This past week I had the opportunity to attend the Aspen Institute’s forum entitled: “The Future of College Sports: The Government’s Role in Athlete’s Pay.”

NCAA President Mark Emmert and a wide variety of stakeholders were present. The challenge for Emmert is the rapidly decreasing strength of the NCAA and the speed at which the NCAA’s credibility is evaporating.

You can read the full coverage that I wrote for the Sports Philanthropy Network here:

NCAA Under Full Attack at Aspen Institute Forum

JT Foxx held his MegaSpeaker series in Chicago this week. 

JT Foxx bills himself as the World’s #1 Wealth Coach. 

I first went to one of his events about 15 months ago.  At the outset he can come across as arrogant and condescending.  After you have a chance to listen to him for several hours and hear the way he engages with participants and hear from those that have attended multiple events, you realize how much depth there is to his systems. 

He has built a terrific team led by Francie Baldwin and by Brent Turley.  Brent always opens for him, much in the way that Joseph McClendon frequently opens for Tony Robbins.  He bills his presentations as a way to help people get speaking opportunities, but the reality is that the events are so much more.  He helps them focus on getting a mentor, branding and being decisive in their decision making as a way to get better results in their business. 

If you have a chance to attend one of his events, you can feel the energy and passion he has.  Despite his critics, he is an extremely hard worker and travels around the world speaking and putting on events.  Typically over 320 days per year!! His upcoming MegaSpeaker event has 2000-3000 people in Anaheim and attracts high level entrepreneurs from across the globe.  If you can handle a bit of the schtick, you might get a lot of benefit out of it.

Here are just a few of the highlights. If you want more details, please let me know and I am happy to share more information with you.

• Make Quick Decisions. One of JT’s ongoing themes, is the importance of making quick decisions.  Brent Turley focused on the speed of the decision and making sure you satisfy one the 3 reasons people buy: 1) to make their life easier; 2) make life more convenient; or 3) a need.  When you are trying to make a decision, you should write down:
  • Best case scenario
  • Worst case scenario
  • Most realistic scenario (usually somewhere in between)
  • Then most importantly, make a decision within 5 seconds, otherwise you over-rationalize the decision.
• Keep your word. To me, one of the most interest facts in the entire presentation, was the fact that 1531 people signed up for the free one day event.  Of those, only 112 people showed up.  This speaks to a few facts: 1) not charging makes it very difficult to determine how any people will come;  2) people really do not live up to their commitments.
• 5 Steps to Success
  • Step 1—Maximize Your Strengths
  • Step 2—Turn Your Weaknesses into Strengths
  • Step 3—Mental Toughness which is the ability to tune out liefes bs and go out there and do your thing
  • Step 4—Learn from your failures, be bothered by them and most important never repeat them
  • Step 5—Replace Yourself and Stop Working in Your Business but Work On. Build an organization
    • Recognize if it is just you, you can never effectively increase your prices.
• The importance of note-taking.  He has never seen a successful person that does not take notes. Very few people can remember everything. He also finds it disrespectful if you are not listening to what is going on.  The other occurrence  is that people who don’t take notes often say they didn’t learn anything
• Big 5 traits.
  • Persistance
  • Work Ethic
  • Commitment
  • Loyalty
  • Attitude
• Making Everybody Happy.
  • 25% of the people like you
  • 25% are looking for a way not to like you
  • 25% don’t like you but are looking for a way to like you
  • 25% will never like you no matter what
• Objections
  • Bring them up early. If you know people will find some objection to you or your service, bring it up early and overcome it.  This takes the air out of the objection and allows you to position yourself as having been up front.
• SELLING THE VISION
  • Pitch the WHY
  • Sell the WHAT
  • Close the HOW
  • Use the “imagine” close

After decades of serving as the leader of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, and in many fashions, the whole Ramah movement, Rabbi David Soloff was celebrated by over 500 people at Beth El at North Suburban in Highland Park, Illinois.

It was great to see so many familiar faces, including those much older and younger. Remember, when you are in Nivonim, the little pishers in Solelim hardly warrant a second glance. But once we all hit our 40’s and 50’s, that five year age gap is barely relevant.

Sadly, my aidah of Nivo 1981 didn’t even have 10 people in attendance but we still had fun reminiscing about some of the activities from the years at Camp.

But hearing the accolades for Rabbi Soloff from far and wide, it became apparent what a powerful force he was in raising the next generation of Jews, not only in Chicago, but really across the entire United States and also in Israel. His vision led the way to create programs that would grow with the times and would adapt to the changing requirements of the summer camp movements.

When I was at Ramah from 1979 to 1981, you were required to be there for the entire eight weeks. There were no other options. I went back to staff for three summers for Camp CHUSY, but those one week experiences, as great as they were, did not have the depth of a full Ramah summer experience.

