• Josh Byrnes, Former General Manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

• Carter DeLorme, Partner at Jones Day in Washington D.C., performs salary arbitration work for the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers.

• Jon Fetterolf, Partner at Williams & Connolly in Washington D.C. and baseball agent.

• Clark Griffith, Attorney and AAA Arbitrator, Former Owner and Executive Vice President of the Minnesota Twins and former Chairman of Major League Baseball Properties

• Michael Weiner, Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

According to those authorities, Mayweather did much more than steal a phone during his argument with Harris. He also allegedly pulled her hair, threw her to the floor and threatened to kill her. Just as troubling, prosecutors claim that Mayweather warned his children, Koraun and Zion, that he would beat them if they called the police.

* * *

Mayweather, who has a history of legal woes, would be classified as a repeat offender. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to two domestic violence counts and one battery count. Those counts stemmed from multiple incidents evidencing Mayweather's questionable judgment and violent acts. The primary incident involved Mayweather physically assaulting Melissa Brim, who is the mother of Mayweather's daughter, Ayanna. While Mayweather dodged prison time on that occasion, his guilty plea can certainly be used against him for purposes of sentencing. The fact that Mayweather's alleged offenses include crimes against his children, could also work against him. Acts deemed particularly egregious may be considered aggravating circumstances that compel an elongated sentence.

* * *

A judge earlier this year refused the NCAA's request to toss out the eight lawsuits filed across the country by former student-athletes. They are now consolidated into a single federal action in San Francisco. The former collegiate athletes accuse the NCAA of antitrust violations, alleging they are prevented from marketing their images because the NCAA locked up their commercial rights forever during their college days.

* * *

U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken said the lawsuits, at first glance, appeared to show the NCAA's "conduct constitutes an unreasonable restraint of trade."

Legal analysts said that ruling will compel the NCAA to turn over many of its business secrets to the players' lawyers. No previous lawsuit has advanced to this stage, said Vermont Law School professor Michael McCann, who specializes in sports law. He said even if the players ultimately lose their cases the documents could add further fuel to the debate over compensating student athletes.

"When we see what kind of money is being tossed around and how much money is made off players," McCann said, "it could invigorate this debate. It will hit at the core issues of amateurism."

* * *

All the lawsuits are seeking class action status to represent untold housands of current and former athletes. Antitrust verdicts are tripled.

"If they are successful, it could mean a lot economically in terms of damages," said Rick Karcher, who directs the Center for Law and Sports at Florida Coastal School of Law.

* * *

To read the rest, click here. To read more on O'Bannon's claims, click here; to read more on Keller's claims, click here.

• Matt Banker (L'01), Assistant Commissioner for Institutional Services, Ohio Valley Conference, Nashville, TN


• Mary K. Braza, Partner and Chair, Sports Industry Team, Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee, WI


• Steve Cottingham, Director of Athletics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI


• Rodney Fort, Professor, Sport Management and Associate Dean for Graduate and Faculty Affairs, School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
• Jeff Gewirtz, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, NETS BASKETBALL/Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, East Rutherford, NJ


• Martin Greenberg (L'71), Managing Member, Law Office of Martin J. Greenberg, LLC, and Member, Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, Milwaukee, WI


• Greg Heller (L'96), Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Atlanta Braves, Atlanta, GA (Class of 1996)


• Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Professor of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law, and Senior Director of Advocacy, Women's Sports Foundation, Jacksonville, FL


• Robert Kaler, Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel, United States Soccer Federation Foundation Inc., Washington, D.C.


• Robert H. Lattinville, Partner, Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP, Saint Louis, MO


• Ilhyung Lee, Edward W. Hinton Professor of Law & Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO


• Jim McKeown, Antitrust Practice Chair, Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee, WI


• Richard H. McLaren, Professor of Law, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, Counsel to McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP, and Member, Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland


• William Miller (L'96), Assistant Professor, Health, Exercise Science & Sport Management, University of Wisconsin - Parkside, Kenosha, WI


• Matthew Mitten, Professor of Law and Director of the National Sports Law Institute and the LL.M. in Sports Law program for foreign lawyers, Marquette University Law School, and Member, Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland


• Matt Parlow, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI


• Jill Pilgrim, Principal & Business Counsel, Precise Advisory Group; Chairperson-Arbitrator, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority; President, The Center for The Protection of Athletes Rights, Inc.; Principal, Pilgrim & Associates Law Office (New York, NY and Miami, FL)


• Marti Wronski, Vice President and General Counsel, Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Milwaukee, WI

"We’ve declared pretty consistently that the football schedule for 2011 would be drastically challenging for the six remaining members if they lost two footballs games in the 2011 season less than a year away," Benson said Tuesday. "We also have obligations and contracts with our bowl partners that would be damaged without Fresno State and Nevada in the WAC in 2011. A contract with our television partner that would be affected. WAC basketball tournament implications, BCS implications, there’s a myriad of reasons why Fresno State and Nevada need to fulfill their obligations."

