Some really interesting issues coming up this week:

• Skateboard Mom—If you have not had a chance to see this video, I hope that you click here and watch the impressive feat performed by a loving mother who wanted to let her son with cerebral palsy experience the exhilaration of going through a skateboard park. Impressive dedication and energy to make that a reality for her son.

• Brett Concussion—While I have done a lot of concussion related work with youth sports organizations and high schools over the last decade, this was my first experience with one my kids having a concussion in that time frame.  Brett and a teammate collided in a flag football game as they tried to stop the opposition from getting into the end zone.  Taking a knee in the head is likely to cause a concussion (or other injury).  I commend Stevenson High School and the athletic trainer on staff for taking immediate action and giving him a comprehensive sideline assessment.   Even though the concussion was fairly apparent, it is always a good idea to go through the entire test to try to identify where some functional deficit may have appeared.  One of the most challenging aspects (as always), is getting the athlete to sit out.  After about 36 to 48 hours, Brett was feeling pretty good and was very frustrated that he was not allowed to participate in sports this past week.  This highlights the challenges that occur with young athletes who feel fine but may not recognize that areas in which their brain is not performing properly.  It is a reminder to every level of sports organization, that the sideline assessment and the initial medical assessment are merely the BEGINNING of the process.  Even his physician failed to give him the proper information about a return-to-play protocol.  The physician told him that he would be allowed to return-to-play if he had no symptoms over the course of this week.  Unfortunately, that is not the accurate standard (though it could be correct in some instances).  The proper way to assess whether an athlete is ready to return to play according to the CDC is the following:
  • 1.            No apparent symptoms
  • 2.            Return to normal baseline test (which is difficult when most organizations do not do baseline testing proper—or at all)
  • 3.            5 day, Return to Play Protocol
    • Day 1: Light aerobic activity
    • Day 2: Moderate activity
    • Day 3: Heavy, non-contact activity
    • Day 4: Practice and full contact
    • Day 5: Competition

• Playing One Sport Year Round—The National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) put out a statement this past week highlighting the problems with playing one sports.  These problems include the higher frequency of burnout and mental anguish, but also, some very real physical problems that can occur when an athlete plays one sport year round.  The ongoing stress and pressure on the same muscles, joints and ligaments creates a long term problem for many young athletes.  Among NATA’s recommendations are:
  • Delaying specializing in a single sport for as long as possible
  • One team at a time
  • Less than eight months per year for a single sport
  • No more hours per week than the age in years
  • Two days of rest per week
  • Rest and recovery time from organized sport participation

• Astros fire Taubman. The only surprise is that it took so long. After the initial comments from Brandon Taubman surfaced, the Astros claimed to do an investigation and then stood behind him. The Astros failed to recognize that the references to domestic violence were shouted in the face of female reporters. Despite the strong calls for immediate action by many female members of the media, the Astros went all-in on defending Taubman. Unfortunately for them, you can’t sweep things under the rug during the world series. The true comments came out and the Astros were left with little choice. What makes it even more interesting is that it is unlikely that the Astros would have fired Taubman had they come out and punished him or suspended him at the outset and many wonder whether this scrutiny would have been different during the regular season. MLB is now weighing a suspension as well.

• ORT—I was fortunate to be invited as a guest to the ORT Leadership luncheon at the Standard Club in downtown Chicago.  With over 120 people in attendance, the event highlighted the work of honoree Katy Lynch, the Founder of Codeverse.  Codeverse is doing impressive work in the community and helping teach young kids to code and enjoy the skills that are needed to excel in our increasingly STEM world.  You should check out their website at www.codeverse.com.

• Northwestern Football—This is Northwestern’s Homecoming weekend and so the Northwestern Gridiron Network held its annual luncheon at the Norris Center along the lake.  Over 300 people gathered to hear AD Jim Phillips, Coach Pat Fitzgerald, President Morton Schapiro and some of the current players expressive their love for the university.  Fitz always has some great one-liners though he declined to share any of his Iowa material in advance of the game. 

• Dental work—Unfortunately, had to have some dental work done this week and as I sat in the chair, I marveled at the advancements of the technology.  It used to hurt far more to just have a filling than it does now to have a tooth removed.  In fact, the most painful part was the injection for the local anesthetic and the most uncomfortable part was the little brace that was placed in my mouth to keep it open.  Truly incredible.

