Media & Entertainment Law

Quick Update on Retired NFL Players vs. NFLPA

Posted on January 29, 2009
The Sports Business Daily reports that U.S. District Judge William Alsup upheld the jury?s verdict awarding a class of NFL retired players $28.1 million in its suit against the NFLPA We discussed the case back in November here (as is often the case, the meat of the discussion is contained in the comments).

Media ethics and law prof blogging

Posted on January 28, 2009
I am quoted today in an op-ed in the Daily Tar Heel. (H/T: My former colleague Joel Goldstein). The op-ed discusses the motion filed by former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, the main culprit in the Duke lacrosse mess, seeking to dismiss the § 1983 actions against him on absolute prosecutorial immunity grounds (and without seeing the motion, I have argued previously that he has a pretty strong argument)...

A Clarification of My Last Post on Salary Arbitration

Posted on January 28, 2009
The two anonymous comments to my January 23 posting offered good observations and questions, and they point out my need to be more precise about my last sentence -?One of my arguments has been that salary arbitration usually works because most of the time the parties agree to a figure at the midpoint or slightly below the midpoint...

"Flyer" Goes Down: Wisconsin Supreme Court Finds Cheerleading to be a Contact Sport

Posted on January 27, 2009
Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued its opinion in Brittany L. Noffke v. Kevin Bakke. Howard Wasserman discussed this matter on this Blog last month. Also, check my post on the Sports Law Blog for cheerleader injuries from 2006, and discussions on sports injuries from myself and Geoffrey Rapp here, here, and here...

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

New SI.com Sports Law Column on Kirk Radomski's New Book

Posted on January 26, 2009
I have a new column on SI.com on potential legal implications for Roger Clemens relating to Kirk Radomski's new book, Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report. Here is an excerpt from the column:* * *The inconsistency over specific information shared by McNamee to Radomski may seem to be on the periphery of the central question of whether Clemens used steroids and knowingly lied to Congress, but it offers Clemens' legal team a valuable card in a potential trial in which McNamee would be subject to cross-examination: Why should a jury believe McNamee's recollections over those of Clemens when McNamee's account is, at least in part, contradicted by the published words of his friend Radomski? Then again, jurors might dismiss potential inconsistencies in dates and other historical facts as relatively immaterial...

Cubs Suing Former Sponsor Underarmour

Posted on January 23, 2009
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports a suit filed on Thursday by the Chicago Cubs for breach of contract and promissory estoppel against Underarmour. Driven to abandon the sponsorship due to the effect of the economic climate on overpriced polyester sports clothing, the company now faces this $10 million suit...

The Tampa Bay Rays and the "File-and-go Strategy"

Posted on January 23, 2009
Bill Chastain, an MLB.com reporter covering the Tampa Bay Rays, wrote an informative piece on January 20 about Willy Aybar and Dioner Navarro?s salary arbitration negotiations with the Rays. (?Aybar, Navarro will go to arbitration; Pair of players unable to come to terms with Rays before deadline)...

Baseball Salary Arbitration - Players and Teams Exchange Figures

Posted on January 21, 2009
Over the past few days there has been a flurry of activity between baseball teams and player agents negotiating contracts for players eligible for salary arbitration. On Thursday, January 15, 111 players filed for arbitration. Between last Thursday and yesterday?s deadline for exchanging numbers, 65 deals were finalized leaving 46 players and teams involved in exchanging numbers yesterday...

Bailed-out AIG to drop pricey sports team sponsorships

Posted on January 21, 2009
One of the reasons I've been blogging relatively lightly in the past few weeks is that I've discovered the Fox Soccer Channel is part of my digital cable package. Although I've been enjoying a number of great soccer games, it is always a bit jarring to see a team of millionaire soccer players running around in jerseys that proudly display the name of a corporation that has recently come begging for money to the U...

Endowed college coaching positions

Posted on January 16, 2009
Something I just discovered this week: The head coaching positions for Stanford's football and men's basketball teams are endowed. Football coach Jim Harbaugh is the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football; Basketball coach Johnny Dawkins is the Anne and Tony Joseph Director of Men's Basketball...

The Salary Cap, a Rookie Pay Scale and the NFLPA

Posted on January 15, 2009
The week leading up to the Conference Championships, with all of its corresponding movement of coaches and executives, is a good time to take stock of two important bargaining points for the new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA): 1) a rookie salary cap and 2) the traditional salary cap...

Introducing the National Sports and Entertainment Law Society

Posted on January 12, 2009
Two of my students at Vermont Law School -- Andrew Delaney and William Rothstein -- have embarked on creating the National Sports and Entertainment Law Society. It is a national organization for sports law societies across the country.I encourage you to check out the NSELS website and also check out Sports Agent Blog's Darren Heitner's story on the NSELS (and my thanks to Darren for his kind words):* * *From the small northeastern state of Vermont, a couple of law students are determined to start an organization that will unite sports & entertainment law societies in law schools around the country...

New SI.com Sports Law Column on Roger Clemens' Grand Jury

Posted on January 12, 2009
I have a new column on SI.com on grand jury proceedings into whether Roger Clemens committed perjury. Here's an excerpt:* * *It is important to not get ahead of ourselves. Clemens has not yet been indicted, let alone convicted. In fact, there are several reasons to believe Clemens would prevail in a trial...

New Board for AALS Section on Sports and the Law

Posted on January 11, 2009
This past year, I had the honor of serving as Chair of the Association of American Law Schools' Section on Sports and the Law.The AALS is a non-profit association of over 170 U.S. law schools and is legal education's principal representative to the federal government and to other national higher education organizations...

