Sports Agent and Sports Lawyer Blog

When a federal judge dismissed Andrew Giuliani’s lawsuit against Duke for kicking him off the golf team, you can be sure that other sports lawyers were paying close attention.

The judge agreed with the magistrate’s decision from last year that teams can set their own regulations for who does and does not play on the team. The bottom line is that the player probably was kicked off the team for performance or off-field reasons, and the decision to cut him was affirmed. It should probably go without saying that coaches can decide who plays on their team.

Still, the opinion seems to contain a small loophole that future players who try to sue can latch on to. I am not suggesting that most players who get cut can or should sue their school. Everyone knows that collegiate sports are about performance; if an athlete is not performing, he will not remain on the tam. However, the Giuliani opinion held that certain statements made by the coach who allegedly recruited Giuliani were not clear enough to constitute a binding legal contract. This may be the key point in the opinion because if a player in a future lawsuit can prove that certain statements and promises were made to him, then he might have a stronger case than Guiliani. The key, as always, is in proving that the statements were made, in addition to proving that they were binding.

It’s baseball season, so that means we need to talk about metal bat injuries once again. In the San Francisco Bay Area, a 16-year-old high school baseball player was in critical condition after being hit in the head by a line drive in a practice.

From the article:

Gunnar Sandberg, 16, a student at Marin Catholic High School, remained in critical condition Tuesday at Marin General Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Kathie Graham. He was removed from a medically induced coma on Friday and underwent a brain scan Monday after doctors “didn’t like what they saw,” said school principal Chris Valdez.

Not surprisingly, the article also points to “renewed concerns about the safety of metal baseball bats” and mentions the Brandon Patch verdict in which the parents of a high school player in Montana were awarded $800,000 after the player was killed by a metal bat from a game.

We have blogged about the safety of metal bats before. This blog entry about a league switching back to wood bats in fact drew the most calls and e-mails from readers. What seems a little unusual about this particular situation is that the school, Marin Catholic, immediately chose to switch to wooden bats for the rest of the season. Is this a wise decision? It probably cannot be quantified in terms of safety – if no one else is critically injured throughout the rest of the season does not mean that the wood bats are automatically safer or that the decision was warranted. At the same time, it does not mean the decision was a poor one either.

Still, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association is taking an aggressive stance, this time choosing to criticize the school for switching to wood bats. As an attorney who represents and advises businesses (in addition to representing individuals), I can understand why the SGMA would need to insist on the metal bat’s safety. It would no doubt be bad for business if the group acknowledged that metal bats raise concern, right? Nevertheless, it seems to me that the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association would probably be better served by offering sympathy to the injured child and his family, and would probably be wise to avoid criticizing the school for its decision to switch to wood bats.

It’s a story we have heard repeated again and again – a mortgage firm catering to pro athletes is in the news and a number of athletes have lost a significant sum of money.

This time the news comes from the Houston Area, where a company called Pro Style Financial apparently invested money on behalf of numerous NFL players, among others. From the article:

McCray joins Italian basketball professional Henry Domercant, former Denver Bronco A. Kyle Johnson, and Dallas Cowboy Jeremiah "Jay" Ratliff as alleged victims — all of whom invested in the trust through their financial agent Pro Style Financial, a financial advisory firm that works with a variety of professional athletes and is the subject of an adversarial lawsuit by Trustee Steven Notinger who is trying to identify and regain some of the assets of the failed mortgage company.

This is yet another cautionary tale. I hate to sound like a preacher, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Just because you’re a professional athlete making millions of dollars a year does not necessarily mean that you have access to investments which work miracles. That’s why pro athletes should always have someone double check and verify the credentials of those with whom they are investing. It is not foolproof, but having a sports lawyer on retainer to conduct due diligence on potential investment opportunities is always a good idea.

Remember when two employees of the Dallas Cowboys were severely injured last year when the team’s practice facility fell apart in a storm? It looks like the lawsuit over who will be held liable is starting to take a turn for the worse.

According to this article, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have alleged that the team knew about the facility’s potential danger of collapsing, but ignored the warnings.

Two summers before the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility collapsed, team officials were scrambling to deal with warnings that the massive tentlike structure was unsafe. Speed was of the essence, given concerns expressed by a building-collapse expert the team had hired and the fact that training camp was starting soon.

The article also makes it sound as though the Cowboys are portraying the plaintiffs as greedy in light of their settlement demand. Any way you view this story, the fact that assistant scout Rich Behm is permanently paralyzed and assistant coach Joe DeCamillis remains injured is a tragedy.

As a sports lawyer, it is also interesting to note that the Cowboys are seeking indemnification from the parties which built the facility. The article is unclear if a separate lawsuit was filed, but if would probably make the plaintiffs' lawyer's job easier if they no longer had to point to an empty chair as a possible responsible party.

