The Area of Civil/Tort

USA-- Today  Sept. 11, 2008

Sport's

Rookies fined, not suspended, by NBA

The NBA fined rookies and former Kansas teammates Darrel Arthur and Mario Chalmers $20,000 a piece Wednesday, but they won't be suspended after last week's banishment from the legu's symposum for new players for rules violations.  Security at the resort near Nwe York City where the event took place found Arthur and Chalmers in a room with two women, and the scent of marijuana was detected.  No drugs or drug paraphernalia were found, but having guests violated NBA policy, and Chalmers, a second-round pick of the Miami Heat, apologized but denied using marijuana.  They must attend the symposium next year.

Favre has no definite plans to apply for reinstatement: July 17, 2008

     If Brett Favre is really going to force a showdown with the Green Bay Packers, it won't happen right away, his agent told ESPN's Chris Mortensen. "We have no definite plans to ask for reinstatement, "Favre's agent, James "Bus" Cook, said of the former Packers quarterback, who has asked the team for his release. "Right now we have until the sixth week [of the regular season] and Brett has made it pretty clear that he is not willing to come in as a backup. "If he asks for reinstatement and they start fining him $15,000 a day [for not reporting to training camp], well that just doesn't make sense, "Cook said. "We're going to let Green Bay decide what they want to do. It's their move. Reached by the Associated Press on Wednesday evening, Packers spokesman Jeff Blumb indicated no response was forthcoming from the team. Packers GM Ted Thompson has said the PAckers do not plan to grant Favre, who announced his retirement in March, his release. And while Thompson said Favre could return to the Packers if he applies to the league foro reinstatement, it would be "in a different role than he was" because the team has committed to backup Aaron Rodgers as its quarterback of the future. Meanwhile, ESPN.com has confirmed that the Packers have filed tampering charges with the NFL against the Minnesota Vikings, alleging "inappropriate dialogue" with offensive coordinator Darell Bevell, a close friend of Favre's and a former Packers assistant. The Vikings, according to a source, are expected to contend Bevell may have had conversations with Favre as a friend but had no involvemnet in discussing a job with the Vikings. Vikings coach Brad Childress has said in recent days the franchise is content with Tarvaris Jackson as their starting quarterback. What the Packers conted is that Favre and Bevell may have discussed Favre coming to the Vikings. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league had no comment on the report. Thompson declined comment on tamering rumors in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday. Foxsports.com first reported the tampering charges. Favre in Los Angeles for Wednesday night's tapin of the ESPY Awards. Host Justin Timberlake zeroed in on Favre sitting in the audience with his wife, Denna.

Special Report

Nascar's Highest-Earning Drivers

Peter J. Schwartz 01-11-08, 6:00p.m. ET, Forbes Magazine

The top-earning NASCAR drivers make more money off the racetrack than on it.  Jeff Gordon, the sport's all-time leading money winner, made $32 million over the last year; $17 million came from endorsements and royalties on merchandise, and $15 million came from his salary and race winnings.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., the second-highest earner at $31 million, made $21 million from licensing and endorsement income from the likes of PepsiCo(nyse:  PEP-news -people), Anheuser-Busch (nyse:  BUD-news-people) and Adidas (other-otc:  ADDDY.PK-news-people).  Earnhardt's passionate following, which has it's origins in his famous father's career, has translated into an abundance of riches despite his declining performance (he won six Sprint Cup races in 2004 but only two since).

In Pictures:  NASCAR's Highest-Earning Drivers

Sponsors are so eager to associate their brand with the most popular drivers that they're willing to invest millions in short-term deals even though their brand names are oftern blurred at 200 miles-per-hour.  Example:  In April, Subway restaruants agreed to pay race team Joe Gibbs Racing an estimated $4 million to be the primary sponsor of Tony Stewart's car for only three races this season.  Of that sum, Stewart will personally pocket $700,000

Drivers have also boostd their earnings by negotiating guarantees in their contracts taht call for owners to make up the shortfall if a driver fails to earn a predetermined amount from race winnings, endorsements and merchandise royalties.  Such agreements assure Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin $10 million a year, regardless of whether they ever reach the winner's circle.

Other drivers have ventured into direct ownership.  Gordon, in addition to being Hendrick Motorsport's highest-paid driver, is a minority woner of teammate Jimmie Johnson's car as well as his own.  Kevin Harvick owns Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Seires teams, though due to escalating costs, turning a profit in NASCAR's minor leagues has been difficult as of late.  Tony Stewart recognized hsi challenge and ventured outside of NASCAR, invessting in a lower-tier, open-wheel racing team that earned him an estimated $300,000 in the last year.

