Our colleague and friend Jeremi Duru, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, is the author of an outstanding and timely new book: Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL (with forward by Tony Dungy).
An article by Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim in the new Sports Illustrated (I cannot find it on-line for some reason) examines the cause of home-field advantage in sports. If the study is empirically sound (and I want to down with some empiricists to help me figure out if it is), the results are groundbreaking. Moskowitz and Wertheim argue that home-field advantage is mostly explained by official bias, influenced by a combination of the closeness of the game and the game situation; the home crowd (size, loudness, proximity, and intensity); and limited attention to, or accountabiltiy for, particular decisions. Read the whole thing if you can get it (or it eventually comes on-line).
Is there a conflict of interest when the same NFL agent represents a team’s president, executive VP, general manager and the person whom the team is hiring as coach?
Does the polygraph (aka lie detector machine) have to potential to be used as an anti-corruption tool in sports? According to a recent Guardian article by Andy Wilson and Rob Bagchi, the answer appears to be “yes.” The plan was hatched after reports of match-fixing in the sport of cricket.
Congratulations to Sports Law Blog contributor Mark Conrad on publication of the second edition of his book, The Business of Sports.
Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci has a good column on the relationship between an increase in innings pitched from season-to-season and injuries suffered by young pitchers. Here’s an excerpt:
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The troubles of the Jets continue. Two massage therapists have filed a lawsuit claiming that they lost their jobs after complaining about “sexually suggestive text messages” from Farve while he was on the Jets in 2008.
University of Pennsylvania Law Professor Stephen Burbank, the Special Master of the NFL for grievances with the NFLPA, began a hearing today in New York City for a grievance filed by the NFLPA. The NFLPA alleges that the NFL breached its fiduciary duties under the CBA by — according to the NFLPA — taking less from TV networks for broadcast contracts in exchange for the guarantee that the NFL would be paid by those networks in 2011, regardless of whether there is a league lockout. The NFLPA characterizes the NFL’s contract strategy as “lockout insurance” and claim that it contradicts the CBA. The NFL, in contrast, argues that it did not breach any duties and, moreover, that it has discretion in its business decisions for broadcast contracts. If the NFLPA wins, it would provide added motivation to NFL owners to agree on a new CBA before the current one expires on March 4.
A few facts to follow up on the post by Michael on the suspension of five Ohio State Football players. Thankfully, the Coach did allow the players to participate in the Sugar Bowl on the condition that the juniors agreed to return to the school for their senior year rather than throw their hats in the NFL lottery ring. How charitable.
