The National Football League Players’ Association is reportedly looking into whether teams are trading rookie players who would be cut in order to avoid cutting them themselves and having to pay 85% of the player’s salary. If they are doing that, they could be deemed to be colluding, which generally means two or more teams acting in a way to deprive players of collectively-bargained rights. The NFL-NFLPA collective bargaining agreement contains anti-collusive language under Article XXVIII. Here’s more on the allegation:
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Professor Mitchell N. Berman of the University of Texas School of Law has posted a new essay that may be of interest to some readers. Let em Play: A Study in Sports and Law considers the potential arguments regarding whether officials should call infractions less strictly during the end of a close match than throughout the rest of the game.

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I have a new SI.com column on today’s arraignment of Roger Clemens. Here is an excerpt:
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I don’t understand finances enough to say much about Deadspin’s (leaked) disclosure of the financial statements for a number of major league teams, which show that a number of the poorer small-market teams (including the Pirates, Marlins, and Mariners) actually have turned pretty good profits by keeping player payrolls way down and raking in (but not spending) revenue-sharing dollars. Several issues seem to be brewing here.

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Elliot Turner at Wallstcheatsheet.com has written an interesting post speculating on the effect that the Supreme Court’s opinion in American Needle v. National Football League had on the NFL’s recent decision to make the NFL Sunday Ticket package available via the Internet. Previously, fans had to subscribe to DirecTV’s satellite television service in order to receive the Sunday Ticket package.

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Interesting item:

The National Institutes of Health spent $314,613 over two years on a study that determined that family violence increases about three times as much on the Fourth of July as it does after the local NFL team suffers an upset loss.

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By a vote of 5-1, the California State Athletic Commission decided this week that Antonio Margarito need not be reissued a professional boxing license on its watch following the revocation of his license after a Plaster of Paris-like substance was found on Margarito’s hand wraps before his bout with Sugar Shane Mosley on January 24, 2009. Subsequently, all eyes in the boxing world immediately turned toward Texas, where Margarito could face Manny (Pac Man) Pacquiao in a potentially explosive welterweight showdown at Cowboys Stadium on November 13, 2010. Texas has a decorated history of issuing licenses to boxers that have otherwise been banned in the U.S.A., including Evander Holyfield following his administrative suspension in New York several years back, and the late Edwin (El Inca) Valero. While Holyfield, Valero, and others were all suspended elsewhere for reasons pertaining to own their health and well being, Margarito had his license revoked for endangering the health and well being of someone else. Will such a distinction make a difference to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation? We shall soon find out. But what we know right now are the rules and regulations that govern Texas decision. A quick review of those rules and regulations, as well as an intangible or two that may play into Texas decision, follows…

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I have a new column on SI.com on the indictment of Roger Clemens. Here’s an excerpt:

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A divided panel of the Fifth Circuit yesterday affirmed the district court dismissal of Roger Clemens’ defamation action against former trainer/friend Brian McNamee, agreeing that McNamee was not subject to suit in Texas. (H/T: Adam Steinman at Civil Procedure & Federal Courts Blog).

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From DJ Bean of WEEI in Boston (bold added):
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