Then there's Juan Pablo Montoya, who in exchange for one of NASCAR's highest annual salaries--estimated at $6 million last season--retains few rights over his comerical sponsorghip program.  Instead, his team, Chip Ganassi Racing, reaps the lion's share of endorsement revenue generated by Montoya, who has a wide international following from his years competing on the Fomula 1 circuit.  Ganassi is leading NASCAR's push to go global, aggressively pursuing sponsorghip deals in South America, china and Dubai; a far cry from a decade ago, when the sport was almost exclusively popular in the American South.

Prize money and TV go hand-in-hand.  In a given race, the driver's purse is primarily fueled by 25% of broadcast rights fees and contributions by racetrack owners (which are made possible by their 60% cut of TV revenue).  Last season marked the tart of NASAR's new eight-year TV deals with four networks, ushering in a golden age for driver's paychecks.  The networks will pay an average of $560 million a year--including $47 million form Fox for the Daytona 500--a 21% increase from prior agreements.

Pro Football

NFL's Rough Draft?

Tom Van Riper, 04.25.08, 11:30p.m. ET, Forbes Magazine

How does a sport's aagency talk up one of it's clients without inherently talking down another?

That's what NFL gurus following every move in the April 26 draft are wondering.  Their point:  consolidation of sport's agencies, resulting in more top picks being represented by fewer industry rep houses, tempts them to play one client against another in negotiations.

In Pictures:  The Biggest Draft Flops Of The Past 25 Years

"There's a conflict of interest at the top of the draft, "says Scott Wright, a longtime draft follower who runs the website www.drafthistory.com.

Wright's ire is focused on CAA Sport's, which represents three players projected to gon in the top eight or nine picks.  Michigan offensive linemant Jake Long, Ohio State defensive end Vernon Gholston and Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan are all CAA clients.

CAA Sport's is the sport's agency unit of Creative Artists Association, the entertainment industry talent rep firm that brought high-powered sport's agent Tom  Condon and his crew into its fold in 2006.

But an analysis of the numbers by Forbes.com found no pattern of rising disparity among first-round salaries and bonuses has emerged yet.  Historically, the annual income growht for blue chippers has benefited everyone--high, middle or lower fort-round picks--pretty equally.

Last year's top five picks--LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell, Georgia Tech receiver Calvin HJohnson, Wisconsin tackle Joe Thomas, Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams and Penn State tackle Levi Brown--took just under a third of last year's rookie money, while the top 10 picks accounted for half.  Those breakdowns are in line with those in 2000, when the top fice picks took home 32% of the money; the top 10 picks took 51%.

That doesn't mean things aren't changing.  The consistency has most likely been a result of a diverse group of sport's agencies ech fighting for their clients.  That model could fade if agency consolidaton continues.  According to the NFL Players Association, 23 separate agencies  representing the 32 players projected to go in the first round by Scouts, Inc.  CAA Football has five players, while Roanoke, Ind.-based Maximum Sport's Management has four.

Experts believe the rebuilding Dolphins, coming a 1-15 season and needing help on both sides of the ball, were considering both Long Gholston as their top choice.  Assuming that's the case, "you need an agent for Gholston who will disrupt discussions between the Dolphins and Long, " says Mike Florio, who runs the website www.profootballtalk.com and also provides draft expertise for The Sporting News.  In other words, selling the Dolphins on Long can't help but be at the expense of Gholston.  CAA did not return phone calls.

Most agents have begun recusing themselves from representing more than one player at the same position, Florio points out, to avoid those very types of conflicts.

The sport's legal breakdown is separated into three parts.  Laws that describe contracts, general laws taht apply, and the prospective liability of tort for the spectators.  The franchises that govern amateurs are dictative over their published rules & regulations.  Any athlete interested in amateur sport's must abide by the federal and state laws.  The state must exhibit by the federal and state laws.  The state must exhibit equal protection for participation in any sport.  In addition an athlete must be granted due process.  The Amateur athletes proghibit no transfer rules, no agent rules, and upstanding academic records.  Sport's Law also entails endorsements.  People who lend their names to products for compensation.  The goal is to persuade a consumer of the value of their product based endorser's statement regarding benefits.  The two categories in professional sport's are the athletes and their agents.  Legal rights are tentatively responsibilities of persons described in terms of contracts and owners of persons described in terms of contracts and owners of the teams.  Contracts that are signed by athletes are mostly employment agreements that describe their athletic skills for the privilege of the respective teams they are contracted with.  Next, are league rights that reserve that teams are delegated by a commissioner.  Most contracts require a copy be filed with the league.  However, some contracts offer clauses or options giving one party the contract right to renew at a specified term.  Collective bargaining simply asserts that a player's contract can be altered by the League.  This simply summarizes that my goals are multi-oriented being that a fiduciary is to represent athletes entering into contracts.