I need to find a better explanation behind this: A fan wore a LeBron James Miami Heat jersey to a Cleveland Indians game at Progressive (ne Jacobs) Field last night and, when fans in the area began chanting shouting profanities and throwing debris at him, he was escorted from the stadium. Fortunately, in the days of pervasive video, we can watch it happen (although I did not see any debris being thrown).
Yesterday marked the 17th anniversary of the death of Reggie Lewis, an all-star Celtics guard/forward who died from a heart attack on July 27, 1993, at the age of 27.
Marcia Smith of the Orange County Register has the story on the lawsuit and interviews me and Lewis & Clark Law School professor Tung Yin about it.
Libby Sander has an extensive and thoughtful article on Sonny Vaccaro and O’Bannon v. NCAA in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is titled The Gospel According to Sonny: Sonny Vaccaro helped commercialize college sports. Now he wants athletes to get their due. She interviewed many persons for this story, including me and Duke Law Professor Paul Haagen. Here are some excerpts:
Austin Meek of the Topeka Capital-Journal interviews me and Washburn law professor Michael Hunter Schwartz for a piece on an unusual lawsuit brought by Kansas State against its former football head coach Ron Prince over a $3.2 million buyout that was negotiated and signed by then Kansas State’s athletic director, Bob Krause. Kansas State claims that Krause was not acting on behalf of Kansas State at the time, even though the relevant by-laws express that he had the authority to do so.
This Sunday, power-hitting outfielder Andre Dawson will earn his induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. To many, Dawson is best known for his 438 career home runs, 314 stolen bases, and 1987 MVP Award.
So, in light of the much publicized Human Growth Hormone (HGH) positive test result for rugby player, Terry Newton, earlier this year, Bud Selig has implemented HGH testing for minor league baseball players. Recall that the Commish can unilaterally impose such testing as Minor League baseball players are not represented by a collective bargaining group like their Major League counterparts, the MLBPA. The random testing will fall under the existing Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, 
under which forty-nine Minor League players have been suspended in 2010. None of these suspensions were made for HGH use.
At least it isn’t according to U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill, who held today in Biediger v. Quinnipiac University that Quinnipiac must keep it’s women’s volleyball team in order to comply with Title IX, a federal law that commands gender equity in sports. The judge, who President Clinton nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in 1999 and who teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, rejected Quinnipiac’s attempt to count cheerleaders for purposes of Title IX. Like Juge Underhill, the NCAA does not recognize competitive cheer as a Title IX eligible sport.
USA softball suffered another blow yesterday when Jennie Finch announced her retirement, effective at the end of this summer. The sport, which has already seen its Olympic hopes erased for the next two Games, is arguably losing its most visible star. Only 29, Finch is still at the top of her game, but what does she have to play for? Without the Olympics, her only meaningful tournaments are the World Championships and the World Cup of Softball. And the World Cup of Softball, which begins tomorrow night, has seen its level of competition dramatically decrease. Once a gathering of the best softball teams in the world, this year’s tournament features just three countries: USA, Japan, and Canada. How is that 38 years after the passage of Title IX, only three countries a) can field competitive teams, or b) choose to compete in what has now become one of the highest levels of competition for the sport?
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Yesterdays revelation of NCAA investigations at the University of Florida for former player Maurkice Pounceys alleged receipt of $100,000 from an agent, as well as possible investigations for agent-related issues at North Carolina and South Carolina, once again raises the question: how can the agent-student athlete scandal be eliminated from college sports? more…
