Sports Law Scoreboard : Sports Lawyer & Attorney : Fox Rothschild Law Firm : Intellectual Property, Copyright Infringement & Privacy for Athletes

We have to start somewhere and congrats to Jason Collins for being a man of courage. In Sports Illustrated, the free agent NBA center announced that he was gay. All the pundits will have something to say, but it comes down to guts and his reference to the Boston Marathon was so apt. I am proud to say that my son went to the same high school, albeit a few years later, and that I have been privileged to meet his parents.

I once joked with his folks about another basketball player who had bought a house for his mom, and they told me that the family dynamic was somewhat different in their household. Remember that when the Collins twins picked Stanford over UCLA, they were asked why and one of them said it was because they could.  These are very proud people and today their son did them proud. There is law and there is convention and sometimes they both have to move..  

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By Jeffrey S. Kravitz, Esquire

Jovan Belcher had his whole life ahead of him and now he and his girlfriend are gone. According to the Daily News, he kissed the corpse after he shot her, before killing himself. Law allows us to grow as we grow old. Athletics often rob us of that luxury. As immortalized in poetry:

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

From: To An Athlete Dying Young by A.E. Housman

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By Jeffrey S. Kravitz, Esq.

Johnny Manziel is putting up numbers for Texas A&M that make him, if not the odds on favorite for the Heisman, at least a face that we will see at the New York Athletic Club when the award is given. And why not? Does anyone doubt that Kareem Abdul Jabbar was the best collegian in the land as a freshman or Bill Walton?

In those days, freshman were not even eligible to play varsity ball, but Johnny Football sure looks good for a kid you never heard of coming into this season. As the sentiment in the Dallas Morning News Blog has it, why not? In private law firms, freshman are most often relegated to the back room (my firm excepted) but in public employment, they often hand you a file and say "try this case."  As a young pup, I faced a veteran trial lawyer on a civil rights case who had a big reputation. I was too green to know who he was and my bosses let me run with it. Beat him to everyone's surprise, I had a senior lawyer who did not want to try cases any more hand me a file, only to have me find out that I was facing the man known as the Desert Fox. Always loved the quote from Hall of Fame baseballer Dizzy Dean  "It ain't braggin' if you can do it."

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Marcus Dupree is the Greatest Who Never Was, as per an ESPN special on the very special running back. Everything that could go wrong did and he never fulfilled his greatness. Much like law, there are some who prosper with modest skills and others with greatness where greatness alludes. Call it fate, kismet or bashert. What I do see is that those who prosper often had great counseling along the way. Others falter because they are always on their own. My advise to both athletes and young lawyers: find yourself someone to trust who will bring you along. Learning your craft means learning to find great teachers you can trust.  

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 Here is a list of athletes who turned lawyers after their sports careers:

5. Alan Page (Football Hall of Famer and former Justice of Minnesota Supreme Court)

4. Nick Buoniconti (NFL Pro-Bowler and Massachusetts lawyer)

3. Ken Dryden (Montreal Canadians and Canadian lawyer)

2. Terry Baker (Heisman Trophy winner and Oregon attorney)

1. Fidel Castro (baseball and ...depending on your political bent...government or thuggery)

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Richard Williams was the Swiss tennis champion and one of the survivors of the Titanic. He went on to be NCAA singles champion. Talk about dodging the bullet.....As a pup lawyer and a Deputy Attorney General, I defended a civil rights case filed in propia persona by one James Von Brunn. We won and years later he invaded the Holocaust Museum and killed a guard before being gunned down himself. And yes, I thought he was dangerous at the time. Let no one tell you law is a no-contact sport.

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Bubba Smith was the most feared college defenseman of my youth. He went on to a terrific pro career and a little bit of my personal history goes with him dying on my birthday (August 3rd). How do powerful men die at "only" 66? Segue: I love trying cases, but perhaps my least favorite would be defending a wrongful death case. You can argue about injuries and perhaps the plaintiff is gilding the lily. You can argue contractual interpretation or fair use or spousal support, etc...What the heck can you say about death? It was not our fault (often true). It was her time (hollow). He was a terrible person (dangerous ground). Perhaps that is why so many litigators love sports. Victory and defeat, but above all, perpetual youth.

