Tag Archives: labor law

Each week The Sports Esquires keep track of the sports law headlines so you don’t have to. In this week’s edition: MLS CBA negotiations continue, the UNC academic scandal gets worse, and Adrian Peterson’s suspension is overturned.

As Spring Training approaches another high profile free agent – Kansas City Royals pitcher James Shields – finds himself without a contract. Whether Shields has fallen victim to his age (33) or failure to live up to his “Big Game” James moniker there is no doubt that the Qualifying Offer made by the Kansas City Royals has affected his status on the open market.

Each week The Sports Esquires keep track of the sports law headlines, so you don’t have to. The NFL season may be over, but the league’s sports law issues are not. Enjoy our post-Super Bowl edition of Sports Law Links.

Here’s the thing about the Peterson situation: the only place he’s been convicted is in the Court of Public Opinion. In its rush to serve up its own form of vigilante pseudo-justice in the wake of intense media and public scrutiny, the Vikings and the NFL seem to have forgotten one of the basic tenets of the legal system: it’s better to be right, than first.

What is the Commissioner's Exemption List? Why have you never heard of it before? Why is it being used to distance the NFL from player's accused of domestic violence?

On Wednesday, September 10, 2014, Leigh Castergine filed a complaint against the New York Mets and Jeffrey Wilpon in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York claiming Wilpon and the Mets discriminated against her on the basis of sex, pregnancy, and familial status. This news was essentially buried under a news day involving new Ray Rice video footage and talking heads trying to determine whether or not Danny Ferry is just a little bit racist or racist enough to be fired for his comments regarding Luol Deng. This article will attempt to shed more light on an intriguing news story which was essentially skipped over.

The entire situation involving Ray Rice is extremely sad. In the last 72 hours, everyone – and I do mean everyone – has asked if the Ravens and the NFL saw TMZ’s video of the incident inside the elevator prior to its public release. That’s the wrong question. The right question is – What did the Ravens and the NFL expect to see? The way the League handled – or mishandled if you prefer – the Ray Rice situation is Exhibit A for the problems with the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy. Everything about the Ray Rice situation has been upsetting, but hopefully this negative can be transformed into a positive by addressing the endemic issue of domestic violence.

Much has been written about the indefinite suspension of Ray Rice, including calls for Roger Goodell to resign or be fired. But few if any articles have taken the time to explain what exactly happened and what could happen from a legal standpoint. The vast majority of the conversation about the suspension has focused on righteous finger-wagging at the NFL, Roger Goodell, and the Ravens. While each of those parties deserves their fair share of scorn, there is an opportunity to learn, grow and move forward that is being missed.

Cheerleaders for five NFL teams have filed suit in the last year alleging violations of state and federal minimum wage laws. Do they have a case? What will they need to prove in order to receive back pay and even liquidated damages?

The biggest news yesterday in the sports law world was of course that Northwestern’s Kain Colter is seeking to unionize his fellow members of the Wildcat football team. While this is certainly a big deal, it is a long way from coming to fruition and is fraught with obstacles that must be overcome. Moreover, unionizing college athletes will also open a pandora’s box of secondary issues that will have to be addressed. Tax-exemptions, Title-IX, the O’Bannon antitrust suit, and a slew of other issues will have to be addressed if the landscape of collegiate-athletics is overhauled by unionizing the players.