posted on January 11, 2008
Attorney Paul W. Schwarzenbart of the Madison, Wisconsin-based law firm Lee, Kilkelly, Paulson & Younger e-mails me a really interesting thought:I am curious why no question has been raised (that I have seen anyway) as to whether Roger Clemens' attorneys violated attorney disciplinary rules by (apparently) engineering and participating in (by listening in) on the subject telephone conversation with Brian McNamee...

Rebuking Excuses to Lynching Tiger Woods Jokes

Posted on January 10, 2008
The Golf Channel reporter Kelly Tilghman stated the only hope young professional golfers have in competing with Tiger Woods would be to ?lynch [him] in a back alley.? The three common excuses have risen again to urge that such comments are not really such a big deal: (1) Tiger Woods is not offended so neither should we, (2) the comment was a joke, without ill-intent, and (3) any punishment is only misguided mislabeled ?political correctness?...

Lynching Tiger Redux

Posted on January 10, 2008
As the story has enlarged nationally, the Golf Channel announced yesterday that it would suspend Kelly Tilghman for two weeks in connection with her casual statement that the only hope for young up and coming professional golfers to compete with the great Tiger Woods would be to "lynch [him] in a back alley...

BCmesS: The 2008 Edition

Posted on January 09, 2008
The BCS has gotten old, or at least talking about it has. No, it's still not legal. No, the accomodationist reforms introduced in 2006 have not solved things. No, it's not all that interesting. After crowning a two-loss "champion" this week, the BCS system is something not even its creators and enablers seem to love...

"Lynching Tiger Woods"

Posted on January 09, 2008
The issue of race and sports law was a hot topic in 2007 and continues to be in 2008. At the beginning of each new year, along with personal resolutions, I optimistically hope beyond hope that our nation, the United States of America, can take transcendent steps toward alleviating our festering race problem...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.