Ivory Williams, who ran the fastest time this year in the 60m in the U.S. Indoor Championships last month, has been suspended by the IAAF for testing positive for marijuana. Published reports says that he failed a test last month which was conducted after his race at the championships.

While marijuana is not known to be a performance enhancing drug, this suspension shows how important it is for athletes subject to testing to be wary of what they put in their bodies. It also makes one question the athlete’s judgment. After all, if you know you’re going to be tested following a race, why would you smoke marijuana at any time before the event?

This article notes that Williams’ suspension is to last for three months, although it also contains a confusing reference to a possible two-year ban as well. I expect that we will learn more details over the next few weeks.

We have blogged previously about the safety of sports equipment (such as mouthguards and baseball bats (here and here). Now it is time to take note of a lawsuit underway in Canada regarding the safety of hockey helmets.

The parents of a youth hockey player are suing helmet maker Bauer Hockey Corp, alleging that the helmet did not adequately protect the player against injuries. The article describes Darren More’s injury in this way after crashing into the boards following a hip check:

He was in a coma for six weeks, and remained in hospital four a total of four months. Darren’s injuries included a subdural hematoma, brain swelling and hypoxia.

Darren was unable to graduate high school and cannot seem to function in the manner that he did before the injury.

It is interesting that the plaintiffs have also sued the Canadian Standards Association, which certifies helmets for use. Whether Darren was injured because his helmet was faultily constructed helmet or by a freak accident, here is hoping that this lawsuit resolves the issue and compensates the family if the helmet maker or standards board was derelict in its duties. While Darren's situation is nothing short of tragic, if it leads to changes in the way helmets are designed, it would be a positive legacy for the future

A television broadcaster is suing Anaheim Ducks General Manager Bob Murray for assault and battery, accusing the GM of being emotionally unstable, having a “propensity to violence” and showing a “history of aggressive and violent behavior.”

Rachel Paris was apparently hit by a chair thrown by Murray during the Stanley Cup Playoffs while the Ducks were playing the Red Wings in Detroit last May. She was involved in coordinating the broadcast, which meant that she was sitting close by Murray. She filed a lawsuit against Murray and his employer for her injuries.

The interesting thing about this lawsuit is not that it also names the Ducks as a defendant, but it is the legal theory asserted against the team. Count III of the lawsuit accuses the hockey team of negligence. The allegations made in the complaint are extreme. First, the plaintiff alleges that the Ducks had a duty to ensure that their employees were “reasonably and emotionally stable.” Second, they had a duty to ensure that their employees “did not have a propensity to violence” and that their employees “with a history of aggressive and violent behavior were properly supervised.” Next, they are alleged to have violated their duty to “have known of the propensity of violence” of Murray and to have known about “Bob Murray’s violent and aggressive nature.”

The assault and battery counts are not necessarily surprising. Even the intentional infliction of emotional distress count is not surprising. These are standard allegations in such a lawsuit. Bringing a negligence claim also is not a big shock, but the surprise is that the plaintiff has apparently set an enormous hurdle to prove negligence. She will have to prove Bob Murray’s emotional instability; show his “propensity of violence” and prove that he had a “history of aggressive and violent behavior.”

I do not know if Murray has a temper or a violent history. He spent 15 years playing for the Chicago Blackhawks, so we can assume he got into a few fights over the years, but that is not an apt comparison. As a lawyer I think it may have made more sense to allege simple negligence against Murray himself rather than making such extreme allegations against the team. Having to prove his history of violence will probably not be an easy task.

A New Jersey Court has ruled in favor of a minor league baseball team in a lawsuit brought by a fan who was injured while participating in a three-legged race.

Daniel Duncan, who weighed about 340 pounds at the time of the injury, was at a Somerset Patriots game with his wife and son on August 5, 2006. He registered for one of the between-innings promotions and his name was called. At the registration area, team employees answered fan questions about the events, but Duncan chose not to ask anyone about the three-legged race, which the team called the “Monmouth Park Horse Race.”

Duncan thought he was participating in a race in which the fans carried flags around the field in a pretend “race.” That’s how the race used to be run. Instead, he was actually signed up for a three-legged race, which was the format since the start of the 2006 season.

When Duncan and the others got down to field level, a team staffer explained the race details and asked if there were any questions. Again, Duncan, apparently now aware that the race was not what he thought, did not ask questions and did not back out of participation. Obviously, he was not coerced into participating.

To make a long story short, Duncan slipped and hurt his foot after being paired with someone who was about half his weight. The grass was dry, although everyone acknowledged that the groundskeeper sprayed the field before the game. No one else fell.

The court’s analysis turned on the issue of the duty owed by the team to the fan, who was an “invitee” meaning he was invited onto the premises. In lay terms, it is similar to the duty you owe to someone who you invite into your house – you have to generally make sure that the house is safe from any foreseeable injuries. The court found that the team could not be liable because the plaintiff could not claim ignorance as to the risks:

Any risks inherent in a three-legged race were not something known to the proprietor but unknown to the participant. … Further, walking or running on grass is a common experience, and the risk of doing so with any particular kind of footwear is known equally by the participant and the property owner.