One of the stories that resonated with me the most was my former Rosh Aidah Jeff Kopin telling the story of how Rabbi Soloff was stranded in Champaign, Illinois by a storm. He spent the evening at the college apartment of Kopin and a few of his chevre and told them that he had already identified them as the leaders of the next generation of young Jews.

One consistent theme throughout the evening was how energetic Rabbi Soloff was and how little he slept. If you have ever spent a week at summer camp, you know how much energy goes into it. So to be able to keep that pace up for 8 or 9 weeks and being the leader of everything going on throughout the compound, that energy is even more impressive.

Congratulations to Rabbi Soloff on his retirement, but for those of us that know him, that means he will probably just be cutting back to about 30 hours per week.

Rabbi, thank you for everything you have done for the Ramah community, the Chicago community and the Jewish community. We were lucky to have your leadership for such a long period of time.

As a business professional who has worked in the areas of law, sports, real estate, finance and entrepreneurship, communication is the lifeblood of everything that I do.  Keeping clients up to date, keeping business associates and partners connected to the deal and making sure that vendors perform their services on time all require extensive communication.  Networking to find more business and reaching out to prospects require coordinated communication.

People spend much of their day on email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media.  When they are not on social media, they are busy talking on their phone or sending text messages.

So you would think with all of this experience and all of this practice that we would be good communicators.  Unfortunately, especially for those of us that like to communicate, this is not true.  Most people are very poor communicators, or at minimum, they are reluctant communicators.

When I leave someone a voicemail, send an email or send a text message, I do expect a response.  I am not talking about cold calls or sales calls.  I am talking about calls and messages to friends, business colleagues, vendors and even to businesses from whom I am trying to purchase products/services.

It continually shocks me that I can send an email inquiry to a business about a product or service that I need and not receive a response.  I am not talking about an autoresponder.  I am talking about a legitimate response.  Some companies have enough systems in place that their autoresponders can basically deal with the inquiry, but in the last several months I have seen small businesses not even bother to answer an email inquiry for two weeks.  REALLY?  Fourteen days?  I don’t think that these businesses are so flooded with inquiries or work that they don’t need to bother.

Yet the business side probably bothers me less than the personal side.  If you don’t respond to clients, customers and employees, sooner or later (and probably sooner), your business is going to struggle.

But when a friend contacts me, I may not always respond immediately, but I always respond.  I cannot imagine not responding.  I do my very best to respond to all of it within 24 hours.  I don’t always live up to that ideal, but it is extremely rare for an email or text to go unanswered beyond that time. Phone calls sometimes can take longer to coordinate or schedule or fit in between other things.  But I know that if I am not going to be able to phone, that I should at minimum, get a text message or email to let the person know that they haven’t been forgotten. 

So what is the solution? I honestly don’t know.  I am not looking to cut off all relationships from the communication slackers.  But it does give me a pause for concern about engaging in any business with these people and on the personal side it definitely impacts how close I feel to someone.  If you can’t even be bother to return a call, email or text, then how badly do you really want me in your life?  The answer? Not much at all.

So I have made a decision to focus more of my time and effort on those who respond.  I am tired of chasing people (work and personal).

Just remember, I am here for you and I will still be your friend.  But I am done chasing.

Wow.  I rarely say that in response to anything on TV these days (unless it was the replacement officials’ absurd call in the Packers-Seahawks game).

But after watching ESPN’s outstanding 30 for 30 Broke” there is not much else to say.  I guess you could say it is sad, scary, disturbing or any of another dozen negative thoughts.  I did not expect to be overwhelmed by it since this is a field with which I have a lot of direct experience.

I have met numerous athletes who have been defrauded  by their agents, financial advisors, attorneys and friends.  Many of them have been victims of ponzi schemes and other types of scams that were perpetrated on them due to their high profile, great wealth and relative lack of sophistication in dealing with these issues. 

I know attorneys who have filed lawsuits to recover the funds from these ponzi schemes, but unfortunately, the scammers have typically spent and used most of the funds for their own personal benefit, acquiring expensive homes, cars and jewelry and also taking exotic vacations and trips.  While it might make the victims feel a little bit better when they find out that the people who defrauded them have been disbarred, indicted, convicted and sentenced, the reality is that they rarely recover their funds.

When I discuss the cases with the attorneys who have filed the lawsuits on behalf of these athlete victims, they almost universally say that the athletes were defrauded by their own advisors, and that the athletes were too ashamed to come forward sooner to get authorities involved or get attorneys involved early in the process.  The athletes (and their advisors) typically did too little (if any) due diligence on the transactions and on the people who are promoting the transaction.

So while we wonder why this occurs, the reality comes down to one point. TRUST.   Athletes really do not know who to trust.  They rely on the information that is put in front of them by their advisors and their friends.  But who are the ones most often responsible for getting athletes into these ponzi schemes or other scams?  These same advisors.

