The Steelers and Patriots are showing that an iconic franchise does not guarantee players’ happiness.

In the NFL Players Association’s annual report card released Wednesday, the Steelers and Patriots—the two franchises with the most Super Bowl titles in history—ranked 28th and 31st overall, respectively, out of the 32 NFL teams. The Jets, Browns, and Cardinals were the other three teams in the bottom five—and the trio has one total Super Bowl between them.

Neither team has performed particularly well in the annual report that started in 2023. Pittsburgh finished 28th last year and 22nd in 2023, while New England was 29th last year and 24th in 2023.

Among the 11 categories voted upon by 1,695 players (a 77% response rate, according to the report), the Steelers finished in the bottom half of the league in all but two. The only category in which the team ranked in the top 10 was head coach, as Mike Tomlin finished seventh in the league with an A grade. Tomlin, who started coaching the team in 2007, is one of the most respected coaches in the league and has never finished with a losing record during his Pittsburgh tenure.

On the flip side, Steelers owner Art Rooney II was ranked No. 28 and received a D rating. He was ranked 30th by the players in terms of “perceived willingness to invest in the facilities.” The ranking comes after NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell said in September that he saw “changes” in the team’s facilities following last year’s report.

New England did not crack the top half of the league in any of the 11 categories, and finished above 20th in just one. The players ranked their weight room dead last in the league, and their team plane was ranked second to last with players asking for an upgraded plane.

“The current plane is too small, there is no Wi-Fi available, and there are seats with ashtrays in the armrests,” the report read.

Like Rooney, Patriots owner Robert Kraft also received a D rating from the team, and he was ranked 30th for commitment to build a winning team.

State lawmakers have discovered a potential weapon in the college sports recruiting arms race: NIL (name, image, and likeness) tax exemptions.

Throughout the past several months, legislators in Georgia, