Media & Entertainment Law

SI.com Column on Painkiller Abuse in the NFL

Posted on August 11, 2010
I have the Viewpoint Column today on SI.com and it's an extensive piece on painkiller abuse in the NFL. Here is an excerpt:* * *But for the vast majority of players, unless there is reasonable cause, the collective bargaining agreement mandates no testing for the likes of cocaine, marijuana, amphetamine, opiates (morphine and codeine) and phencyclidine (PCP) until April...

The Impact of American Needle v. NFL on Sports Apparel Industry

Posted on August 09, 2010
Daniel Walsh of the Advertising Specialty Institute has a very thoughtful and comprehensive article on the litigation background of American Needle v. NFL and the impact of the decision on the sports apparel industry. The nearly 2,000 word article titled, "Reversing Field," is unique because it looks at the decision partly from the vantage point of the sports apparel industry, as opposed to offering solely an antitrust or sports business perspective...

Should NCAA Allow Isiah Thomas to be a college head coach and a consultant to an NBA team?

Posted on August 08, 2010
Jeff Eisenberg of Rivals.com has a very interesting piece on the New York Knicks hiring of its former head coach and president of basketball operations, Isiah Thomas, to be a consultant to the team. Thomas, who was fired by the Knicks in 2008, is currently the head coach of Florida International University's men's basketball team...

This Day in Sports Law: The Cubs say "Let There Be Light"

Posted on August 08, 2010
Today, August 8, is the 22d anniversary of the first night game at Wrigley Field, between the Cubs and the Phillies. Or at least the first attempted night game. Play was called because of rain after 3 1/2 innings--which many took as a sign from God--and the first official game was played the following evening, against the Mets...

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The Yow Plan: Universities Sanctioned by the NCAA Should Sue Agents who broke NCAA Rules

Posted on August 07, 2010
The new Athletic Director of N.C. State, Debbie Yow, has a message for agents who intend to break NCAA recruiting rules while on the N.C. campus: if you do, and the NCAA punishes us with sanctions, we'll be suing you. Ken Tysiac of the News and Observer has the story, which is excerpted below...

USA Swimming's Attempts to Ban Technologies

Posted on August 03, 2010
Tara Bhupathi, a rising 3L at the University of North Carolina School of Law and an Editor on the North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology, has posted on SSRN a copy of her article in the New York State Bar Association's Art, Entertainment and Sports Law Journal on USA Swimming's attempts to ban certain technologies and the antitrust implications of those attempts...

Join the "What is Sport" Conversation

Posted on August 03, 2010
ESPN's Page 2 is seeking opinions, in the wake of the Title IX/cheerleader case, on what is not a sport and why. Join the conversation.

Criticism of Biediger v. Quinnipiac University and the Rejection of Competitive Cheer as a Title IX Eligible Sport

Posted on August 01, 2010
Over on Saving Sports, the official blog of the College Sports Council which advocates reform of Title IX, Eric McErlain argues on behalf of competitive cheer qualifying as a Title IX sport. He also takes issue with U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill's recent opinion in Biediger v...

Bedeviled by conflict among your team?

Posted on July 30, 2010
I think it's safe to say that organizational conflicts can distract athletic institutions from being their most effective. That was clearly the case at the University of Southern California, with Pete Carroll locking heads with compliance officers and other USC administrators, and it probably happens in less dramatic ways in other athletic departments and in sports agencies and front offices...

Can you say heckler's veto?

Posted on July 29, 2010
I need to find a better explanation behind this: A fan wore a LeBron James Miami Heat jersey to a Cleveland Indians game at Progressive (ne Jacobs) Field last night and, when fans in the area began chanting shouting profanities and throwing debris at him, he was escorted from the stadium...

Remembering Reggie Lewis and the Sports Law Issues that Followed his Death

Posted on July 28, 2010
Yesterday marked the 17th anniversary of the death of Reggie Lewis, an all-star Celtics guard/forward who died from a heart attack on July 27, 1993, at the age of 27.Growing up right outside of Boston, I was a big Reggie Lewis fan. He's still one of my all-time favorite Celtics, maybe my favorite...

Tennessee Titans sue USC and Lane Kiffin for Inducement of Breach of Contract and Tortious Interference

Posted on July 27, 2010
Marcia Smith of the Orange County Register has the story on the lawsuit and interviews me and Lewis & Clark Law School professor Tung Yin about it.The gist of the lawsuit: the Titans allege that USC and its new coach, Lane Kiffin, "maliciously" lured away running backs coach Kennedy Pola to become the Trojans' offensive coordinator...

Interested in Becoming a Law Professor?

Posted on July 26, 2010
I was recently named Chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee at Vermont Law School by the school's Dean and President, Jeff Shields. I'm excited and honored by this opportunity. Our committee has several other blogging professors, including Professors Jason Czarnezki of Czarnezki...

Chronicle of Higher Education Article on Sonny Vaccaro and O'Bannon v. NCAA

Posted on July 26, 2010
Libby Sander has an extensive and thoughtful article on Sonny Vaccaro and O'Bannon v. NCAA in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is titled The Gospel According to Sonny: Sonny Vaccaro helped commercialize college sports. Now he wants athletes to get their due...

When an Athletic Director is or is not an Athletic Director: The Strange Saga of Bob Krause, Ron Prince, and Kansas State

Posted on July 25, 2010
Austin Meek of the Topeka Capital-Journal interviews me and Washburn law professor Michael Hunter Schwartz for a piece on an unusual lawsuit brought by Kansas State against its former football head coach Ron Prince over a $3.2 million buyout that was negotiated and signed by then Kansas State's athletic director, Bob Krause...