The trick here is for the athlete to develop and implement a large team of independent advisors that can work together to help the athlete conduct due diligence.  This is where the stories from Broke” were the most disturbing. 

One thing that Broke” made clear is that a lot of the problems arise from the athlete’s feeling of invincibility.  We have read that hundreds and thousands of times relating to physical issues whether it is physical altercations, domestic violence, bar fights, drunk driving or others.  

Yet, we expect these same young athletes to exercise better business” judgment, even though none of them have actual business experience (and few of their families have that experience either).    When you think of who most people rely on when they need help, it is the people closest to them.  Their family and their trusted advisors.  The difference with professional athletes is that they do not grow” into these roles over time.  They do not advance in their careers before their earn big dollars.  They do not develop relationships with advisors while the stakes are small and have that relationship mature over time.  Instead, they are left extremely vulnerable to their agents, their attorneys, their family, their friends and their financial advisors.

One disturbing element in Broke” was how often these players described just handing out money to other people.  The sums of money are so large that they lose ALL perspective to the value of money.  Yet, if you asked them how much money they could earn in a year in any job other than professional sports, that perspective might help them understand their spending habits.

But would they listen?  If you go back and watch broke and listen to the stories from Andre Rison, you will see a tremendous attitude of I do what I want.”   And that comes at an extreme price.  It means that the athletes do not even want to listen to the people who really do want to help them.  Everything in their life is about competition.  About bigger and better.  About  having the best.  So it is easy to see why that also applies to their investments.

You want me to take conservative investments.”   Why should I?”   My teammates just invested into a deal that is getting him [10/20/30%].”

And that is how it happens.  The perpetrators of the scams and the ponzi schemes only need one access point.  They find one athlete that they cater to and cultivate a relationship with, and then they use that person to gain athlete to pro teammates, college teammates, high school teammates, etc.  You can see why the ponzi scheme format is so powerful in this environment.  It connects all the victims and they all feel insecure about the investment loses and they do not know who to turn to.  Many of the athletes write off their loses without even pursuing legal remedies.  And by doing so, they do not bring enough attention to the problem.  Lawsuits against these dishonest advisors would facilitate getting federal and state authorities involved.   Given the limited resources of the FBI, the postal inspectors and the US attorneys offices, they are unable to investigate and pursue all of the claims that are out there.  But with some help and with high profile victims, the lawsuits could help institute the proper administrative and disciplinary proceedings against those operating the ponzi schemes and other scams.  By having cooperative witnesses, supporting documentation and good attorneys leading the way, the opportunity to recover funds before they are all squandered would increase dramatically.   Because ultimately, the players really want a few things:  1) to get their money back; 2) to get their vengeance by having the scammers disbarred, indicted, convicted and sentenced; and 3) to not have this situation take over their life.

Hopefully for most athletes, these losses to fraudulent schemes do not constitute the bulk of their wealth.  But many lose money in other ways.  You saw the descriptions in Broke” talking about how many of them lost money in bad” deals as opposed to fraudulent deals.  At the end of the day, the financial impact is the same even if the emotional toll is not the same.

But perhaps the most difficult losses” to overcome are not those from ponzi schemes, fraudulent investments or bad investments.  It is the result of bad decisions by the athletes.   The amount of money spent on cars, homes, jewelry, gambling, strip clubs, alcohol and other luxuries is way beyond proportion to their financial status.  Athletes do not have the same length of earning career as the average business professional.  In football, the average career is approximately 3 years.   That means that most of the athletes never even make it that far. 

In our next feature, we will look further at how the athletes can overcome these negative habits and what advice they should be given early in their career by the agents and families in order to protect them from slipping into the Broke” mentality.

We honestly hope that Broke” becomes required viewing for the all athletes who have professional sports aspirations.   Because we know that many athletes will NOT listen.  But we also know that the more often they hear the message, and the more often it is from neutral” sources, the more likely they are to give it some credence and give much stronger consideration to the steps that are necessary to prevent the losses to ponzi schemes and other fraudulent scams.

With the passing of Joe Paterno, there is a lot of debate about his legacy and how he will be remembered?  It is a shame that a historic coach with over 400 victories even has doubts that his main accomplishments were in mentoring athletes, helping them graduate and teaching them to become better people.  Yet, due to a variety of factors (some of his own doing and some outside of his control), Paterno’s reputation will bear a permanent tarnish.  Still, I believe that his accomplishments should not be completely nullified by his mistakes.  Our legacies are a complex interaction of the positive and negative things which have occurred during our life.  I hope that after reading these lessons you can help prevent this type of situation in your life/organization.

• Understand the risks of actions of those underneath you

Among the most underanalyzed areas in all of business are the risks and liabilities created by people who are below the upper management.  Many of these risks are not adequately explained to the employees and often the employees do not receive sufficient training to allow them to truly understand the consequences of their actions (or inactions).  If your organization does not implement a system to train and educate your employees to watch for things beyond the immediate scope of their employment you will suffer severe consequences.  Employees should be taught to question and critique things that are going on because they are your eyes and ears. 

