This World Series defense stems from the actions of an over eager Philadelphia fan who is using the Phillies World Series appearance as part of her defense against a misdemeanor charge of promoting prostitution from an advertisement on Craigslist.

Susan Finkelstein, a 43-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate student, wanted to take her husband to a World Series game between her darling Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees. Mrs. Finkelstein wanted to get tickets for game one of the World Series so badly that she posted an advertisement on Craigslist describing herself as a “buxom blonde” looking to meet up with someone to discuss getting tickets to a World Series game. Unfortunately for Finkelstein, an undercover officer responded to the ad and arranged to meet her in a suburban Philly bar on Tuesday, October 27^th. The two had a few beers and discussed Finkelstein’s ideas about a ticket exchange. The specific facts about what was said at the table between the two are unclear as both sides have different accounts.

According to Finkelstein’s attorney, William J. Brennan, the Craigslist ad may have dropped double entendres but never explicitly offered sex. Brennan said, “If somebody read into that posting a sexual connotation, that’s on them. There’s no overt sexual reference.” Mr. Brennan also said that his client was “a nice lady overcome with Phillies fever.”  Finkelstein told the Associated Press that she was hoping to get cheap tickets, as she had in the past.  “Maybe meet someone, and talk, and bat my eyelashes and maybe get some tickets.”

On the other side, the prosecution believes the advertisement on Craigslist and the conversation with the undercover officer at the bar clearly show Finkelstein’s true intent.  The officer said that she never offered him any money for the tickets, but declined to further elaborate on the conversation and the offer.

Finkelstein has a preliminary hearing in Bucks County Pennsylvania on December 3^rd. In the mean time, the notoriety and press, although embarrassing, has given Finkelstein and her husband some positives. A radio station and car dealer offered her and her husband a pair of tickets to a weekend game of the Phillies. Other reports have her and her husband attending game three of the World Series, but failed to mention how she got the tickets.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello mentioned that Doty’s ruling on Vick’s bonuses was upheld in large part because the 8th Circuit found the contract’s forfeiture language ambiguous.

The ruling allows the Philadelphia Eagles backup Quarterback to keep more than $16 million in roster bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons.  The court claimed that Vick had already earned the bonus money before he was convicted of federal dog fighting crimes and the money was NOT subject to forfeiture laws.

Vick could certainly use the additional money to help pay off creditors and start over now that he is back on the playing field.  He is set to earn  $1.6 million from the Eagles this year with a team option for the second year at $5.2 million.

Obviously the NFL was not happy about the appellate court’s decision to agree with Judge Doty’s previous ruling.  Doty has handled NFL cases including Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) matters for years.  However, after his first decision in this case, the NFL began accusing the Judge of being biased and attempted to end his oversight of its contract with the players union.

Unfortunately, after the decision that the 8th circuit handed down, it looks like the relationship between the NFL and Judge Doty will continue a bit longer.

Adidas and UCF discussed this matter again last week and could not find a middle ground on this situation. Before  making the decision to halt the contract extension with the University, Adidas spokeswoman Andrea Corso said, “We are in negotiations for a future relationship regarding the broader UCF athletic program. What I can say is that these relationships are based upon agreed deliverables for both parties.” Ultimately, Adidas said they were not willing to bend the rules, even for a Jordan.

If UCF did not allow Marcus to wear Nike’s, they could have lost Marcus Jordan as an athlete. Jordan was very persistent and was never seen wearing anything but Air Jordan’s. He even said that this issue was discussed on his recruiting trip to UCF. The only real option the University had was to amend the prior contract between Adidas and allow Marcus Jordan to be the exception to this sponsorship agreement. UCF athletic director Keith Tribble said Jordan could make his own choice on what shoes to wear.  He also mentioned that he wouldn’t be the first athlete at the school to get permission to wear something other than Adidas (a football player wore a different pair of shoes because of a better fit). However, the athlete in this situation was Michael Jordan’s son and the media attention and spotlight were shining bright on the athletic company.

This may seem like a silly dispute over shoes, but the effects of little Jordan’s actions are much more serious. The real issue here is a contract dispute; however the attention this story received will surely have an underlying effect on the current debate about intellectual property rights for NCAA athletes.

Are all student athletes bound by what sponsor the school has chosen or do they have any individual rights? What rights are college athletes giving away by signing with a school and playing college sports?