Hall of Fame Inductee Andre Dawson Important in Fight Against Baseball Collusion

Posted on July 23, 2010
This Sunday, power-hitting outfielder Andre Dawson will earn his induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. To many, Dawson is best known for his 438 career home runs, 314 stolen bases, and 1987 MVP Award.However, from a sports law perspective, Dawson is also important for having signed a blank contract with the Chicago Cubs during the 1986-87 off-season--an act that helped to expose Major League Baseball's collusive practices during that era...

Should USC Sue Reggie Bush? No

Posted on July 22, 2010
That's what both Lewis and Clark law professor Tun Yin and I told Marcia Smith for her column in the Orange County Register on USC's potential legal claims against Reggie Bush, whose Heisman Trophy was taken down and whose No. 5 number was unretired by USC this week...

"That's Some Big Blood": Selig Implements HGH Testing in the Minor League

Posted on July 22, 2010
So, in light of the much publicized Human Growth Hormone (HGH) positive test result for rugby player, Terry Newton, earlier this year, Bud Selig has implemented HGH testing for minor league baseball players. Recall that the Commish can unilaterally impose such testing as Minor League baseball players are not represented by a collective bargaining group like their Major League counterparts, the MLBPA...

Is Softball on Life Support?

Posted on July 21, 2010
USA softball suffered another blow yesterday when Jennie Finch announced her retirement, effective at the end of this summer. The sport, which has already seen its Olympic hopes erased for the next two Games, is arguably losing its most visible star. Only 29, Finch is still at the top of her game, but what does she have to play for? Without the Olympics, her only meaningful tournaments are the World Championships and the World Cup of Softball...

Introducing Guest Blogger Holly Vietzke

Posted on July 21, 2010
We are pleased to announce that Professor Holly Vietzke of the Massachusetts School of Law will be guest blogging on Sports Law Blog. In addition to sports law, Professor Vietzke teaches courses in animal law and sophisticated speech. She is also Director of Writing and Legal Reasoning and has a law firm that specializes in estate planning, real estate law, and elder law.

Competitive Cheerleading is Not a Title IX Eligible Sport

Posted on July 21, 2010
At least it isn't according to U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill, who held today in Biediger v. Quinnipiac University that Quinnipiac must keep it's women's volleyball team in order to comply with Title IX, a federal law that commands gender equity in sports...

Bryce Brentz and Teams Requesting that Players Use Medical Devices for Abnormally Good Health

Posted on July 20, 2010
In last month's Major League Baseball draft, the Boston Red Sox drafted Bryce Brentz, a 21-year-old outfielder from Middle Tennessee State University, as a supplementary first round pick. The Red Sox and Brentz quickly worked out a contract and Brentz is now playing for the Lowell Spinners in Class A (short season)...

"Show me the Sanctions!": More Scandals, the Uniform Athlete Agent Act, and an Institution?s Cause of Action Against Agents and Former Players

Posted on July 20, 2010
Yesterday?s revelation of NCAA investigations at the University of Florida for former player Maurkice Pouncey?s alleged receipt of $100,000 from an agent, as well as possible investigations for agent-related issues at North Carolina and South Carolina, once again raises the question: how can the agent-student athlete scandal be eliminated from college sports?Just last week, Illinois became the 39th state to pass legislation based on the Uniform Athletes Agent Act, (the ?Act? or the ?UAAA?) a model law promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law...

NY Supreme Court Upholds Marist's "No-Contact-With-Recruits" Contract Clause

Posted on July 19, 2010
As you may recall, Marist University brought a lawsuit against its former men?s basketball head coach, Matt Brady, and James Madison University (JMU). The suit centered on an interesting provision in Brady?s contract with Marist. According to the contract, Brady was required to cease all contact with players being recruited by Marist if Brady were to leave during the terms of his contract...

Biediger v. Quinnipiac University: Can competitive women?s cheerleading be considered a Title IX-eligible sport?

Posted on July 16, 2010
Whether cheerleading is a sport and whether it should count in Title IX analysis are subjects that we've periodically considered on the blog. In 2005, Greg Skidmore wrote about cheerleading and Title IX when the University of Maryland added cheerleading as a varsity sport...

Iroqouis National lacrosse team at center of diplomatic dispute: Updated and Moved to Top

Posted on July 16, 2010
A lacrosse team representing the Iroquois Nations is trying to get to England to participate in the Lacrosse World Championships. Unfortunately, they are trying to travel under tribal (rather than United States) passports, which goes against State Department and U...

Iroqouis National lacrosse team at center of diplomatic dispute

Posted on July 15, 2010
A lacrosse team representing the Iroquois Nations is trying to get to England to participate in the Lacrosse World Championships. Unfortunately, they are trying to travel under tribal (rather than United States) passports, which goes against State Department and U...

Caffeine = Doping?

Posted on July 15, 2010
Various news outlets are reporting that the World Anti-Doping Agency ("WADA") is considering adding caffeine (back on) to the prohibited list. Reading the reports made me think of a tennis doping case I worked on back in 2003. The appeal involved Martin Rodriguez, a journeyman tennis player from Argentina...

New Sports Law Scholarship

Posted on July 15, 2010
Recently published scholarship includes:Zachary Blumenthal, Note, The punishment of all athletes: the need for a new world anti-doping code in sports, 9 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & LAW 201 (2010)Walter T. Champion, Jr., The Second Circuit takes a second look at the non-statutory labor exemption in professional sports: a review of Wood v...

Pete Carroll and NCAA Sanctions of USC

Posted on July 14, 2010
Last month, the NCAA imposed major sanctions on the University of Southern California football team because of a lack of institutional control. USC football will lose 30 scholarships and a 2-year postseason ban, and a vacation of some past wins. USC is appealing the sanctions...

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