• Deal with initial reports

Many times initial reports are vague and sketchy.  Victims or the individuals reporting the inappropriate activity are fearful, either for their personal safety or for their jobs.  In today’s economy, it is easier to ignore problems that you see than to jeopardize your own well-being.  It is difficult, but your organization needs to implement rewards and confidentiality elements to encourage and protect those that are trying to help you.

• Don’t ignore warning signs

Sometimes things just don’t make sense. Any one incident with one employee can mean nothing (i.e. working late, no vacations, always around).  But often, you actually have multiple people in an organization who are becoming suspicious of the same situation.  However, taken alone, their observations mean nothing.   Without a reasonable reporting system to encourage employees to provide you with this information, you ONLY have a random series of events in the eyes of the observers, instead of the clear pattern which exists when viewed within the sequence of the behaviors.  If something doesn’t add up, move on to a Step 4 without hesitation.

• Conduct thorough investigations

When the initial reports are vague and you have not received corroboration from other witnesses, it can be easy to ignore the allegations.  Often they are written off as a misunderstanding” or something taken out of context.  Do not be so quick to dismiss the claims.  Conduct a proper investigation using resources appropriate to the scale of the issues.  If police need to be involved, this is the appropriate time to do so.  The investigations that are hastily dismissed because people want to get on with their real” jobs are the ones that leave many stones unturned, many witnesses unquestioned and many issues waiting to cause problems at a later date.

• Cut the ties early

If there appear to be problems, severing the ties early can avert significant problems at a later date.  If you look at the Sandusky situation, PSU knew enough to remove him as a coach in 1999. Yet Sandusky was still allowed to remain connected to the program and use the facilities for a long period after that.  PSU’s athletic department continued to provide him access to the student-athletes, the facilities and many other perks of being around the program.  Reports surfaced this week that he was in the President of the University’s box at a football game just weeks before his arrest.  If they found out enough to remove him in 1999, the other elements should have been cut off as well.

• Be accountable in your role

This was a major failing at PSU and a terrific contrast with Syracuse.  At PSU the information and the details lay dormant for over a decade, allowing countless other alleged victims to suffer.  Nobody in PSU stepped up to make sure that the incidents got reported to the police and that a proper investigation was conducted.  The lack of accountability permeated every level of the university, something that ultimately resulted in the layers of problems.  At Syracuse, Chancellor Cantor stepped up quickly and acted decisively.  Perhaps aided by the immediacy of the PSU issues, Syracuse’s swift actions demonstrated its desire to be accountable as an institution, rather than working to protect an individual accused of these crimes (we will examine the double edge sword nature of this a bit later).

• Make those under you accountable in their roles

You can only make other accountable to you if you are accountable to them.  The clich� of respect being earned is one that fits aptly here.  There seemed to be a circular passing of the buck of the responsibility for dealing with the situation.  None of the people felt they had the obligation or the power to take the proper actions.  Whether this was all because of their fear of Joe Paterno or not, someone at the institutional level needed to be asking more questions about what was going on.

• Don’t try to cover up

Cover ups can create more damage than the crime.  We have seen that since Watergate.  If there was not an institutional cover-up going on at PSU it is very difficult to imagine that ALL of the elite leaders of the institution, acting independently, would have agreed to ignore the apparently overwhelming evidence.  In today’s media and technology driven world, things will not stay hidden for very long.  And in fact, the more you deny and try to hide from the truth, the more people will dig and dig until they find out the reality.  If you think that all witnesses and all evidence will remain out of sight you are kidding yourself.  And if you think your identity and details are secure and safe, go watch the TV show Person of Interest” on CBS.  While possibly exaggerated the point should be clear.  NOTHING you do or say is safe.  You have to assume every call is recorded, every email is read and every action you take is videotaped.  And then govern yourself accordingly.

• Do not attack the victims of overly” defend the accused

Nothing enrages the public more than attacking the victim.  Even if it has to be done in the context of an actual criminal trial (a tactic far too detailed and complex to deal with in this space), it should not be done in the media.   It alienates your supporters and makes your organization appear to be insensitive to the alleged victim.  If the victim is lying, you will have plenty of time to make your statements and issue your press releases.  But if you come out like Jim Boeheim attacking the accuser and defending Bernie Fine you will have trouble if the facts do not support you.  The biggest problem is that the people closest to the situation are often far too connected and involved to see the defects.  Remember that clich� about right under your nose.”   The best statement is one indicating that you are going to let the investigation play out, cooperate with the authorities and decide from there.

