NASCAR was about at its peak in 2008. It had some of the highest television ratings it had ever received and track attendance was skyrocketing. Behind the scenes, the series’ public relations team was preoccupied with jingoistic complaints from its most vocal shitheads about national anthems, Confederate flags,…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled today in Blackhorse v. Pro-Football Inc., a suit brought by a group of Native Americans seeking to have the Washington Redskins' trademarks canceled on the grounds that the name is disparaging. The plaintiffs achieved a major victory:…
Yesterday, the Florida Bar formally filed ethics charges against Maria Elena Perez, the attorney who represented booster Nevin Shapiro and helped the NCAA illegally obtain evidence against the University of Miami. Perez is accused of 15 separate violations of Bar rules, in providing help for the investigation that…
A lawsuit accuses the Giants of creating fake "game-worn" memorabilia and pushing it on collectors in an attempt to make money—and in Eli Manning's case, to hang on to the authentic stuff.
The NCAA's biggest and most bruited argument against compensating players is that athletics programs couldn't take on the additional burden of player salaries without going bankrupt. The argument has a certain appeal to a certain kind of fan, the one who thinks sports took a turn for the worse at roughly half-past…
Below you can read Alex Rodriguez's full suit against both Major League Baseball and the players' union. Filed in a New York district court today, it seeks to overturn the arbitration panel's ruling that imposed a 162-game suspension, keeping Rodriguez out of baseball for all of the 2014 season.
In what is surely a distant second in sexiness among today's baseball lawsuits, Albert Pujols is suing former radio host Jack Clark for claiming he knew "for a fact" that Pujols used steroids in St. Louis.
Late last night, Alex Rodriguez filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court, accusing MLB and Bud Selig (specifically named as a defendant) of, and I'm quoting, "improperly marshal[ing] evidence that they hope to use to destroy the reputation and career of Alex Rodriguez, one of the most accomplished Major League…
Tuesday, we brought you a 2007 confidentiality agreement between then-rookie J.J. Redick and model ex-girlfriend Vanessa Lopez, a bizarre contract that stipulated Redick would have to fake his relationship with Lopez in exchange for her getting an abortion. Today we've obtained more emails and documents showing the…
Congratulations! It's your first day working for Major League Baseball. You probably grew up a huge baseball fan, and while this isn't as good as actually playing, you're about to embark on a fun and rewarding career with MLB. But first, there's something you need to read and sign.
MLB executives and owners feared Marvin Miller, but they weren't the first. FBI documents reveal that the federal government, at the height of the Red Scare, undertook an embarrassingly extensive investigation into Miller's liberalism to determine whether or not he was a loyal citizen of the United States.
Earlier this week, Mike Tyson canceled the remaining dates of his touring one-man show. You could assume (and still can) that lagging ticket sales played a role, but this might be bigger: Tyson is suing promoter Live Nation and its financial services firm, claiming his financial advisor embezzled money from him and…
Oh Australia. We remember when America was innocent and naive like you. There was a time when we too would have been shocked by a lengthy and damning investigation revealing that the use of performance enhancing drugs is "widespread," that PEDs are now "widely available," and that athletes, coaches, and doctors across…
Yesterday we passed along the news that Fred Smoot, the former cornerback best known for inserting a double-ended dildo into two prostitutes on a Vikings sex cruise, was arrested last month in Washington for a DUI. Among the information in the police affidavit: Smoot urinated down his pants leg while being processed…
There's no love lost between Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong, two of America's greatest cyclists with a combined zero Tour de France wins between them. After Landis was nailed for synthetic testosterone use and stripped of his trophies, he turned informer—he made public claims about Armstrong's and the USPS team's…
College sports are big business, but just how big? In the SEC, on average, schools spend 12 times as much per individual athlete as they do per individual student. Not on the athletes, of course, just around them. There are priorities here. And for most schools, athletic revenue doesn't come close to covering these…
"There are no signs of abuse," Washington State University athletic director Bill Moos told reporters last month, after the school had concluded an internal investigation into claims that football coach Mike Leach and his staff had mistreated players in his debut season there. Based on interviews with a dozen football…
We've examined the difficulties faced by first-year athletic director Jeff Hammond, who inherited a multi-million-dollar budget deficit when he took over at Southern Miss. Complicating matters was the performance of the team, which went 0-12 under new head coach Ellis Johnson. Johnson had been hired under lame-duck AD…
Last month, we took a look at the University of Southern Mississippi football program and its athletic director, Jeff Hammond, who a year ago inherited a coach he never wanted and a multi-million-dollar athletic department deficit he had to fix. Last month, he addressed the former by firing coach Ellis Johnson after…
Washington State University announced today that an internal review had cleared football coach Mike Leach and his staff of any misconduct. Last month, star wide receiver Marquess Wilson was suspended for violating team rules, after which he quit the team and released a public letter alleging that coaches had abused…
