It has been a little over a year since the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League. I thought I’d check to see how the case was progressing upon remand to the district court.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of former University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias from a cocaine-induced heart attack. For sports fans of my age group, this is one of those significant where-were-you-when moments (I was at home studying for my last high-school finals). It was the subject of one of the best of ESPN’s 30-for-30 documentaries and Bill Simmons always describes it as the singular event that changed the course of the Boston Celtics and all of the NBA in the late ’80s and ’90s. It was a major catalyst for Congress creating the crack/powder disparity that still plagues federal sentencing law
As expected, the BCS chose to vacate USCs 2004 national title last Monday. The decision was merely a formality because the BCS was only waiting for the NCAA to deny USCs final appeal. From a legal perspective, however, the interesting consideration is why the BCS even cares about the NCAAs ruling in the first place.
I’ll be NBA TV tonight at around 8:00 p.m. Ill be joining David Aldridge in a discussion on NBA labor issues, and I’ll be on throughout the impending lockout to provide legal analysis. Hope you can watch. more…
Chuck Klosterman, writing at Grantland (Bill Simmons’ new site), gives a brief take at his favorite rule in all of sports, which he also argues is absurd and irrational–the NBA rule that a team calling a timeout late in the game gets the ball at half court.
Recently published scholarship includes:
Alejandro Bautista, Comment, College footballs serial murderer: sickle cell trait, 21 MARQUETTE SPORTS LAW REVIEW 403 (2010)
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and I were the guests yesterday on a local Toledo ABC Sunday talkshow, Roundtable with Jeff Smith. The topic for the day was the ongoing Ohio State University football scandal, with particular attention to the jaw-dropping SI story. For Howard’s comments from last week, see this post.
My PrawfsBlawg (and former SLU) colleague Matt Bodie attended today’s oral argument in Brady v. NFL (an advantage to living in St. Louis) and offers his thoughts here. more…