• PR from inaction typically worse than PR from overreaction

When a story breaks, the public wants to see some action.  Quick statements, calls for investigations, interim suspensions pending investigations and other proactive stances will generate a lot of goodwill on your side.  As we mentioned before, they could have a double edged sword because suspending or terminating someone before a full investigation could lead to institutional liability. Typically though, the lack of action will hurt the institution far more than overreacting since the overreaction can usually be corrected by announcing positive findings in an investigation or issuing a press release exonerating the accused. 

• Take responsibility

Everybody makes mistakes. EVERYBODY.  Nobody who is in a position of leadership has a perfect record.  They have regrets, decisions that could be second guessed, behaviors that they would not want to be made public and issues in their personal life they would not want exposed.  Step up and own the mistake.   Acknowledge the fault.  Accept the responsibility.  Indicate how you have learned from the mistake or what steps you have taken to ensure that it will not happen again. These actions not only reinforce your acceptance of the responsibility, they make you publicly accountable to ensure that it does not occur again.

• Apologize

We live in a VERY forgiving society.  Things will be on the news for a relatively short cycle.  Most of us in our lives do not receive the scrutiny of Joe Paterno, Jim Tressel, Bill Clinton or other high profile sports, entertainment or political figures.  If you apologize for your actions in a sincere fashion, you will earn a lot of respect DESPITE the severity of the mistake.  Had Bill Clinton apologized to the American people for his encounter” with Monica Lewinsky, he would have endured a week or two of ridicule rather than the extended ordeal he went through. Once you apologize, show your contrition and then move on.  Something else will come in the news cycle that will take you off the front page.  Your actions will never go away and you will need to live with yourself and live with the prospect of facing your victims or those you have wronged, but after you have apologized all you can do is move forward and try to regain the respect you have lost.

As Joe Paterno was laid to rest yesterday and has his public memorial today, the question we ask is What do you feel was Joe Paterno’s greatest accomplishment?”  In a perverse way, I feel that this whole scandal may ultimately result in the greatest positive impact on the most people.  It took a person of Paterno’s stature to shed the light on this issue, and he helped” it receive even more attention than other high profile occurrences within the church.  It is only when a man (or woman) of great stature suffers through an incredibly difficult time that the whole world notices.  Had Paterno reported and acted promptly on the Sandusky case in 1998, we would not be having this conversation.  His failure” may end up being the action which creates the greatest social change.  So let us know how you remember Paterno and what you feel his legacy should be.

Here are the stories that we have identified as the biggest stories in 2011 that incorporated elements of Sports Law into their midst.

1. Penn State
2. Ohio State
3. Syracuse
4. NFL CBA
5. NBA CBA
6. Chris Paul trade
7. Sam Hurd drug bust
8. FIFA corruption
9. Concussions
10. Agent regulations
11. Conference realignment
12. ***Explanation for why NO TIM TEBOW

So now if you want the details, you have to follow along below:

1. Penn State

Where do we even start with this process?  The entire conspiracy and cover up at Penn State is beyond belief.   Despite the objections of supporters of the school and supporters of Coach Paterno, there is no feasible way that this situation should not have received much more attention and awareness prior to 2011. 

The incidents were clearly known in 1998 when Sandusky was essentially forced” to take an early retirement.  There is no other explanation for that occurrence.  And yet Sandusky was allowed to continue to have a presence on campus and obviously continue inflicting unspeakable terrors on those young boys.  Even when the incident of 2002 occurred, the university and its administration did virtually nothing.  While everyone chooses to bash Mike McQueary, and while he may deserve some of the wrath and anger, his failures” pale in comparison to those of Spanier, Curley, Schultz and Paterno.  They can choose to classify this situation however they want to, but the reality is that their decisions in 1998 and 2002 allowed at least a dozen more incidents to occur.

Should Mike McQueary have taken greater steps to prevent the 2002 incident.  Perhaps.  But none of us know how we would react despite our instinctual response of saying of course we would have intervened, stopped the incident and called the police immediately.”  When your boss and/or supervisor are doing inappropriate things it is very difficult to even report it up the chain.  McQueary did that.  Much more of the blame belongs to Spanier, Curley, Schultz and Paterno.

And while the media blasts Penn State for the cover up of the activities, you have to wonder where the coverage of the incidents was in 1998 and 2002.  And even more egregious, why was it so late in the year when these incidents came to light.  One of the best reporting jobs in 2011 was by Sara Ganim (@sganim).  Her coverage was there for everyone to see in APRIL!!!  YES APRIL!!! How did the stories she wrote go unnoticed for so long by the mainstream media?  She provided great coverage throughout and was one of the first people with most of the elements of the story as it unfolded.

Where does Penn State go from here?  They were probably wise in laying low in the coaching search until after the bowl season is completed so that it does not become a major distraction for the team.  That strategy also helps keep it out of the limelight of bowl week when college football dominates the landscape.  By the time PSU makes its hire, the college football calendar is essentially over and everything will be dominated by the NFL playoffs and the NFL Draft preparation season (Senior Bowl (and other All-Star games), National Signing Day and the NFL Combine.