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By repute, Abe Lincoln was one of the great trial lawyers of his day. Tall, commanding, and a great story teller, he could hold a jury or any other audience. Yet biographies on him are replete with his defeats, including a defeat for Congress and an unsuccessful courtship. We saw this recently in the victory of Rory McElroy at the US Open after previously losing a tournament to a case of the "yips." Clark Clifford was world renowned as an advisor to several U.S. presidents, but liked to tell the tale of how he lost his first 12 jury trials. He could have folded up his tents and McElroy could have as well. Perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson put it best when he said, “"Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for victories." 

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The Los Angeles Times of March 31, 2011 (see online edition) has an ode to Vin Scully on the editorial page. You can argue who is the greatest baseball player, but you cannot seriously argue as to who is the greatest baseball announcer ever. For those who have not had the privilege, take a look online at his use of language, and that is only the beginning.

Would wish that lawyers were such wordsmiths....although some are. Even as a lay person, google Alex Kozinski (spelling) and see some brilliant legal writing. Or go back to the CBS network defending itself against a doctor they accused of medicare/medicaid fraud who claimed he did know what was going on in his clinic. The trial lawyer told the jury that it was akin to the guy who played piano in the house of ill repute who did not know what was going on in that venue. We as lawyers need to aspire to be something other than mouthpieces. To young lawyers, listen to Scully, now 82 years young, and learn.

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Cordell Parvin recently posted a blog entitled “Stop Comparing Yourself To Your Superstar Senior Partner.” The same applies in law and sports. The worst trial lawyers are those who try to be someone other than themselves. I have seen effective trial lawyers who have high voices, foreign accents and who are, in the words of one of my former partners, "short, bald and ugly." He made the comment to a jury as the opposing lawyer was a former opera singer with a bosso profundo voice. And he won the case. 

Likewise in sports, David Parker was not Roberto Clemente, but he was hall of fame caliber. Shane Battie had to battle at his high school to be himself rather than  Chris Weber, who also had gone to Detroit Country Day and had been the all-state player of the year. The worst thing is, in the words of a highly successful friend, to wake up one morning and realize you had become the man your father wanted you to be. Ralph Sampson, a huge talent, never was the second Kareem and perhaps suffered for not living it down or blowing it down.

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Went to see this movie at a benefit last weekend.  Fascinating look at the world we do not know. I realize it sounds like an oxymoron....witness that Brandeis University's team is the Judges, but there is more to this theme than meets the eye.  Specifically, historically any number of Jewish ballplayers played under assumed or changed names to avoid discrimination. For those who long for the good old days, this is a reality check.  The anti-discrimination laws have profoundly changed our world, so much so that one player from the '70s and '80s felt comfortable going by the moniker "Super Jew."  Let's hear it for America's pastime.

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My friend and mentor Cordell Parvin wrote a blog post entitled "Why I Cannot Light Your Fire for Very Long", which chronicles how and why motivation must come from within and give a lists the steps to self-motivation, respectively:

• Focus on the journey each day, not the destination. 
• Do not compare how you are doing with others, 
• Focus on your clients and think about how the work you are doing is helping your clients and maybe helping your community.
• Finally, work each and every day to become the best lawyer you can be. At the end of your day ask yourself if you gave it your best effort that day.

I use a different technique borrowed from Bob Fosse's landmark film "All That Jazz."  His main character (often recovering from substance excess, which I do not recommend) would slap himself in the face while looking in the mirror and proclaim with a smile "It's Showtime."  It sure works for this lawyer.  Ever wonder why someone with all the tools such as Ryan Leaf (considered to be the equal of Peyton Manning in talent) or any number of talented ball players fail?  Maybe they did not slap hard enough or come up with their own technique for self motivation.

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In February 1927, a golfing foursome was arrested in Greensville South Carolina for golfing on a Sunday. A state law outlawed golfing on the Lord's Day.  When released, the golfers finished their game in North Carolina, and we have come a long way since.  We now play on every which day and players give up Christmas, Thanksgiving and all other holidays in the name of the game.  Sunday blue laws once prohibited shopping on Sundays and were sustained for societal values, thus avoiding charges of the establishment clause being violated.  No moral point here, but the legal point is we now have a sharply divergent society when it comes to religions, but no one is giving up Sunday football.