New SI.com Sports Law Column on Exemptions in Baseball for Amphetamines

Posted on January 10, 2009
I have a new column on SI.com concerning Major League Baseball authorizing nearly 8 percent of its players to use drugs to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.Here's an excerpt:While the clinical link between amphetamines and baseball performance is less established than links between steroids, human growth hormone and performance, it is thought that amphetamines and similar substances improve the focus and concentration of players and also enhance their reaction time...

University of Florida Levin College of Law Sports Law Symposium

Posted on January 10, 2009
On Friday, January 23, the Entertainment and Sports Law Society at the University of Florida Levin College of Law will be hosting what should be an excellent sports law symposium. I'm honored to be speaking at it. Here are some more details:SpeakersMarc Edelman - Sports law attorney, author, and professorMax Eppel - Founder, Max Eppel Soccer Agency LLC (MESA) Joshua Golka - Sports Attorney and Consultant at Law Office of Joshua P...

Pepperdine University School of Law Symposium on Arbitrating Sports

Posted on January 10, 2009
On Friday, February 27, Pepperdine University School of Law (which is located in gorgeous Malibu, California) will be hosting what should be a terrific symposium entitled, "Arbitrating Sports: Reflections on USADA/Landis, the Olympic Games, and the Future of Sports Dispute Resolution...

University of Oregon Sports Business and the Law Conference

Posted on January 10, 2009
On Friday, January 23, the University of Oregon will be hosting its first "Sports Business and the Law Conference." Here's the press release for it:EUGENE, Ore. -- (Jan. 9, 2009) -- Sports industry professionals will meet in downtown Portland on Friday, Jan...

Losers by AKO: Round 2

Posted on January 09, 2009
As a New Commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission Begins Her Tenure, The Question is Begged as to Whether Two Former World Champions That Were Placed on Administrative Suspension by Her Predecessor Could Have Done Anything to Reclaim Their Boxing Licenses (Continued)by Paul Stuart Haberman, Esq...

Losers by AKO: Round 1

Posted on January 08, 2009
As a New Commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission Begins Her Tenure, The Question is Begged as to Whether Two Former World Champions That Were Placed on Administrative Suspension by Her Predecessor Could Have Done Anything to Reclaim Their Boxing Licenses by Paul Stuart Haberman, Esq...

New Sports Law Scholarship

Posted on January 05, 2009
Recently published scholarship includes:E. Jason Burke, Note, ?Quasi-property? rights: fantasy or reality? An examination of [CBC v. MLBAM] and fantasy sports providers? use of professional athlete statistics, 27 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF LAW & POLICY 161 (2008) Timothy D...

The significance of defining sport

Posted on December 28, 2008
I have written on several occasions about how to define sport and what qualifies as sport, a common game among ?sports-and-____? academics. A frequent response to these posts has been ?so what, what difference does it make?? And, in truth, it is largely an academic exercise and a fun way to make fun of gymnastics, figure skating, and golf...

Study of NBA Player Charities

Posted on December 28, 2008
Paul Caron at Tax Prof Blog reports on a study by the Salt Lake Tribune on the financial documentation filed by 89 NBA player charities. The study found that the average player foundation actually put just 51 cents of every dollar earned towards charitable programs, the rest eaten by administrative costs and inefficiencies...

How Would "Safe" Steroids Impact Sports?

Posted on December 24, 2008
University of Pennsylvania bioethics professor Arthur Caplan has a provocative piece in the British Journal of Sports Medicine entitled "Does the the biomedical revolution spell the end of sport?". Here's an excerpt:* * *But, what if biomedical science could put the safety issue [of steroids] aside? Someday, probably soon, there will be drugs that do what steroids do without any real risk of harm to the user...

Sports Law Blog selected as one of the ABA Journal's Blawg 100

Posted on December 23, 2008
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_li4G-Ya5_2s/SVDQlngRDuI/AAAAAAAAADc/v6V8LMOwRt0/s1600-h/ABA+Journal+Blog+Vote.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282951707583647458" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 155px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px" alt="" src="http://2...

whither chizik and kiffin?

Posted on December 23, 2008
For years, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Division I athletic directors and university administrators have come under intense scrutiny and fire for their repeated failure to hire African American and other minority head coaches for their collegiate football programs...

School Colors Reaffirmed as a Valid Trademark

Posted on December 22, 2008
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jydLw3ctqWs/SU_XQS8c2dI/AAAAAAAAAFc/P0EobrPlVn8/s1600-h/LSU.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282677562892147154" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 116px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 116px" alt="" src="http://3...

Minority Football Coaches and Civil Rights (Updated and Moved to Top)

Posted on December 18, 2008
span style="font-weight:bold;"Update, Thursday, 1:00 p.m.:/spanbr /br /Alert reader Michael Nichols has written on this subject in a a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1317545"piece forthcoming/a in the Virginia Sports Entertainment Law Journal...

NFLPA Concerned about Bonuses and U.S. Tax Code Section 409A

Posted on December 18, 2008
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zGTe5MsCVYc/SUqBOKpUuOI/AAAAAAAAA0E/GTQFFbugrZc/s1600-h/Tax+Code.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 266px;" src="http://1...

Interesting tidbit

Posted on December 16, 2008
Hall-of-Fame running back Franco Harris was an elector from Pennsylvania for Barack Obama.

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