This is only one of the many conflicts that have arisen lately around the nation regarding college athletes and the rights they have while in school. Last year Nebraska University quarterback Sam Keller filed a lawsuit against video-game company Electronic Arts and the NCAA stating that they were illegally using the images of college football and basketball players in video games without their permission or compensation. Other related intellectual property cases are still pending and awaiting trial. The court will soon have to address the broad range of activities that athletes consent to give the universities when sign their name on the dotted line and agree to play for that school.

Personally, I think MJ’s son has a legitimate reason for not wearing his team shoes.  But isn’t college basketball more about the team and not the individual?  How would it look if Marcus was the only one on the team wearing brand new Jordan’s that haven’t been released yet?

On a more serious note, the University of Central Florida has a 3 million dollar, six-year contract with Adidas.  This contract  requires all UCF athletes and coaches to use only Adidas apparel and equipment.  If Marcus wears his fathers Nike’s this will clearly be a breach of contract and with the last name of Jordan, it is likely to cause a big scene.

Adidas said they were aware of Marcus Jordan’s attendance at UCF and on the basketball team, and will be working to resolve this “unique” situation without causing too much controversy.

Although this may not seem like a big deal and some of you may think little MJ should be able to wear his fathers shoes, it has very serious legal and athletic ramifications for UCF.  If Adidas and UCF can’t find a middle ground with this situation and Marcus wears Nikes, the University may be liable for breach and owe  damages up to $3 million dollars to Adidas.  On the opposite side, if UCF does not allow Marcus to bend the rules and amend the contract, they may lose Marcus Jordan (if he cannot be persuaded to switch to Adidas).

The battle of the footwear seems silly but surely has some serious ramifications for UCF.

If you haven’t heard about the scuffle, here is a semi-brief recap:

Around three months ago, when the Phillies played the Florida Marlins in Miami, Ryan Howard hit his 200^th homerun, making him the fastest player to ever reach that milestone in MLB history.  Twelve year-old Miami resident, Jennifer Valdivia, was fortunate enough to beat her older brother and everyone else to the homerun ball hit into the stands.  This was Jennifer’s first ever MLB game.  She attended the game with her 17 year old brother and grandmother- who does not speak any English.  Shortly after gathering the ball, the Phillies sent someone from management to seek out Jennifer in order to procure the ball for Howard.  Individuals from the Phillies ended up taking only twelve year old Jennifer and her seventeen year old brother to the clubhouse to “talk” about a trade for the homerun ball (emphasis added).  After some tough negotiating, the Phillies made an agreement with Jennifer that had her receiving a signed Ryan Howard ball after the game, in exchange for the ball she had caught in the stands.  Once Jennifer had returned home and told her mother about the deal with the Phillies, the family sought out attorney and memorabilia enthusiast Norm Kent.   Only days later, Kent filed a complaint and within hours, the Phillies called Jennifer and returned the ball the same day.

After first hearing this story, I had the same initial thought as Mark Conrad from Sports Law Blog. The foremost thing on my mind was the first couple of weeks of Contracts class where we discussed contracting with minors or infants.  I remembered the duel edged sword that minors can have when forming a contract.  The rules of “infancy” state when a minor forms a contract, he/she can rescind that contract at any time without approval by the other side.  That is why contracting with a minor can be a very silly thing, like in this situation.

My response to this situation is one of disbelief.  Who in the Phillies organization would make a deal with a twelve year old girl regarding a supposed piece of MLB history (if you categorize “the fastest to” as a legitimate baseball record) without her parents or someone who is NOT a minor present?  If the Phillies brought the grandmother into the clubhouse with the girl, they probably would have the ball now.

How could this individual not feel like he was doing something wrong, or taking advantage of this child by making such a deal?  Although there are two sides to every story, the Phillies quickly recognized the ramifications and bad press that keeping the baseball would cause and made the right decision by giving it back.

To me this sounds like an incident where Rose was partying with his friends and was posing for a picture. He was not trying to rep’ any gangs in any way and was only posing for the camera.  Maybe it was an inappropriate pose however, I have seen plenty of photos like this by people on Facebook who think nothing at all by the gestures and actions they are making in them. Hopefully Rose was not thinking anything gang related at the time, as I do not believe he was.

I’m sure his agent, B.J. Armstrong, has some input regarding Rose’s apologetic statements.  Whether the remarks were made by Rose alone or in concert with his agent, the swift decision saved Rose from additional negative publicity before bloggers and others could gossip.  Any way you look at it, Rose taking accountability for his actions is a good sign.  This clearly indicates that the youngster is learning and is a huge positive for Chicago Bulls fans, especially now that his SAT score at Memphis is being investigated.

