Panel 4: NSLI Fall 2017 Conference

Maintaining the Integrity & Commercial Value of Sports While Protecting Athlete’s Rights

RETURN TO SUPPLEMENTARY CONFERENCE MATERIALS WEBPAGE

 

Panel 4:

What Are Athlete's Rights? Part 1 - Activism​

MODERATOR: Mary K. Braza, Partner and Chair, Sports Industry Team, Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee, WI

PARTICIPANTS:

• Atiba Ellis, Boden Visiting Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School, and Professor of Law, West Virginia University College of Law, Morgantown, WV
• Adam Epstein, Professor of Legal Studies, Department of Finance and Law, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI
• Jill Pilgrim, Pilgrim & Associates Law Office, Founder & President, The Center for the Protection of Athletes' Rights, Inc., New York, NY
• Stephanie Vardavas, Law Office of Stephanie J. Vardavas, Adjunct Professor of Sports Business, University of Oregon, Portland, OR

 

OVERVIEW

Legal Challenges Related to Athlete Activism

• Olympic Activisim:
  • 1968 Olympics (Carlos and Smith fists)
  • Prefontaine (leading up to the ASA)
  • Muhammad Ali

• Collegiate Activism
  • Northwestern University football unionization attempt;
  • University of Missouri football and softball team mobilizations;
  • A history of student-athlete activism over the years

• Professional Sports
  • Major League Baseball in the 1980s
  • The NFL and NBA Anthem Protests and Free Speech

• Perspective from Sport Sponsors
  • Supported clients in expressing their points of view but as their business advisors we also would have felt it mandatory to warn them about the possible cost.
  • Special rights of termination to allow us to terminate an endorsement agreement if an athlete engaged in hate speech or disrespected diversity in any public way.

• The First Amendment
  • #TakeAKnee protests and how they do (or don’t) fit within First Amendment protections
  • WV. v. Barnette à no an enforceable right regarding the protest.
  • Collective Bargaining vs. Constitutional Rights

 

 

Supplementary Materials

 

Laws, Regulations and Agreements

• Definitions; rights of public employees, MICH. COMP. LAWS 423.201 (1(e (iii))) (2016)).
• INT'L OLYMPIC COMM., Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter: What You Need to Know as a Participant 
• National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. (2017).
• NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (2017)
• NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (2011)
• NFL, Personal Conduct Policy (2016)
• Student's not employee's based upon athletic participation, OHIO REV. CODE § 3345.56 (2016)
• TED STEVENS OLYMPIC AND AMATEUR SPORTS ACT OF 1998 (TSOASA), 36 U.S.C. § 220521 et seq. (2017)
• Olympic Charter, Rule 40, OLYMPIC.ORG (Aug. 2, 2016).
• UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE, 2012 Information for Athletes, Their Agents and NGBs, USATF.ORG (Nov. 2011).
• U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Brand Usage Guidelines, TEAMUSA.ORG
• WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY, The Role of Governments in Addressing Emerging Challenges in the Fight against Doping in Sport (Nov. 29, 2016)

Cases and Decisions

• Brown Univ., 342 N.L.R.B. 483 (2004).
• Gold Medal LLC v. USA Track & Field, No. 6:16-cv-00092-MC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62703 (D. Or. May 11, 2016)
• Hysaw v. Washburn Univ. of Topeka, 690 F. Supp. 940 (D. Kan. 1987)
• Northwestern Univ., Case 13-RC-121359 (N.L.R.B. Region 13, Mar. 26, 2014).
• Northwestern Univ. & College Athletes Players Ass'n (CAPA), 362 N.L.R.B. No. 167(Aug. 17, 2015)
• West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)
• Williams v. Eaton, 310 F. Supp. 1342 (D. Wyo. 1970), aff 'd in part and vacated in part 443 F.2d 422 (10th Cir. 1971), aff'd 468 F.2d 1079 (10th Cir. 1972)