Can PSU recover?  Absolutely.  A few people made terrible decisions that allowed this situation to continue way long than necessary.   But the school remains.  Its pride and heritage remain (though tarnished).  With a good hire PSU will be back as a major force in football in just a few years.  So in an absurd turn of events, those fans looking for new leadership and an end to the Paterno era got their wish, though certainly not in the manner they desired.

• Ohio State

If Penn State was the pure evil” in college athletics, Ohio State was the mischievous younger sibling that feels like they can get away with anything.  You heard me rip apart the decision last year to allow all of the OSU players to participate in the Sugar Bowl before starting their suspensions.  It was absurd.  And the degree of absurdity was not really discovered until we had hard facts and evidence showing just how early Jim Tressel knew about the problems.  

Ohio State has frequently acted with the sense of entitlement throughout its program.  The attacks on the Little Sisters of the Poor and the annoying introductions of THE Ohio State University.”   And its athletic department continued to show the same arrogance as it expected the NCAA to roll over and let its weak, self-imposed penalties stand for its actions.

Nobody can compare what happened at OSU to the despicable conduct at PSU, but the great lack of institutional control is one that needed to change.  So now, from this day forward, it will be known as A state of Ohio university.”

• Syracuse

Oy, aren’t we tired of scandals yet?  The long time frame in which Bernie Fine remained in his position is far less surprising than what happened at Penn State because there have been no allegations that Fine used University facilities to accomplish his actions.  There may have been some involvement and connection to the program, but there have not been credible claims to date that anyone else at Syracuse knew what was going on.  The early statements by Jim Boeheim may be the ones that cause the school the most damage.  We still have a long way to go to hear all of the details of this situation so you can expect it to remain at the forefront of the news for 2012.

• NFL CBA

It was only” 136 days, but the impact of the NFL labor dispute received almost round the clock coverage.  From the lockouts to the lawsuits, to the appeals to the procedural manipulations engaged in by both parties it was an interesting battle.  But it was also a battle that could not be won by either side without a negotiated resolution.  All parties were poised to lose too much money.  While the grandstanding and media ploys of each side played out, the public grew increasingly agitated with BOTH sides.  Support was sharply divided and there were many good arguments made by both the NFL and the NFLPA.   Players sacrificing their bodies for short careers and long term damage and owners who have invested billions of dollars in team ownership, operations and infrastructure.  Despite the legal maneuvers of each party, you could tell that each side was entrenched in its core beliefs and until they were both threatened with losing real dollars, neither would budge.  Ultimately Robert Kraft probably saved the day and essentially went in like a business person, took some of the control away from the lawyers, and helped pushed through an agreement that appears to be more positively constructed for the long term than the prior deal that was opted out of by the owners.  Labor peace for 10 years.  Now if only they would allow cable systems and smart phones to get the Sunday Ticket without needing to be a DirecTV subscriber we would all be set.

• NBA CBA

The NBA lockout received FAR less attention from the media than the NFL lockout did.  In part there was much more going on in the sports landscape with MLB post-season, college and NFL football underway and the NHL continuing to grow in popularity.  As with most labor disputes, nothing seems to get done proactively.  It typically takes significant losses or collateral damage before the parties are willing to give concessions over the last few points of contention.  For the NBA, this amounted to the split of the revenues.  So with the season pushed back and the Chris Paul fiasco over (see below), the NBA appears poised for a strong season with interest heightened by the fact that there will be a condensed schedule which will make each game more meaningful in the playoff race.

• Chris Paul trade

Can you say conflict of interest?”  I knew that you could.  But apparently it is a concept that the NBA is not clear about.  High on everyone’s list of problems in the NBA is the fact that no league should own a team.  Who is the league really representing?  The existing franchise?  The fans?  The future owner?  The value of the franchise?  The current community in which the team exists?  Depending on how you answer those questions you will see that there is an enormously large discrepancy in what actions need to be taken and the prioritization of those actions.  Voiding the Chris Paul trade was something that the league did purportedly to protect the value of the franchise.  Was it Dan Gilbert’s public admonishment? Was it prospective owners getting unhappy? The reality is that Chris Paul was going to be leaving at the end of the season regardless of anything that the league did.  So the question begging to be asked is Was it better for the franchise to get something in return instead of nothing after the season.”  There is obviously no right or wrong answer to that question, it is one that each owner (or ownership group) has to answer for itself.  Putting the league in the position of deciding what media market to send one of its biggest starts to smacks of self-dealing.

• Sam Hurd drug bust

How scared are any NFL players that were getting their drugs from Sam Hurd?  Hurd was not merely dealing a small quantity of drugs to a few close friends and/or acquaintances, he was preparing to establish and operate a drug empire of the scale that has never been seen within professional sports, especially by an active player.  Nate Newton’s infamous arrest with enormous amounts of marijuana occurred after his playing days were over.