It sounds to me like the team did everything right. Had Duncan been chosen at random and if the race’s details were not explained, or if the ground had been soaked, the decision may have gone the other way.

John Daly had an interesting week after learning that he lost his libel lawsuit against a Jacksonville newspaper. Then things really got interesting.

On Tuesday, his lawsuit against the Jacksonville Times-Union newspaper came to an end when the judge granted summary judgment for the newspaper. The court found that there was no “actual malice” and that the offending column contained inactionable opinion statements by columnist Mike Freeman.

Daly had attacked three phrases in the column, which described his troubled personal life in unflattering terms. The objectionable portions included mention of domestic-violence accusations, comparison to basketball player Shawn Kemp because of his children from different women and discussion of Daly’s “Thug Life qualifications” and “rap sheet.” Freeman compared him to former Jaguar R. Jay Soward, who had a well-known drug problem. Carithers found the domestic-violence portion of the column was true. The comparisons to Kemp and Soward and the Thug Life statement weren’t actionable because they were the columnist’s opinion, the judge said.

Next, Daly allegedly Tweeted about the story, asking his fans to call and criticize the newspaper reporter.

Daly late Tuesday night posted the cell phone number of the Times-Union’s Garry Smits on two of his three Twitter posts, writing in one of them, “here’s the JERK who writes NON-NEWS article ... CALL & FLOOD his line & let’s tell him how we feel.” Smits said he received nearly 100 calls.

That is an interesting reaction to losing a lawsuit. Now the Golf Writers Association of American has asked the PGA Tour to suspend Daly for his conduct. Somehow, I doubt Daly would be too upset given his immense popularity despite his golf game, which has been middling at best since his last victory in 2004.

Athletes contact me almost every day to ask how they can procure sports endorsements to further their career. I have been contacted by athletes ranging from established professionals who have lost their sponsorships for various reasons to novices who have not yet embarked on their career because they need funding to pursue their sport.

Oftentimes I am surprised that these athletes believe that all they need is an agent and the sponsorship money will automatically follow. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near that simple. As this article says, even Olympic medal winning athletes from Vancouver are going to struggle to find endorsements.

But the vast majority of Olympic athletes — even those who won medals — will have a harder time cashing in on their appearances at the Games. Winter sports like speedskating and bobsledding will all but disappear from the airwaves and, for many Americans, interest in them will not grow again until the next Winter Olympics in 2014.

If Olympic medal winners are struggling, that is an indicator that everyone else is strugglin as well. Companies are cutting back. Businesses are frugal with their dollars. While athletic sponsorships may be returning according to some published reports, it is still difficult to find money. I am not suggesting that it is impossible or that athletes should give up their dreams. Instead, I just want athletes to be realistic in their goals. Companies carefully scrutinize the athletes they endorse, and they have limited budgets. Unfortunately, it is not quite as simple as making on phone call to an agent, and then procuring sponsorships!

Sports agents can be easy targets sometimes, because the bad apples in the industry get an undue amount of attention. Sometimes, however, people go too far in impugning sports agent.

See if you can follow this saga of a potential problem with a sports agency. A major league ballplayer fires his agent. The cops are investigating a former employee of the agency for stealing money from the player. Somehow, a sports writer links this alleged theft with an entirely separate lawsuit filed against this sports agency.

Got all that? Me neither. Let’s see if we can sort out this scenario and figure out the preposterous implication made by this sports writer, a former lawyer who usually does outstanding work in my opinion. Last month, Angels first baseman Kendry Morales fired Hendricks Sports Management. Last week, the news was reported that an employee of Hendricks is being investigated by Coral Springs police for the disappearance of more than $300,000 from Morales’ bank account. Sounds like a fiasco, right? Clearly, the authorities will sort out whether money was stolen, and if it was, the responsible parties will face criminal charges.

The next part is what makes no sense. In December, heralded Cuban prospect Aroldis Chapman switched agents from a relative unknown to Hendricks. He then signed a 10-year, $30.25 million contract with the Cincinnati Reds. His former agent, the relatively unknown Athletes Premier International, sued Hendricks as a result of Chapman’s switch. Somehow, the writer links Chapman's choice to retain Hendricks with the alleged criminal actions by a Hendricks employee.

I cannot figure out what the alleged criminal activity by the apparently rogue employee has to do with Chapman’s switch. A Hendricks employee allegedly stole money from a client. A player switched from another agent to Hendricks, spurring a lawsuit from the old agent. How are these things an indication that a player should not sign with Hendricks. The Hendricks brothers have been around for decades so they do not need this blog to defend them, but it seems to me that their name is being unnecessarily dragged through the mud.