• BE ON GUARD—When you look at every level of sport, one of the main attractions of fandom is the uncertainty of what is going to transpire.  We never know whether our team will perform well, perform poorly or manage to win the game.  Even when we think we know, we don’t.  That is one of the reasons that sports remains one of the last bastions of valuable TV content, because live sports continues to be a huge draw.  Nothing illustrates this better than the Wisconsin-Illinois game last week where despite dominating time of possession and the statistical battle, the Badgers made crucial mistake at crucial times and managed to put a damper on their big match-up with Ohio State.  In sports, you need to be ready to go every single time you step on the field (or court, course or other competition area).

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK

As every week goes by, there are a variety of new issues that hit the sports landscape.  Some merit detailed examination and others get only short-term focus from the mainstream media.   What I find interesting is how some of the most significant issues get only quick sound-bytes and almost no properly follow up.  Here are a few of the items that I found interesting from this week.

• Baker Mayfield—his alleged refusal to shake hands with Richard Sherman became a headline item for 2 days until people pulled up the actual footage and showed Sherman that Baker had in fact greeted him before the toss, though Baker is clearly seen running off immediately after the toss.  To his credit, Sherman acknowledged that the reality was his degree of “hurt” was overblown, but it shows us once again the danger of making immediate reactions and judgments when a player (or eye-witness or victim) provide their initial impressions.  No matter how certain or how loud they are, there is likely to be some discrepancy between the video footage and the “reality” that was initially blasted across the screens.  In the sports world it is easy for us to laugh and brush it off.  In the world of the criminal justice system, those initial soundbytes can dramatically alter a person’s life and devastate their future.

• Increased Risk of CTE—Yet another study was released by Boston University that found an increased risk of CTE for those who have played years of football and found that there was a strong correlation between the number of years played and the the degree of risk..  It is clear that we still are not taking the risks of repetitive hits seriously enough and that there is sufficient data to confirm the importance of reducing the number of head impacts our children receive in ANY sport.  Soccer is eliminating headers at early ages, hockey is eliminating checking at young ages and football is attempting to convert the game to flag football at the youngest levels.  All of these efforts deserve applause, and yet we have to question why so much of the process is still being mis-managed at even the highest levels.  The study of 266 deceased athletes found a 30% increased risk for each year played, meaning that the risk of CTE more than doubled for every 3 years of football. Scary stuff.

• Improper use of subjects in concussion studies and ADHD diagnoses—Once again we see some suspect actions out of the University of North Carolina.  The Athletic found that there was a mysterious absence of critical data in UNCs renowned concussion research. (If you don’t have a subscription to Athletic, here are a couple other links to articles summarizing the coverage: 1) BusinessNC: Years of UNC Concussion Research Led by Guskiewicz May Be Unreliable; 2) The Key Play: OT: Investigation into UNC Concussion Research. Having been through the academic cheating scandals and more, the latest hit comes out as it appears that the athletic department has been diagnosing players with ADHD when they enter college at rates far above what would be expected for kids that had never received that diagnosis.  To make matters worse, the UNC students were then also included in some of the concussion research studies performed at UNC without properly disclosing the ADHD diagnosis.  The troubling aspect arises as people reviewing that study and relying on it for future purposes are potentially basing their new research studies on defective data. 

• High School Baseball—at a business event I happened to meet a mother who relayed the story to me from a local high school baseball team.  Her son loved baseball and played for many years and was the sole kid cut from this particular high school.  Despite having notified the school in advance that this child was coming over from a special program and despite having spoken to some of the coaches in advance to discuss potential accomodations, this particular coach took a hard line attitude.  I cannot imagine the justification for cutting one single kid from any sport (if you are only cutting one kid, then you could clearly keep them and allow them to practice and be part of the team).  But when you combine this issue with the special needs issue, this coach is likely in violation of an IEP, the ADA and many other regulations.  A stubborn attitude and refusal to have a proper conversation about it hardly seems like the type of role model that we want for our children.  Hopefully I will be able to intervene and will have some more positive information to report in the coming weeks.

• Dreadlocks—The letter to Penn State Football player Jonathan Sutherland was truly outrageous.  Calling him out for dreadlocks, tattoos and more, the letter reprimanded him for not holding up the Penn State image.  Leaving aside the simple idiocy of the comments in today’s society, the fact that the letter was so tone deaf to the racial issues in this country is astounding.  I commend Penn State for its prompt reaction to the letter and the fact that it quickly distanced itself from the lunacy.

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK

MOTIVATION FOR THE WEEK

Each week I take a quick look at some of the stories and news that I found most interesting.  This space will include some sports, but not all of the sports stories that I normally follow in the areas of sports philanthropy, sports law, sports business, Jewish sports, concussions and otherwise.  If you want to see more of what I am following in those areas, let me know and I can point you to the best spots on my blogs and websites.  You will see that I love to find some of life’s little absurdities and point those out as well as other interesting stories that I follow.

GRAPHICS OF THE WEEK

WEEK ENDING APRIL 14, 2019

• Tiger’s win at Augusta. Obviously one of the biggest stories this weekend. An impressive feat. I have never been a Tiger fan, but it was an incredible win and a comeback for the ages. Despite my feelings about Tiger, you can read here about how I do give him credit for two very impressive accomplishments. My other question about Tiger, or more his audience, is whether they would give others the same second chances Tiger has received. I routinely see sports related people fired, shunned and shamed for far less than cheating with 100+ women. Seeing all of the joy and redemption stories made me wonder about this double standard. It was fun to see a strong leaderboard the last couple days.

• Concussion research advance.   One big story this week was the study released by Boston University which seems to bring us closer to being able to diagnose CTE in living people. While the diagnosis alone will not get us where we need to be, it will allow a much more rapid progression in the identification of the disease and give us some ability to work on treatments.

• Daylight Time vs. Standard Time.             So if you are in Chicago, in April, does an invitation for 7 p.m. CST mean 7 p.m. CDT? Or is the person sending a stealth invitation for 7 p.m. MDT?  I am not sure why this concept is so difficult.  But there are a large number of people (and media) that incorrectly publish times for an event in Standard Time when we are in Daylight Time.  Part of me always wants to email back to them to ask whether 7 p.m. CST really meant that, or whether they meant 7 p.m. Central Daylight Time.  I am sure they are only confused because we spend many more months on Daylight Time than we do on Standard Time

• Night for Victory.                             The Northwestern Gridiron Network held a beautiful event at the Godfrey Hotel on Saturday night.  Fantastic venue on the rooftop lounge.  Impressive turnout to raise money that they were targeting for customized helmets, allegedly to reduce concussions.  While better equipment can help, I am always wary of players feeling unduly” safe in particular equipment.  The rooftop setting itself was beautiful and the Purple Arch Venture hosts did an impressive job with the decorations.  Take a look at these photos.

• Alley-Oop to Alliyah. My friend David Goldstein from Toronto was in Chicago for a couple of Lunch and Learns” where he spoke about his book Alley-Oop to Alliyah. It is an impressive piece of work about the trail of African-American basketball players that have moved on to play professional basketball in Israel, and how their presence in Israel has made an impact on their lives as well as on the lives of the Israeli’s around them. Many of them have chosen to remain in Israel after their playing careers because they felt that they were treated better in Israel than in most other places that they have lived. If you would like to have David visit your community, let me know and I can put you in contact with him. I think you will enjoy the presentation and I know that I am looking forward to reading the book.

• Diverticulitis.    Typically spending a whole day in the urgent care clinic and the ER are not fun.  And this past Tuesday was spent in that fashion.  But instead of being aggravated with the slow” service, I was thankful for how quickly things were handled, how fortunate I was to be able to receive that type of medical care and how ultimately they only found something that was a short term issue.   Diverticulitis is much better than a burst appendix or dozens of other options that it could have been.  The biggest problem was not the pain, but the effect of two heavy anti-biotics that knocked me out for much of the week.  I rarely take any type of meds for pain so I was surprised to feel so sluggish and lethargic.  I dragged myself out to a few meetings, but really didn’t start feeling better until Sunday.

• NCAA Men’s Championship Game.         I was happy to see Virginia win the National Championship because I am a fan of Tony Bennett.  A tremendous turnaround from last season when Virginia became the first #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed.   I like Bennett’s leadership style and have followed him since his playing days at UWGB.  Virginia had two of the most improbable wins that I have ever seen in their Elite 8 win against Purdue and semifinal win against Auburn.   When Purdue poked that ball into the backcourt and less than 5 seconds remained, the odds of Virginia pulling that out had to be under 5%.  With 10 seconds left in the Auburn game, the odds might have been even lower.