“Recently, a photo has been circulating on the Internet which appears to depict
me flashing a gang sign,” Rose said in the statement. “This photo of me was
taken at a party I attended in Memphis while I was in school there, and was
meant as a joke … a bad one, I now admit. I want to emphatically
state, now and forever, that Derrick Rose is anti-gang, anti-drug, and
anti-violence. I am not, nor have I ever been, affiliated with any gang and I
can’t speak loudly enough against gang violence, and the things that gangs
represent.”

“In posing for this picture, I am guilty of being young,
naive and of using extremely poor judgment. I sincerely apologize to all my fans
for my mistake. I pride myself on being a good citizen, and role model, that
young people can look up to and I want to urge all my young fans to stay away
from gangs and gang-related activities.”

When I was in Chicago, I came across a commercial for the Chicago Bliss: A brand new team that will play in the inaugural year of the Lingerie Football League this season on Friday nights.  The Chicago Bliss were holding tryouts last week, just like many other LFL teams around the United States.  The Lingerie Football League is no joke.  Not only are these ladies gorgeous and wearing lingerie, but they are making some serious hits and playing intense football, as well.  Friday night lights has a new definition.

The league will be divided up into two divisions, consisting of an eastern and western conference with five teams in each.  Miami has a team called the Caliente, which means hot in Spanish.  Other LFL teams include Denver Dream, Dallas has the Desire, Los Angeles has a team called the Temptation, and Phillip Rivers will now have to compete against statistics from the San Diego Seduction’s QB.

The LFL features some of the toughest, hottest women in sports playing seven on seven tackle football.  This certainly does not sound like a bad way to spend your Friday nights this Fall.  The LFL kicks off on September 4th, 2009 with the Chicago Bliss hosting the Miami Caliente.

Agents seem to be doing their jobs, keeping player salaries increasing at similar rates in most sports, but many markets are still taking serious hits. The financial burden placed on some people in many industries has shined the spotlight on “cheaters” in athletics and everywhere else. Steroids and performance enhancing drugs are a huge issue of concern in almost every sport now. The most recent financial meltdown has leaked even further into the sports industry, as athletes are a large portion of the clients who have invested their earnings into larger financial institutions.

And after that grand introduction, I would like to bring to attention the connection and pandemonium that has been kept moderately under wraps between Athletic Resource Management (ARM) and Morgan Keegan Investments.

The facts sounds similar to the troubles Scott Boras and his clients had with Stanford Financial. Boras and his investment relationship with Stanford Financials was a big story that made national news after the Madoff scandal was brought to light. The connection here between Morgan Keegan and one of the greatest sports agents, Jimmie Sexton and his agency ARM, is just as relevant. However, the story has not made national headlines like Boras’s incident and seems to have been given the silent treatment, as Sexton and ARM have done a great job of keeping their names disconnected with Morgan Keegan’s financial plunders. The ability of ARM to shield the public from Sexton’s bad investment decisions is one of the underlying reasons people do not believe that athletes and agents are really taking a hit in this economy. From hiding links connecting agents and financial institutions, to loaning multimillion dollars of client’s money, agents like Boras and Sexton just do a great job of handling the tough situations in the current economy.

Athletic Resource Management was founded in 1985 by Kyle Rote Jr. A Professional soccer player who was once named “Greatest All Around Athlete” of all time by ESPN the magazine. The firm was based in Memphis but had offices, agents and much of its operations and contacts located in Dallas, Texas. ARM represents professional basketball, football, baseball players, and has a broad range of coaches as clients as well. The firm represented athletes such as Scottie Pippen, Clarence Weatherspoon, and Reggie White and currently has a list including Frank Beamer, George Sherril, Matt Cain, Lane Kiffin, Rex Ryan, Jason Witten, Nick Saban, Phillip Rives, and recent draftee Michael Oher. ARM had established a great reputation and was recognized by the Chicago Sun Times as one of the top 12 sports agencies in the country.

On June 1 of 1995 Morgan Keegan Financials Inc. officially announced an agreement purchasing Athletic Resource Management, Inc. Under the agreement, Morgan Keegan purchased the stock shares of ARM, while ARM continued to operate under the Athletic Resource Management name acting as a fully owned subsidiary of Morgan Keegan, Inc. From that day forward, ARM chief executive officer, Kyle Rote Jr., and President James Sexton II joined Morgan Keegan along with five other Memphis-based employees and four employees from their Dallas office, all moving to Memphis, Tennessee.

