Deflate-gate dominated pre-Super Bowl talk. One of the reasons why it received as much attention as it did was because of so-called “Spygate,” an incident in which the Patriots were found to have videotaped New York Jets’ coaches and players, during a September 2007 game, to steal their signals and coaching instructions. So if the Pats were guilty of that, then maybe they deflated some footballs too...

I have long been a student of the intersection between sports and the law. And there are countless opportunities to get this education. These two come together in innumerable ways – from the deadly serious to the hilariously entertaining and everything imaginable in between. And there should be no surprise about this collision. After all, sports is our national pastime. Suing people is our second national pastime...

Senator George J. Mitchell and his law firm, DLA Piper LLP (US), announced that today he has delivered his ninth quarterly report as the independent athletics integrity monitor under the Athletics Integrity Agreement (“AIA”) among The Pennsylvania State University, the National Collegiate Athletics Association, and the Big Ten Conference. Senator George J. Mitchell and his law firm, DLA Piper LLP (US),...

By Stephen J. Kastenberg and Marcel S. Pratt A recent California federal court decision has further lifted the thumb on the scales that has historically benefited collegiate athletics in weighing whether their association rules violate the federal antitrust laws. In so doing, the court ruled that antitrust laws prohibit the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from imposing rules that prevent college athletes...

The World Cup is in full swing. So that can mean only one thing – the entire planet coming together, with a shared purpose of cheering on their national soccer team, in a spirit of competition and good will. Well, yeah, but I was thinking more like it means that I ponder whether any coverage cases have centered around soccer. When I went in search of this answer I was expecting a low score. Obviously with the beautiful...

On January 28, 2014, players on the Northwestern University football team filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") seeking union representation. The petition is the first of its kind and, if successful, the Northwestern football team would be the first group of college athletes to be represented by a union. The players' petition to the NLRB would allow the College Athletes Players...