If you did not follow the details closely, go back and read through the links in this posting which outline the magnitude of the drugs Hurd was seeking to purchase.  There is little doubt that he was supplying to other NFL players but those merely buying and using the drugs will not face great punishment.  The question is whether any other NFL players were working with Hurd or working under Hurd to establish their own distribution schemes.

• FIFA corruption

One thing that you have to give FIFA credit for is doing something that no other organization has ever been able to accomplish�Making Chicago politics look clean and efficient.

Has there ever been a more corrupt organization from top to bottom?  The only question that remains about FIFA is whether it should even exist.   It certainly has an important role in world soccer and there is undoubtedly the need to have an organization to provide the function. 

But if you analyze what FIFA has done and how it has done it, you are likely to reach the conclusion that the entire organization is TOO broken to be fixed.  At a certain point if you have a money pit of a building you are better off knocking the whole thing down and building from scratch.  Is there really any way to salvage FIFA from a structure that has layers of corruption built upon other layers of corruption which are obscuring more corruption which is undetectable from the surface because you cannot get past the first 3 layers of corruption.

Go and look at the number of high ranking FIFA officials brought into question.  Look at the voting process involved in awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.  Look at the way in which any of these things came about.  I dare you to find any shreds of integrity.

• Concussions

How many concussion lawsuits have we seen?  The number rises every single week.  By some accounts, the number of suits filed against the various entities is already in double digits. Every player (and many of their lawyers) are trying to get their piece of the concussion lawsuit pie just like the large class action firms try to sign up Plaintiff’s in the mass tort litigation space.

The sad part is that we seem to be having a fundamental failure in the approach to concussions. Virtually all of the time and energy is spent on just 2 of the 3 elements:

• Preventing concussions
• Diagnosis
• Treatment and Recovery.

The third element is virtually ignored.  The only recovery anyone talks about is how quickly can we get someone back on the field/court/ice.  But the long term impacts have been almost entirely ignored and there are very few groups working to develop a process that can allow athletes and former athletes to overcome some of the effects of concussions.

1. Agent regulations

Do I have to repeat myself year after year?  You can read my article from the preview for 2011 and you will see that the core issues have not changed.  Is anything going to be done? Soon? 

Earlier this year I made a plea for National Regulations.  Not on top of the other regulations, but instead.

The timing seems right and I would have been more optimistic about where this was going before all of the sexual abuse scandals broke.  Deservedly they have received more of the attention and the powers that be are scrambling to find ways to not only prevent it from happening in the future but figuring out how to handle the next inevitable scandal that breaks, hopefully not from their institution or organization.

1. Conference realignment

Are we done? Doubtful.  Have we reached the saturation point?  Maybe.  When all heck seemed ready to break loose and turn into four 16 team power conferences, the process got bogged down in TV deals, rivalries and often a desire of certain key players (Texas and Oklahoma) to stay together and try to keep their power spots.  Would UT and OU have the same clout if they joined the Pac 12, SEC or Big Ten? Nope.  And therefore the Longhorn Network was born.  But with Boise going out to the Big East and with TCU going east, then not going or were they going?  Can you really keep track of where everyone is these days?  Just a few short years ago any college football fan could easily tell you what conference the Top 100 schools were in.  Today, that is a far more challenging task.  

1. NO Tim Tebow???

Before I get bashed by all of the Tim Tebow supporters out there, remember this is supposed to be a sports law blog not a cult icon blog.  While Tebow has transcended the game in an amazing way for a QB who has so few on the field accomplishments in the NFL, he has fortunately not been involved in legal issues.  Plenty of dilemmas as he went from 2^nd string at the start of training camp to a reported 4^th string to a starter when Kyle Orton was not getting the job done to the satisfaction of the Denver fans. 

Is Tim Tebow the answer?  Long term?  Does not look like he is ready to be a quality PASSER in the NFL.  Does that mean he cannot play QB?  No.  Tebow is undoubtedly one of the greatest leaders that we have ever seen, especially from a person whose skill set is questioned around the country on a minute by minute basis. 

Was Tebow played by the Broncos merely with the hope that he failed so that they could say See, we gave him the chance and he did not get the job done.”  We will never know because Tebow never let himself fail.  His win streak had an almost divine intervention like quality with recovered onsides kicks, runners going out of bounds to keep Denver in the game, his kicker hitting 50+ yard FGs like they are XPs and a slew of turnovers and outstanding play generated from his defense.

So it is always interesting to take a step back and look at what we believed would be the Ten Biggest stories for 2011.  I think we had a pretty good hit rate on these but we take a look in greater detail.

They certainly did not all make our Top 11 Stories for 2011 because I don’t think that anyone could have envisioned some of the things happening at Ohio State, Penn State, Syracuse and beyond.