Although the two were technically separate, the close connection between the two companies is where the trouble started. Clearly, ARM was financially intertwined with Morgan Keegan. ARM and its agents would obviously recommend Morgan Keegan Financials expertise to all of their clients. Many agents and financial advisors advocate keeping the two job positions completely separate. Future agents are told to recommend several different financial agencies/advisors to clients in order to avoid potential liability if the recommended financial advisors don’t work out. In this instance it does not sound like ARM remained unbiased or offered its clients many options for investing.

The close relationship between Morgan Keegan and ARM started with the friendship of Sexton and John Wilfong. Wilfong was the financial advisor who handled most of ARM’s client’s and was best friends with Sexton for years. Apparently, they are not even on speaking terms anymore. He was also the one who originally knew of the athletes’ funds crashing. Mr. Wilfong was out the door at Morgan Keegan the very date the Kiplinger article below hit the stands. He now works for UBS and is no longer on the NFLPA registered financial advisors list.

“For years, bond funds run by Morgan Keegan’s Jim Kelsoe soared. Then, like Icarus, Kelsoe strayed too close to the sun and came crashing back to earth with melting wings… The Morgan Keegan disaster is a reminder that investors need to undertake a bit more investigation than usual when they contemplate buying into a bond fund that has delivered abnormally high returns.. That requires some understanding of the assets the fund holds. In general, you shouldn’t invest in what you don’t understand.”

To say it simply, Morgan Keegan lied and told their clients the funds were long term safe retirement funds, when in reality, they were placed in very high risk security funds. Morgan Keegan’s name was taken off ARM’s site immediately. Jimmy Sexton and ARM separated its alliance from Morgan Keegan in the middle of the night, right under a lot of people’s noses. Many people didn’t even realize Morgan Keegan own ARM in the first place.

The situation and transactions that occurred between Morgan Keegan and ARM affected many of ARM’s NFL clients and even caused a hit to future ARM clients. Among those affected by these actions are Donte Stallworth, Gibril Wilson, Jerome Woods and many more.

Woods was Sexton’s first 1st round draft pick and kept Sexton as his agent throughout his ten year NFL career. Mr. Woods and his wife Dana recently won $950,000 in a case against Morgan Keegan for losing nearly all of Wood’s money he placed with Morgan Keegan for retirement funds after his 2007 NFL retirement. This is a big decision, as many more Morgan Keegan cases involving athlete funds are still left on the dockets. Previous litigation against Morgan Keegan has not resulted in much, if any, of investor funds being awarded.

With the stench of Morgan Keegan still lingering around in the ARM offices, the agency has noticeably seen some top athletes chose their competitors. Rashad Johnson of Alabama was one athlete who fired ARM only a few weeks prior to the draft after seeing that ARM had a lot of clients who were unhappy with ARM at this moment.

In conclusion, this story shows how the two businesses should not be connected so closely. The moment Morgan Keegan purchased Athletic Resource Management, the relationship and cooperation between Morgan Keegan and ARM became too much. This clearly led to pretty much all of ARM clients being affected by Morgan Keegan’s bad investing decisions.

This is sadly another circumstance where an agent is involved in an area where he does not belong.

Mr. Smith is only one of the many amazing names that will be in Chicago at the conference. Some of the other great names include Jeff Gewirtz, Senior VP and General Counsel of NETS Basketball/ Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment. Stephanie Varvadas, Managing Attorney for Nike Inc. Donald M. Fehr, Executive Director and General Counsel for the MLBPA, Richard J. Berthelsen, General Counsel for the NFLPA,  along with Professors Richard Karcher Director of Law and Professor Florida Coastal School of Law Center for Law and Sports, Vared Yakovee Professor at USC Gould School of Law and Editor-in-chief of Entertainement & Sports Lawyer, Gary R. Roberts from Indiana University School of Law and Gabe Feldman, Director of the Tulane Univesity Sports Law Program to name only a few.

When Gumbel asked Jennings whether he was glad he decided to play in Rome, Jennings answered, “Yes. No doubt. It’s the best decision I’ve made so far.”

That’s certainly a surprising statement, considering the fact that Jennings started out his Virtus Roma career after being kicked out of one of the team’s first practices and producing poor numbers early in the season.  He has now settled down a bit and found his position on the team, but many critics of Jennings still think that his decision to venture abroad has lowered his draft stock.

On the other side, others have praised Jennings for being a trendsetter and showing high school phenom athletes another way to make it professionally.  Those that know of Brandon’s close family connections know that his decision was not solely based on monetary incentives.  However these critics also recognize that Jennings has become a millionaire when some of his peers went to college and played for free.

I’ve said it before, and i’ll say it again. If the Brandon Jennings experiment turns out to be a success and even if it doesn’t, many other talented high schol players will now decide to follow in his shoes.