Articles and Research

• Aaron Dodson, Seattle Seahawks defense end Michael Bennett finds his place as an activist, The Undefeated, Apr. 11, 2017.
• Adam Epstein & Kathryn Kisska-Schulze, Northwestern University, the University of Missouri and the “Student-Athlete”: Mobilization Efforts and the Future, 26 J. of Legal Aspects of Sport 71 (2016).
• Adam Epstein and Paul M. Anderson, The Relationship Between a Collegiate Student-Athlete and the University: An Historical and Legal Perspective, 26 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 287 (2016) 
• Adam Epstein, The Ambush at Rio, 16 John Marshall Rev. of Intellectual Property Law 350 (2017).
• Adam Epstein, The Olympics, Ambush Marketing and Sochi Media, 3 ARIZ. ST. UNIV. SPORTS & ENTM'T L.J. 110 (2013).
• Alexandra Jane Roberts, Handicapping the Olympic Committee's Quest to Control Tweeting, TECH. & MARKETING. L. BLOG (Aug. 25, 2016).
• Andrew Surma, Mountain Madness: Student Activists Who Occupied Central Hall, Warriner Mall Return to Mount Pleasant, CM-LIFE (May 26, 2016)
• Associated Press, Olympians Tiptoe around Sponsorship Ban, FOXNEWS.COM (Feb. 18, 2014)
• Associated Press, Whistleblower: Changes in Russian System 'Just Fake' So Far, DAILYMAIL.COM (May 11, 2016)
• Athlete Activism, After Charlottesville, NPR, Aug. 18, 2017.
• Bryan Flaherty, From Kaepernick sitting to Trump’s fiery comments: NFL’s anthem protests have spurred discussion, Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2017.
• Cassandra Vinograd, #ConcernedStudent1950 Protest at University of Missouri Picks Up Steam, NBC NEWS (Nov. 9, 2015).
• Chip Patterson, Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel, AD Stand in Support of Players on Strike, CBS SPORTS.COM (Nov. 8, 2015).
• Chuck Culpepper, How Missouri Football's Boycott Helped Bridge a Familiar Campus Divide, Wash. Post (Nov. 13, 2015), .
• Dave Zirin, Is the NBA a ‘Safer Space’ for Political Athletes?, The Nation, Sept. 22, 2017.
• Dave Zirin, Hidden History of Strikes and Other Protests in College Sports, ZINNEDPROJECT.ORG (Oct. 29, 2013)
• Dave Zirin, The Missouri Tigers and the Hidden History of Black College Football Activists, NATION (Nov. 12, 2015)
• David Davis, Olympic Athletes Who Took a Stand, Smithsonian.com (Aug. 2008)
• Deena Zaru, Why athletes are getting more political in the age of Trump, CNN, Aug. 14, 2017.
• Douglas Ernst, Arkansas Running Back Strikes 'hands up, don't shoot' Pose after TD, WASH. TIMES (Nov. 28, 2014)
• EAB [Education Advisory Board], Increasingly, Student-athletes Become Student Activists (Nov. 11, 2015)
• Eugene Scott, Trump’s problem isn’t with athletes being political. It’s with athletes speaking out against racism, Washington Post, Sept. 25, 2017.
• Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz, Duke Protesters Face Disciplinary Charges over Sit-In, CHRON. HIGHER EDUC. (Apr. 21, 2016).
• Frank Litsky, Wayne Collett, Track Medalist Barred Because of a Protest, Dies at 60, N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 18, 2010)
• How athletes have tried to use activism to level the playing field, PBS, Sept. 19, 2017.
• Hua Hsu, The Political Athlete: Then and Now, The New Yorker, Mar. 22, 2017.
• Ian Wilhelm, Ripples from a Protest Past, CHRON. HIGHER EDUC. (Apr. 17, 2016)
• Jake New, At NCAA meeting, colleges sports leaders recommend supporting athletes protests, Insider Higher Ed, Feb. 3, 2017.
• Jake New, The Power of a Football Boycott, Inside Higher Ed (Nov. 11, 2015), 
• Jasimine Henry, Top 5 Twitter Scandals from the Olympics, INBOUNDMARKETINGAGENTS.COM (Aug. 3, 2012)
• Jeré Longman, Nick Symmonds, a Sidelined Track Star, Continues to Break From the Pack, N.Y. TIMES (Aug. 14, 2015)
• Jerry Brewer, Sorry for the inconvenience fans, but black athlete activism is multiplying, The Huffington Post, Aug. 16, 2017.
• Jerry Carino, William Paterson Players Walk off Court in Protest, APP.COM (Nov. 25, 2015).