• Illinois Boxing Hall of Fame.       I have never been to this dinner event before, but with my friend Al Bernstein being inducted, it was fantastic to see over 600 people in the crowd to honor him.   The energy in the room was impressive and this was one of the best limos that I have ever seen.

• JNF Lawyers Breakfast. Held the day after the Israeli election, this breakfast took a bit of a detour to examine the results of the election and challenges that will be faced in putting together a new government.  Israel always has political challenges but this particular election may hold the fate of some of the biggest decision’s in the country’s history.

• Traction.              I was invited to an interesting lunch presentation by a company called Insperity.  The presentation focused on a book called Traction and the system for helping a business analyze how to prepare themselves for growth.   The presentation took us through a process called EOS (Entrepreneur Operating System) but the presentation itself was probably better suited to a small group for a working session than for a lunch presentation.  But the substance of the presentation had some terrific content and if you are interested in hearing more about it I can connect you to my host.

One of the things that has always mystified me on the concussion front is how the NFLPA has been virtually ignored.  As the entity charged with representing the players and protecting their health and safety, the NFLPA has essentially been given a free pass on the issue.

Currently, there are lawsuits pending against the NFL, Pop Warner, the NCAA and many other entities.  The basic allegations in each complaint rely on the fact that the sponsoring organization had a duty to the athletes and failed to protect them, and in many cases, hid the dangers of concussions away from them.

The NFL in particular has been accused of downplaying the dangers of concussions and using a committee of highly unqualified individuals to make the decisions for the league.  The problem the league faces is that, until recently, their actions are quite clearly against the weight of medical science.  Their Head, Neck and Spine committee consisted of people who were not neurologists and did not have the credentials to advise on these issues, much less lead the way.

But the question I don’t see anyone asking is Where was the NFLPA while this fiasco was going on.”  It is reasonable to be in the camp of believing that the NFL acted inappropriately and that the league hid dangers and used unqualified people to distort the research (or at minimum, minimize the impact of the research).  Yet I see no groups taking on the NFLPA or even questioning where their leadership was while the concussion crisis started to take shape. 

The group in the best position to take on the powerhouse of the NFL is the NFLPA.  The players alone have little power.  The agents have virtually no power on these issues. Long time agent Leigh Steinberg has said that he was presenting concussion issues to the league in the early 1990’s with no success.

So while the NFLPA may not have been in a position to take the lead role, surely it had the obligation and the right to question how the NFL examined this issue. It seems to me that this was a failure of leadership on the part of the NFLPA and the NFLPA may have been more concerned with other financial issues for the players and with long term health benefits, both worthwhile causes.  You may read this and say, hey, Roy Kessel, who are you to question the NFLPA.  Having been certified as an NFL Contract Advisor (i.e. agent), and having attended numerous NFLPA seminars, Sports Lawyers Association Seminars and having taught at Northwestern, this is an issue that I have examined on many occasions.

While I agree that the NFLPA should not have primary liability on this issue, I do not see how the media has failed to question the union as it relates to their actions.  I have asked this question to former players, media members and even many involved in the concussion” industry.  I am still waiting for an answer.  If you have one, I would love to hear it below.

Super Bowl weeks are always a very hectic time.  If you are associated with the business of sports, there are more events than you could possibly have time to attend in that period of time.  As you read through this summary, you will see the links embedded to the coverage of the various events provided by the Sports Philanthropy Network.

This past week in Atlanta, I was fortunate to participate in a whole variety of events giving me the opportunity to interact with a wide array of individuals from all across the country.

The weekend prior to the game, I was able to attend the NFL Experience at the Georgia World Congress with Kayla Bradham, who is joining the Sports Philanthropy Network as the VP of Community Relations.  We had the opportunity to go through the exhibits and explore the venue in a much less crowded environment than you would see later in the week.  One of the highlights was getting the chance to meet some of the team from RISE, Stephen Ross’ initiative getting its acronym from Ross Initiative for Sports Equality.  As the owner of the Miami Dolphins, Ross has put his name on many things, including the University of Michigan Business School, but this is one that could make an every longer lasting impact.

