The NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires after the 2010 season, and among other points up for debate–including revenue sharing and a rookie pay scale–the NFLPA may want to push for a new anti-doping policy whose disciplinary measures don’t effectively make League Commissioner Roger Goodell judge, jury and executioner all at once.
U.S. District Judge Paul [...]

“A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do,” John Wayne’s character mused in the 1939 film, “Stagecoach”. In Ron Salcer’s case, that means taking on zealous fans, the local media, even crooked executives, all in order to defend his principles.
Salcer, who runs Icy Luck, Inc. out of Manhattan Beach, CA, represents Marian [...]

Rapidly vanishing lines of credit are not only taking their toll on inflated asset prices and the global financial markets in general, but also in the willingness of companies to not only underwrite sporting events, but also to market their brands through athletes. During financial stress, marketing budgets are historically one of the first [...]

While a law student in 1993 at St. Louis University, Ben Dogra, now 43, interned for free with Jim Steiner of SFX Football (then SMG). Dogra would later call Steiner his mentor, but in time, some began to wonder who was teaching what to whom. By 2006, Dogra and Steiner sold SFX Football [...]

A former top-ranked college player in the early 90s for the University of Kansas, Carlos Fleming hung up his racket after a short-lived professional career, and wondered, what now?
Returning to his hometown in Cleveland, Fleming enrolled in a JD/MBA program at Case Western, and also sought any opportunity he could to meet people associated with [...]

Minister and prison guard by day, Albert Thomas, 48 years old, is a sports agent by night. Oh, and he’s a full-time father of five, and husband to boot. Comic book hero? Nope. Just one man who didn’t like what he saw was happening, and decided to take action. While watching [...]

The landscape of sports and entertainment management can change quickly, but it’s precisely this fluidity and competitive environment of consolidation and adventure that ensures its longevity, while also identifying the leaders and visionaries of tomorrow.

Take Hugh Dodson, for instance. Dodson had been chief operating officer and chief financial officer of The Gersh Agency in [...]

While Augusta is my favorite major to watch, and while I consider the U.S. Open to be the toughest major to actually win, there is something about The British Open that makes it the most special of the four. Maybe it’s because it is golf’s oldest championship. Maybe it’s because it’s fun to [...]

Imagine signing a talented young girl, literally weeks after her college graduation ceremony, and then less than three weeks later watching her charge to the top of the leader board after three rounds of the biggest tournament in her sport (and her first as a professional). Jeff Chilcoat, President of the Columbus, OH based [...]

Everyone is anticipating a Lorena Ochoa (pictured)-Annika Sorenstam duel (numbers one and two in the world, respectively; click here for the current women’s world rankings) this weekend at the U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen Country Club in Minnesota, but as Tiger and Phil show us time and time again, rarely do these much-hyped #1-2 [...]

Gear up for this week’s U.S. Open with some preview coverage. Doug Ferguson breaks down the story behind the mega-pairing (a full list of pairings is available here) for Thursday-Friday (Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott (pictured)). Ed Sherman gives kudos to the USGA for putting this dream threesome together. In my [...]

In a recent piece on Lindsay Kagawa (”Sports agent no devil, but wears Prada”), head of the newly created Women’s Elite Division for Bill Duffy’s BDA Sports, columnist Marcus Thompson II seems to fawn, just a little: “Kagawa, an Albany native, is what they call a postmodern businesswoman, the smoothie you’d get by mixing Ellen [...]

While attending Oklahoma University as a law student in 1997, the now 34-year old Kelli Masters (left) entered the Miss Oklahoma pageant and won, allowing her to advance to the Miss America competition. A former baton-twirling champion (she was a member of the 1990 and 1993 U.S. Twirling Teams) while an undergraduate along with [...]

While Darren continues to schlep around Israel, I’ll continue his Friday wrap-up tradition even in his absence. The following are some headlines that we neglected to cover during the week.
The Academy for Athletes, founded by former NFL running back Paul Miles, offers instruction in finance, health, law, public relations and social awareness. It also [...]

The 34th annual Sports Lawyers Association (SLA) conference begins this afternoon in San Francisco, with top legal executives of the four major leagues and the heads of the four players unions on the agenda of the three-day meeting.
The SLA conference will conclude on Saturday after one panel featuring MLBPA Executive Director Donald Fehr, the NBPA’s [...]

When Bob McClaren crossed over in 2002 from being the Houston Astros’ President of Business Operations to becoming a sports agent (he founded McClaren Sports, along with partner, old-college roommate and respected former Texas high school basketball coach Tommy Thomas, in May 2005) he was met with a rather ominous forecast. “You’re going to [...]

“The key to this business,” Dicky Fox told Jerry Maguire, “is personal relationships.”
But when do said relationships start? And what do they entail? For Louis Johnson and Rodney Guillory, “runners” for Bill Duffy Associates Sports Management (BDA), a “relationship” with then USC-freshman O.J. Mayo meant a regularly BDA-subsidized Citibank account and over $200,000 [...]

Last week Darren wrote about the AAFL, which is temporarily on hiatus and will soon be embroiled in a class action lawsuit on behalf of the players against League founder/chairman Marcus Katz.
Now more news from yet another budding league in last Friday’s SportsBusiness Daily (subscription required): “Upstart United National Football League (UNFL) Founder & [...]

Tiger Woods may have come up short yet again at Augusta (which did nothing to disspell the lone ‘criticism’ of his game–i.e. that he cannot come from behind on Sunday to win), but that doesn’t mean that Nike and IMG weren’t elated by the success of South African Trevor Immelman, who has been overshadowed by [...]

Having grown up as a competitive surfer since the age of 11, Blair Marlin (left) has had a longstanding relationship with the surfing industry. After retiring from competitive surfing, Marlin went on to co-found Transworld Surf, where he was the magazine’s Assistant Editor, before moving on to DC Shoes as a Surf, Moto and [...]