Following on the heels of Lester Munsons recent report on the American Needle case for ESPN.com which Howard discussed last week CBSSports.com National Columnist Mike Freeman has written an article similarly forecasting that a Supreme Court victory for the NFL in American Needle would be a doomsday scenario for sports fans (see Sports Law Blogs significant previous coverage of the case for more background on the litigation). Freeman asserts that if the NFL wins the case, the Supreme Courts decision would basically amount to a nuclear winter for sports and fans, giving sports leagues unlimited power and leaving them free of almost any legal worries. Like Munson, Freeman believes the NFL and other leagues would use this newfound power to eliminate free agency, lower salaries paid to players and coaches, and dramatically increase prices for tickets and merchandise.
Archive for ◊ July, 2009 ◊
I have a new column on SI.com concerning Plaxico Burress’ unusual decision to testify before a grand jury. Here’s an excerpt:
One increasingly interesting, sports-related lawsuit which hasn’t garnered much attention here is Gillispie v. University of Kentucky Athletic Association Inc., the suit filed by former University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach Billy Gillispie. As most are probably aware, Gillispie was fired by Kentucky on March 27, 2009, after completing two years of a seven-year agreement valued at $1.5 million per year.
He might now know it yet, but Bill Simmons (aka, espn.coms Sports Guy) could play an important role in the outcome of the lawsuit filed by the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and NCAA against the Delaware Sports Lottery. The leagues claim that the single-game bets offered by the lottery violate federal and state law. The federal claim deals with the scope of the grandfather clause contained in the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Unless he has quietly gained an expertise in federal statutory interpretation , Simmons wont play a role in that claim. He might, however, find himself playing a key role in the resolution of the state law claim.
Death Penalty Looms as Possibility for Killers of Former Welterweight and Junior Middleweight Champion Under Georgias Felony Murder Laws
A brief update to my post from yesterday discussing MLBs use of DNA testing on Latin American prospects. Jorge Arangure Jr., a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine, writes about the issue today, and notes that MLBs Dominican operations are technically run through separate entities incorporated in the Dominican Republic.
According to the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), an inter-governmental body whose purpose is the development and promotion of national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, the multi-billion dollar global football sector has become a vehicle for money laundering and other forms of corruption, requiring an international response.
Roger Alford of Pepperdine University School of Law and Opinio Juris looks at data originally compiled by Paul Caron of the University of Cincinnati College of Law and Tax Prof Blog on average visit length of the 35 most visited law professor blogs and finds that Sports Law Blog is the 8th best-read law professor blog (as Howard noted in June, we are 24th in terms of daily hits).
Yesterday I linked to my SI column on O’Bannon v. NCAA.
A few hours ago, former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, on behalf of a class of thousands of former men’s basketball and football players, filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California over the NCAA’s use and license of former student-athletes’ identities in various commercial ventures. The claim is based primarily on Section 1 of the Sherman Act and the right of publicity.