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ESPN.com has a number of short video pieces on the meaning of Dr. Martin Luther King to various athletes. I am not an athlete, but have to share with you my memory. My father was born and raised in Newark, N.J. and lived in a one-parent home. His graduation pictures reflect the beautiful diversity of America. After a number of jobs, he opened a dry cleaning store on the outskirts of Long Beach, California, which is not to be confused with Long Beach now (the childhood home of Snoop Dog, amongst others). The town was known as "Iowa by the Sea" and the Congressman was a social conservative. On the day when "I Have a Dream" was delivered, he shut his shop down and kept my brother and me home from summer school, letting us know that we had to watch history being made on t.v. And we did. He has since passed on. Happy MLK Day, dad.

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The sports page used to be referred to as the "sandbox of the newspaper," which I suppose would be now called the Sandbox of the Media or some such thing. Former President Ford used to say that he would always read the sports page first. And that was when he was in the White House. On occasion, the realities of the real world intersect, and not always pleasantly.  Dallas Green, the former major league manager, had his granddaughter killed by a very sick puppy in Tucson on Saturday. Nine and done.

As featured on ESPN Monday, there is no worse tragedy in life than a life prematurely taken. All of the lives taken and interrupted are precious and there will never be adequate justice for these crimes, regardless of result. Perhaps the most we can do is to give an extra word of love or encouragement to those we love and perhaps spend some extra time with them.

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 The following is one of Len Berman's Top 5 Sports Stories for November 22, 2010:

"If you were alive in 1963, you'll always remember this date. I was in high school and they dismissed school without telling us why. We were left to fend for ourselves. Walking through the streets of Manhattan that Friday afternoon, I noticed that people were paying attention to radios and TVs. Later, when I arrived at my after-school job, I found out why. Despite the national tragedy, NFL games were played that Sunday, but not televised. The late Commissioner Pete Rozelle always said it was his greatest mistake. Other sports leagues carried on as well, but they weren't criticized like the NFL. I remember going to a Rangers hockey game that Sunday night. I guess that was my way of trying to take my mind off the four worst days I lived through as a teenager."

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Here it is, NOVEMBER 22ND, 2010. To those of us of a certain age, we will always remember this date as the day President Kennedy died. A good friend, now a prof at UCLA, was at that time a student at the University of Nebraska, soon to be on his way to Harvard Grad School. That weekend was due to be the Oklahoma-Nebraska game, played at Nebraska. Not a hotbed of liberalism, but very much a campus, the school president decided to go forward with the game. The game was played with the whole student body standing in silence. No band, no cheers, no drunken shouts. Without going political. it is amazing when people express themselves in mass action.

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In rivals.com’s article, “Kentucky flopped in the classroom in Calipari’s first season,” two items caught our eye. First, John Calipari's Kentucky basketball team got barely passing grades in the classroom.  School is not for everyone, and it appears time for the NBA and NCAA to huddle on the "one and done" rule, particularly when the best and basketball brightest can go to Europe for a year to circumvent. Has anyone talked with any of the one year guys to see if they found that year of college to be worthwhile outside the arena?

Second, and more positively, UCLA Center for African American Studies just honored Harry Edwards. Mr. Edwards served for years as professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley. He organized the '68 protest by Black athletes that dramatized the barriers confronting Blacks in sports and society. Mr. Edwards went on to serve as consultant on diversity for the three major sports, including a stint with the Golden State Warriors and the development of the Minority Coaches Internship and Outreach Program with the Forty Niners. Why not reach out again to a pioneer and see if he can work through some of these issues? Society and the athletes deserve it.

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Randy Johnson to retire After 22 Seasons and 303 Victories.

Five things he might do:

5. Senatorial candidate from New York, Arizona or Washington;

4. Anger Control Spokesperson;

3. Stand-in for Green Giant food products;

2. Advertise the VW bug; or

1. Male Model for mullet haircuts.

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Every once in a while something comes along that just blows our minds.  Take a look at annenbergspaceforphotography.org.  They are located in West Los Angeles (Century City) in between the Creative Artists Headquarters and the Twin Towers office building.  If you are within a hundred miles, come and see their present exhibit, "Sport Ioos & Liefer," which captures two of the world's pre-eminent sports photographers.  All of the iconic photos from SI are there, including bookends of the young, vibrant Ali and a recent portrait of him and Frazier, two grizzled gladiators.  

Embroiled as we are in the world of contracts and cases, we sometimes forget the sheer magnetism of the sports world.  Come here for a refresher course.  Here's hoping that the exhibit (which runs through March 7, 2010) will be memorialized by a book and dvd.

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