• John Grady, Khalid Ballouli, Andrew Pressley & Anita M. Moorman, Regulating "The Twitter Olympics:" Analyzing Efforts to Regulate Social Media and Ambush Marketing at the London 2012 Olympics, NORTH AM. SOC'Y FOR SPORT MGMT. CONFERENCE (May 31, 2013)
• John Matthew Smith, "Breaking the Plane": Integration and Black Protest in Michigan State University Football during the 1960s, MICHIGAN HISTORICAL REV. (Sept. 22, 2007)
• John Michael Baglione, In their activism, a different kind of strength, Harvard Gazaette, Sept. 14, 2017.
• John Shearer, President Ford Made a Stand for His African-American Friend, CHATTANOOGAN.COM (Jan. 5, 2007)
• Jon Saraceno, Swiss Soccer Player Banned from Olympics for Racist Tweet, USA TODAY (July 30, 2012)
• Jon Solomon, Stanford Football Captains Protested Summer Workouts in 2015, CBS SPORTS (May 10, 2016).
• Josephine (Jo) R. Potuto, William H. Lyons & Kevin N. Rask, What's in a Name? The Collegiate Mark, the Collegiate Model, and the Treatment of Student-Athletes, 92 OR. L. REV. 879, 882 (2014).
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Important of Athlete Activists, TIME, Nov. 16, 2015.
• Kathryn Kisska-Schulze & Adam Epstein, The National Labor Relations Board v. Northwestern University: Cultivating a New Era for Taxing Qualified Scholarships, 49 AKRON L. REV. 7871 (2017)
• Kevin Iole, Irish Boxer Robbed Against Russian, Tweets Vladimir Putin: 'How much did they charge you bro?', YAHOO! SPORTS (Aug. 16, 2016)
• Lane Demas, Surprised that College Football Players Tackled Bigotry on Campus? Here's Why You Shouldn't Be, HECHINGER REPORT.
• Marc Tracy & Ashley Southall, Black Football Players Lend Heft to Protests at Missouri, N.Y. TIMES (Nov. 8, 2015).
• Matt Pearce & Lauren Raab, University of Missouri Football Team and Coach Join Protest to Oust University Leader, LATIMES.COM (Nov. 8, 2015).
• Matt Vasilogambros, When Athletes Take Political Stands, The Atlantic, July 12, 2016.
• Patrick Hruby, Four Years a Student-Athlete: The Racial Injustice of Big-time College Sports, VICE.COM (Apr. 4, 2016)
• Patrick Hruby, Unionize College Athletics, SPORTSONEARTH.COM (Apr. 8, 2013)
• Rachel Axon, Russian Olympic Ban is Bittersweet for Whistleblower Who Provided Doping Evidence, USA TODAY (June 17, 2016)
• Rebecca R. Ruiz & Michael Schwirtz, Russian Insider Says State-Run Doping Fueled Olympic Gold, N.Y. TIMES (May 12, 2016).
• Rio Olympics 2016: Athletes Could Face Sanctions over Controversial Rule 40, BBC.COM (July 26, 2016)
• Samuel G. Freedman, The Civil Rights Legacy that Led to Mizzou, VICE SPORTS (Nov. 10, 2015)
• Sara Ganim, Several Football Players Take Part in Protest for NCAA Reforms, CNN.COM (Sept. 23, 2013).
• Sarah Barker, U.S. Olympic Committee Tells Oiselle to Delete Social Media Posts, Ignores Others, DEADSPIN (July 7, 2016).
• Sarah Brown, Katherine Mangan & Beth McMurtrie, At the End of a Watershed Year, Can Student Activists Sustain Momentum?, CHRONICLE.COM (May 24, 2016).  
• Saul Perloff, Social Media Risks During the Rio Games, BRAND PROTECTION BLOG (Aug. 1, 2016).
• Scott Gleeson, USA Today, Missouri Football Players to Boycott until President Tim Wolfe Resigns (Nov. 8, 2015, 11:26AM)
• Sinead Mulhern, U.S. Olympic Committee Angry over Women's Brand Oiselle's Social Media Photos, CANADIAN RUNNING (July 8, 2016).
• Steve Aschburner, NBA commissioner expects players to stand during anthem, http://www.nba.com/article/2017/09/28/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-expects-players-stand-during-anthem#/  
• Tom Goldman, A Deep-Rooted History of Activism Stirs In College Football, NPR.ORG (Nov. 10), 2015.
• Vinnie Duber, Tim Beckman Saga Shows Importance of Student-athlete Voice, CSNCHICAGO.COM (Aug. 28, 2015),  
• William C. Rhoden, Syracuse Honors Nine Players Who Took a Stand, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 22, 2006).