Will the Rams Owe Fans $50 Million for Moving to LA?

The Rams move from St. Louis to Los Angeles spread waves across the football community. Not only was L.A opening its doors to football again, but St. Louis is losing a team that was a staple of the city. Thirty of 32 National Football League teams approved the plan of Rams owner Stan Kroenke to move. Kroenke plans to move the site to Inglewood California, ten miles from downtown Los Angeles, to a Hollywood Park racetrack. This is a $1.8 billion project, and $550 million …

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Well-Known Litigation Attorney Joins NHLPA Amid Pending Concussion and Player Discipline Litigation

In an NHLPA press release on July 29, 2016 the Player’s Union announced that longtime complex commercial litigation attorney Bruce S. Meyer is their new senior director of collective bargaining. The move will take place in mid-August and he is expected to get to work on the policy and legal aspects of the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations.

Meyer, an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University School of Law is considered an expert in International Sports Law and Business. As a partner at …

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Teams Violating NFL Concussion Protocol Face Harsher Fines

The National Football League (NFL) and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) have agreed to a new concussion protocol. On Monday, July 25, 2016, the NFL released a new Game Day Concussion Protocol policy. New policies focus on the investigation of incidents and punishment of teams that are deemed to be in violation of the protocol.

The NFL has recently faced heavy criticism regarding its response to the dangers of head trauma. The claims focus on the league’s slow response to addressing injuries from repeated head …

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Ex-NFL Player Requests NFL Pay Attorneys’ Fees

A retired football player is asking the Maryland court to order the National Football League to pay his legal costs after years of battling over disability benefits. In the long sought battle, he currently owes his attorneys $225,312 in attorneys’ fees and $3,098 in filing costs. The player argues his disability benefits case meets the merit test applied by the Fourth Circuit and his fees are reasonable.

Jesse Solomon played has a linebacker in the NFL for nine years. The Vikings drafted him in …

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Academic Scandal Continues; UNC Denies Most Serious Charges Alleged by the NCAA

It has been more than a year since the NCAA brought charges against the University of  North Carolina after an investigation revealed that athlete students were enrolled in improper courses to receive high grades so they could keep playing sports and avoid suspensions. Although the NCAA removed men’s basketball and football programs from the charges in the spring, this only heightened the scandal against UNC’s women’s basketball program.

The scandal started with allegations that the University’s student athletes’ academic support staff allowed athletes to enroll …

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NHL Commissioner Bettman Argues There’s No Evidence Supporting Link Between Hockey and Brain Trauma

On July 25, 2016, a letter by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was filed in the multi-district litigation over concussions in hockey dismissing the link between hockey related head injuries and long-term brain conditions. In this letter, he reiterated a similar infamous stance previously made by the NFL that there is no definitive connection between the two and their league has done everything in their power to keep its players safe.

Recently, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), a ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection …

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Disney Company to Blame for Star Wars Star Injury on Set

On July 26, 2016, a Disney subsidiary responsible for the filming of the new Star Wars trilogy pleaded guilty to two criminal charges in British Court. The company claimed responsibility for “failing to ensure safety and failing to keep Ford and other actors away from hazardous situations.” Foodles Productions, named to avoid fan attention during filming of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, plead guilty for the workplace safety breaches at Pinewood Studio two years after the injury of an actor on set.

In June 2014, …

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Daily Fantasy Company Continues to Attempt to Skirt Sponsorship Payment and Subsequent Sanctions

In the continuing saga over a sponsorship contract for the Xcel Energy Center, home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, online daily fantasy company Emil Interactive Games LLC made yet another attempt to avoid paying. Previously, the Wild brought suit for breach of contract over $1.1 million in unpaid sponsorship fees to which Emil Interactive tried profusely to shield itself from paying by challenging the legality of its own business. As a result, the Wild called for sanctions against Emil Interactive for meritless and prolonged …

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Late Night Host Stephen Colbert Dances Around IP Issue Over His Own Exaggerated Persona

CBS’s “The Late Show” opted to go live at the conclusion of each day of the Republican National Convention two weeks ago to better respond to the fodder the RNC provides. During one of the shows, host Stephen Colbert brought back his beloved fictional “Colbert” character from his immensely popular “The Colbert Report.” The character was retired after the show ended on Comedy Central and hasn’t been seen for more than a year as the real Stephen Colbert forged his own identity. However, it appears …

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Redskins: Trademark Cancellation Worse than Initial Denial

The Washington Redskins are entangled in a trademark battle over its name and is urging the Supreme Court to hear its case. The football team disagrees about the offensiveness of the name and contests the constitutionality of Section 2 (a) of the Lanham Act which bans trademarks that are “disparaging.” Under the act, the government cancelled the Redskins trademarks after 23 years.

The Lanham Act was also the basis for the government’s refusal to register the trademark of the Asian-American rock band the “Slants.” However, …

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