The first couple days of the week are quieter as the schedule ramps up in anticipation of the crowds heading into the weekend.  It was comical as the City of Atlanta prepared itself for a winter storm.”  The whole city was on high alert mode on Monday as it prepared for horrific conditions on Tuesday.  The TV weather broadcasts warned everyone of impending doom.  Schools were cancelled by Monday afternoon.  The end result?  A day with temperatures in the high 30’s and low 40’s.  A sunny afternoon.  Even the health club I managed to use to squeeze in a few workouts was telling me the facility might close because the weather could change.”

One of the most interesting parts of the week was the ability to get press credentials which gave me access to many of the official NFL events and the various summits and educational seminars around time.  It gave me some great insight into how the media work and the access they receive to all parts of the Super Bowl compound.

• WEDNESDAY: From my end, the week got kick started with a Women’s Empowerment Summit hosted by GladiatHers. Terrific messages from many powerful women. Well over 100 women attended and there were a surprising number of men also supporting the vision of GladiatHers.
• WEDNESDAY: From there, it was a quick run over to the Crucial Catch event held at the American Cancer Society HQ. A strong turnout of NFL representatives, team mascots, cheerleaders and former players led the way as the stations were set up to caution about various cancer risk factors and provide prevention suggestions.
• WEDNESDAY: The GladiatHers evening panel had some very frank conversations from leading women in the Atlanta sports community.
• THURSDAY: The Most Valuable Philanthropist event hosted by Champions for Philanthropy at the amazing venue called The Estate.” Honoring some terrific players who have made a great impact in their community, this event really set a strong standard for other philanthropic events to follow.
• THURSDAY: RISE held their Town Hall Meeting at the King Center with a star-studded and impressive lineup taking the stage to push for social justice and significant reforms in the criminal justice system.
• THURSDAY: Very impressive event at the Porsche Experience, sponsored by AWIS (Atlanta Women in Sports). A terrific turnout and many great women leaders took the stage to accept their awards and talk about their motivations and the impact they desired to make.
• FRIDAY: The NFL Man of the Year Community event was held at the Boys and Girls Club. Attended by almost all of the Man of the Year nominees, this event featured Roger Goodell working the shovel and wheelbarrow and setting the lead example of hard work.
• FRIDAY: George Washington University’s Sports Philanthropy program hosted a networking Happy Hour for the many professionals in town for the Super Bowl and received a strong turnout of people making their career in the sports philanthropy space.
• FRIDAY: A special treat was an invitation to dinner by NFL Hall of Fame LB Rickey Jackson and getting the opportunity speak to him and Eric Dickerson during a late dinner.
• SATURDAY: Leigh Steinberg, Nicole Fisher and the Brain Treatment Foundation hosted a Brain Health Summit as a prelude to Leigh Steinberg’s annual party. The Summit had an insightful panel discussion that examined the difficulties of addressing the concussion problems on a practical level.
• SATURDAY: Leigh Steinberg’s party hosted over 2000 people crammed into the venue and the highlight was Patrick Mahomes taking home some of the awards and showing off his strong presence and command of the audience. Later that night, he took home the Player of the Year.

Unfortunately, I did not get to stay for the game.  Aside from the ticket prices running well over $2,000, it was time to get back home after the two week trip for the Senior Bowl and the Super Bowl.

One thing that struck me as I walked around the streets of Atlanta during the week, was the dichotomy exhibited by homeless individuals asking for food or money, while literally a few yards away, party goers are entering into parties that whose tickets ranged in price from $200 to $1000+.   I haven’t seen any reports on the total amount spent on parties during the week, but you can bet it is a large number.

Overall I felt that the movie did a pretty good job of highlighting some of the most severe examples of what could happen as a result of ongoing head trauma and potentially as a result of CTE.  Obviously, I am too close to the issue and not really part of the “target market” so maybe my expectations are a bit off.

I am not sure that the movie needed the love story element with Omalu but it seemed that they wanted to use that as a way to tie the story together and humanize Omalu a bit more.  I give incredible praise to Omalu for being willing to stand up to the NFL and the football establishment and fight on this issue.  His work laid the foundation for the great increase in concussion awareness over the past 5 years.  Despite being right and despite his success, he was demonized by many and I am not sure that the depth of the attacks on him was portrayed in the movie.