1. Agent regulations–HIT
2. Concussions–HIT
3. Conference realignment–HIT
4. LA luring professional football teams–SWING AND MISS
5. Lance Armstrong federal investigation–SWING AND MISS
6. MLB use of instant replay–FOUL TIP
7. NBA CBA–HIT
8. NFL CBA–HIT
9. MLB CBA–SWING AND MISS
10. Roger Clemens–FOUL TIP
11. Social Media–HIT
12. Tiger Woods–FOUL TIP

Agent regulations              HIT

We hit this one pretty squarely on point.  There was finally some movement non this landscape to look into the issues of agent regulation and for the first time to really consider whether a national regulation would be appropriate and what measures would be needed to accomplish better regulation.

Concussions       HIT

This one was easy, just as it will be for the next 10-20 years.  You can put this one in the permanent list and enshrine it into the Hall of Fame.  As we said in our preview,

It is probably the biggest health related issue in sports (and not just football) in over 20 years.   While people pointed to steroids and other types of performance enhancing substances, concussions impact everyone that plays collision sports, not only those that voluntarily take banned substances.

Conference realignment              HIT

Another busy year as schools moved all over the place, in many instances making the geographic and numeric conference designations meaningless. 12 teams in the Big 10; Ten teams in the Big 12; Pac 10 to Pac 12; And now we have teams from the west in the Big East, Missouri and Texas A&M in the Southeast Conference and more crazy moves potentially on the horizon. 

LA luring professional football teams                     FOUL TIP

It was a story and the stadium construction was a big story.  Might not have been big enough to warrant being in the Top 11 but was definitely a relevant story

Lance Armstrong federal investigation                  SWING AND A MISS (SWUNG WAY TOO EARLY)

This investigation still goes on in the background. Reports from sources that I trust a lot indicate that there are still potentially serious consequences ahead for Lance Armstrong.  But we were probably a year premature given the slow pace of federal investigations.

MLB use of instant replay            SWING AND MISS

MLB continues to be absurdly slow in adopting proper replay rules.  An ongoing process that needlessly prevents getting the calls right.  Still relevant but not a top story for the year.

NBA CBA                              HIT

You cannot get more relevant than the lockout which claimed the early part of the NBA season preventing fans from getting any games until Christmas Day

NFL CBA                               HIT

The NFL labor dispute got a lot more coverage and publicity than the NBA, in part because only baseball was still going on.  But certainly the lockout and the deal that was put in place for the next ten years dominated the middle part of the year.

MLB CBA                             SWING AND MISS

The MLB labor situation never materialized to be a big story in 2011.  With the NFL and NBA dealing with actual labor stoppages, lockouts and lawsuits, MLB did its work behind the scenes and appears to be in a solid position.  While the accomplishments may have been very important they did not merit inclusion in the Top 11 Stories

Roger Clemens                 FOUL TIP

Roger Clemens trial on perjury charges was pretty weak.  The government failed to get the verdict that they were looking for and Clemens did not receive the degree of punishment that the government hoped to use as an example.  Not surprisingly, they failed similarly with Barry Bonds.

Social Media                      HIT

Twitter, Facebook and a variety of rapidly developing tools continue to plague/benefit professional and college sports (depending on what perspective you want to take).  For fans, the social media access is great because it allows us to hear directly from:

• Ochocinco telling us about his escapades
• Barry Sanders congratulating Montee Ball on his records and attempts to break Barry Sanders own incomprehensible accomplishment
• Dan Marino congratulating Drew Brees moments after Brees had shattered Marino’s season yardage passing record.
• Media covering the event in a more personalized style than they are allowed to express in their formal” written pieces
• Teams and universities making announcements available directly to the public rather than having to have all statements filtered through the (sometimes) jaded perspective of long time reporters.
• College and professional athletes sharing their thoughts and interests with us

For the teams, schools, leagues and conferences, the social media is a terrific tool, but one that can create great harm when not managed properly or when an employee or athlete make off-the-cuff remarks that are now reported as mainstream news on the ESPN ticker.  The ability to monitor, teach, guide and explain the process to the athletes is one that will be ongoing and challenging.  But it is one the teams will have to face to survive.

Tiger Woods                      FOUL TIP

Tiger Woods is no longer relevant in the way that he was prior to the disclosure of his adulterous lifestyle.  Will he ever reach that magnitude again?  Everyone watched and waited and Tiger did display some signs of brilliance, but he was not able to gain any ground on Jack Nicklaus’ record, his inclusion on the President’s Cup team was controversial (rather than a given) and he kept himself out of most of the limelight.  Our bet is that we will start seeing A LOT more of Tiger in 2012.

FINAL SCORECARD FOR THE 2011 PREVIEW

Hits                                                        6

Foul Tips                                              3

Swing and Miss                                 3