* * *

The NHLPA has been a rudderless ship since Bob Goodenow resigned in 2005, and in my opinion, the only person that can right the NHLPA is Don Fehr.

Fehr was the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association for 27 years before he stepped down in 2009. Fehr was instrumental in making the MLBPA the most powerful union in sports. He guided the players through the collusion grievances of the late 1980’s (which resulted in an award of $280M to players) and the 1994-1995 strike. He also guided the players through CBA negotiations in 2002 and 2006, the first negotiations since 1970 that were achieved without a work stoppage.

More importantly, however, he built a union that was in touch with its members. He brought cohesion to the membership, and this cohesion enabled the MLBPA’s to successfully navigate their labor negotiations with MLB. Without the support of its members (support which Fehr and his protégées fostered), the MLBPA would not have fared as well as it did.

Fehr left the MLBPA in more than capable hands. This exemplifies another one of his skills; the ability to find, train and keep talented staff members that share his vision . . . the NHLPA has never had this kind of continuity. Its membership has never been as cohesive as the MLBPA’s, and its staff has never been as stable as the MLBPA’s. The current CBA, which is almost unconscionable from the players’ perspective, is a product of the NHLPA’s sustained instability, which has been exacerbated by the revolving door at the NHLPA’s offices.

It should be clear to the membership of the NHLPA that Fehr is not in this for the money. Fehr never took a salary of more than $1M during his tenure at the MLBPA, while other union leaders such as Billy Hunter (NBAPA) and Gene Upshaw (NFLPA), and even Ted Saskin, were making in excess of $2M. Fehr certainly earned a salary equal to or in excess of his peers, but he never took it. It should also be clear to the membership of the NHLPA that Fehr’s success was earned, not serendipitous, which means it can be recreated.

Personally, I do not think that Fehr’s request for $3M is representative of any financial desire or vanity. He has made his money. Rather, I think he believes that it is the only mechanism to ensure continuity at the NHLPA. With a higher salary (which is contractually guaranteed), the less likely he will be subject to the midnight coups that have felled some of his predecessors. . . .

Americans, brought up playing or watching sports, absorb the notions of fair play not simply as integral themes of sportsmanship on the field, but also as values they try to carry into their everyday lives. In this accessible and fascinating look at law and sports, Roger I. Abrams shines the lights on the uniquely complex and important legal issues that face both amateur and professional athletes. From cases involving Title IX, transgendered athletes, rights of the disabled, violence on the playing field, individual and franchise free-agency, amateurism and college sports, and responsibility of leagues for the safety and lifelong health of injured players, Abrams weaves a profoundly moving and immediately relevant story of ever broadening access to, and expanding rights within, the field of sports.

Abrams illuminates these legal cases through compelling storytelling and personal explorations of those involved, such as Jeremy Bloom, the world champion mogul skier who was barred from playing college football because he had modeled clothes for Tommy Hilfiger, and Casey Martin, Renee Richards, and the young gymnasts from Brown University who sought access to the sports they loved, but found that their quest to achieve justice required judicial intervention. There is also one non-athlete: Al Davis, the renegade owner of the Oakland–Los Angeles–Oakland Raiders, who beat the National Football League cartel using the antitrust laws in his effort to gain the respect he was always denied.

Written for sports fans and legal scholars alike, this is an engrossing and surprising story of people battling for their careers and lives, and in the process changing the very nature of sports and society.

Setting aside the initial issue of whether an all-or-nothing weight clause is even fair, I agree that the use of weight as the deciding factor is less than ideal. What I find interesting is that BMI is probably not any better -- especially in the NBA, where players are far taller than average. Apparently the taller you are, the less accurate BMI becomes:

"the standard Body Mass Index (BMI) is inherently flawed because it assumes that a body's mass increases as the square of the height. Generally mass increases with the cube of the linear dimensions, so a formula using the square will skew to higher BMI's for tall people."

I'm a lawyer, not a scientist, so I can't say how true that is, but it highlights one of the challenges I've found with drafting player contracts, even in this sabermetric era: flawed metrics are often the only ones that can be included in a contract. More accurate measures tend to resemble a pay-for-play situation that neither side has an interest in promoting, thanks to the incentive problems it would create.