I think the movie missed a few big opportunities:

First, for most people that have not been around this discussion, stating that a concussion occurs at “60 Gs of force” is far too abstract.  They would have been better served to put in a few small clips from hits that were estimated at 60 Gs and then show them in comparison to clips that were part of the “Jacked Up” segment, all of which are probably well over 100 Gs of force.  I think most people would be surprised by how “minor” a 60 G hit looks in comparison to what they are expecting

Second, they took the extreme cases of Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin S. (I am not even going to try to spell that name here without Google).  It is likely that all 3 of those players suffered significantly due to the head trauma and they did find evidence of CTE.  But those are hardly clean comparisons because that was also the midst of the steroid era and the potential of steroid rage and other drug implications is significant.  The movie conveniently ignored all of that as it focused just on the CTE issues (which should not be minimized, nor should you read this paragraph to mean that they are not significant contributing factors to their mental states).

Third, I think that the failure to compare the current state of concussion management and the way players are being handled post concussion now was disappointing.  It leaves the viewer with the impression that anyone playing football WILL SUFFER the horrendous effects that were highlighted in the movie.  Though people have mocked Roger Goodell saying the game is safer than it has ever been, that is probably true.  Players are removed after concussions and monitored closely.  Players who now miss 3-4 games would have been put right back on the field.  The number of hits players suffer in practice is significantly reduced starting from youth football to high school to college and to the NFL (or other pro league).  The cumulative effect of reduced hitting in practice means thousands of hits fewer for any of today’s players.

Finally, most notably, the party who is tasked with the primary responsibility for protecting the interests of the players gets off without any mention.  The NFLPA is the group that should bear MUCH MORE of the anger and frustration from the players than the NFL. The NFLPA has the resources and interest to fight back and question what is going on with the NFL. It never did.  I think it will go down as one of the great failures of Gene Upshaw, former Executive Director of the NFLPA.  I am not sure how the NFLPA has stayed out of the limelight so long, but it also came out with little criticism in PBS Frontline’s “League of Denial”.  If you haven’t watched that and are interest in this topic, it has much more details.

A few other observations:

1. Joseph Maroon comes across as arrogant and fighting against the science.  My favorite was the line of Omalu when he said that “history will laught at those that deny” and “tell the truth”.

2. Elliott Pelman, who chaired the NFL committee on the traumatic brain injuries for many years was a Rhumatologist. This was rightly pointed out in the movie but this movie did not highlight many of his other outrageious statements and proclamations in the offical reports that were issued.

3. Julian Bailes continues to be heavily involved in concussion related matters.  My favorite line of his was when he told Omalu “You are in trouble, but you are not wrong.”

4. The NFL deserves plenty of criticism for not picking up this issue earlier, and certainly for trying to mask findings that had the potential to hurt the game.  The NFL also certainly deserves flack for trying to bury the issue at the conference and presentation and prevent Omalu from presenting his findings. What everyone needs to remember, however, is that NOBODY ELSE was taking any different action either.  The NHL, MLB, the general medical community etc. were all way behind the times.  In fact, if you look at it, the NFL has actually been at the forefront of dealing with this issue (as it is in many health related issues such as drugs, PEDs, etc).  The general medical community still seems to be well behind the sports community in dealing with concussion issues.

5. Dave Duerson came out looking very bad in the movie.  The movie did not really give any background on him but having met him and had some other interactions, there are several important facts that were omitted.  First, he was removed from Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees because of a domestic violence charge which occurred while he was in South Bend for a trustees meeting.  He was on many other board, belonged to Medinah Country Club and was struggling to uphold his image.  He had a business that ran into significant financial difficulties and he was being investigated and sued on many levels relating to the collapse of his primary business (a meat packing plant that had contracts with McDonalds).  Again, not to minimize the impact that CTE may have had on him or his behavior (or business dealings), but these other issues could have been significant in his decision to take his own life.  Sadly, I had the opportunity to present at an event sponsored by an organization run by one of his closest friends. This friend was the first person to get to the body and cleaned up before the family got there. I got to see the actual photos he took of the bed, blood soaked sheets and the room.

6. Ira Casson, another one of the medical professionals on the NFL’s committees looked utterly ignorant with his blanket proclamations that there was no link to concussions or head trauma.

7. Junior Seau was anothe player that had tried to commit suicide on a few other occasions, before he was successful.

8. Omalu’s boss who was indicted is also a good reminder of the federal government that can choose to indict almost anyone for almost anything if you have any dealings with federal agencies or funding.  I don’t know the whole story in that case but would be interested to read more if anyone has the details.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, many of which cannot be answered until we can identify CTE in living people.  I will make a list of these questions for next time.

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.