I suspect that with Caracter's contract, both sides know that measures other than mere weight would more accurately assess the underlying concern -- whether that's BMI, body fat percentage, or something else -- but weight is the metric that they can get approved under the CBA, so it's what they use.

I think the point is that, whether or not weight is the ideal metric for deciding players generally are in shape, you could certainly come up with an ideal weight, or a reasonable playing weight, for an individual that could be used to judge his conditioning. In other words, the team could be saying that Caracter is in better shape at 275 than whatever he weighed when he signed the deal, so they wanted to entice him to lose weight (or, theoretically, gain some).

More to the point: Your suggestion of BMI is moot, because it measures weight as related to height, so unless we think Caracter is still growing (or shrinking), asking him to make weight is the same thing as setting a certain BMI as a goal.

Eventually, the US Open fight ended with all three participants being led off in handcuffs. They were not actually arrested, but they were banned from attending any tennis matches in Flushing Meadows for three years.

Although they are not in any trouble from the police, the participants are now out to hurt each other in court. The three are filing civil harassment lawsuits against each other, not long after the evidence of their US Open fight hit YouTube.

* * *

Morals clauses went largely unquestioned for decades, even during the McCarthy era, when studios used them to fire writers accused of being Communists. Nearly a century later, morals clauses have become ubiquitous in the sports and entertainment industries, as sponsors continue to use them to alter or sever relationships with errant celebrities they hire to hawk everything from breakfast cereal to razor blades.

* * *

Woods isn't the first celebrity whose personal behavior has landed him crosswise with sponsors, and he's unlikely to be the last. Others recently caught up in their own conduct and who paid varying prices for it include Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, charged in a rape case that was later dismissed; Philadelphia Eagles backup quarterback Michael Vick, convicted and sent to prison for running a dogfighting ring; British supermodel Kate Moss, caught snorting cocaine on camera; and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, also caught on film—hitting a marijuana bong. Nevertheless, Woods' major-league cheating really scratched some raw nerves.

"It's the image of perfection that's not true," says Vermont Law School professor Michael McCann, also a legal analyst for the magazine Sports Illustrated.

Early morals clauses essentially were non-negotiable adhesion terms that left celebrities no wiggle room. But they may have contained as much bark as bite.

"These clauses would be standard, but very little attention was paid to them," says Bridgewater, N.J., practitioner Fernando M. Pinguelo. "Now I'm finding that they're not only negotiated more but being drafted more carefully in favor of the company."

* * *

The presumption of innocent until proven guilty almost has been reversed, and sponsors almost assume something is going to happen," says Cleveland lawyer Peter A. Carfagna, who represents athletes. "And what is disrepute? They want it to be in the eye of the beholder. And they want to be able to cancel the next day, without benefit of a court proceeding."

The more specific the clause, practitioners say, the better off each side comes out. For example, a sponsor may insist on cancellation in the event of any arrest, while a celebrity may try to push the line back to, say, an indictment or conviction for a felony. Noncriminal conduct, such as marital infidelity, is an especially touchy issue.

* * *

To read the rest of this extensive article, click here. This topic was the subject of a symposium at Cardozo Law School in March titled The Tiger Woods Effect: The Uncertain and Turbulent Future of Endorsement Deals, Morals Clauses, and Reverse-Morals Clauses.

Serena Williams was eliminated in the semifinals of last year’s U.S. Open when, having lost the first set and down 5-6 in the second, she was called for a second-serve foot fault that made it match point for Belgium’s Kim Clijsters. Williams’s explosive and profanity-laced protest of the call incurred a mandatory one-point penalty that gave Clijsters the match. Although nobody defended Williams’s outburst, professional commentators and ordinary fans did debate whether a foot fault should have been called, with many maintaining that the sport’s rules should be enforced less strictly given the critical juncture in the match, and others objecting that such a practice would violate what might fairly be described as basic rule of law principles.

Although the ending to the Williams-Clijsters match was unusually dramatic, the question it raises arises frequently in the world of sports. Many fans of basketball, football and hockey, for example, routinely urge the officials to “let ‘em play” or to “swallow the whistles” in crunch time, while other observers wonder how such a practice could possibly be justified.

This essay explores whether it can be. In doing so, it draws on a wealth of popular, legal, and philosophical materials – the common sayings “no harm, no foul” and “it cost us the game”; the material breach doctrine from contract law and tort law’s “lost chance” doctrine; the mystery of objective singular probabilities and the Hartian distinction between duty-imposing and power-conferring rules; and much more. Its ambition is not merely to resolve this single – surprisingly deep and rich puzzle – but to birth a new field of sustained jurisprudential and legal-comparative study: the field of sports and law.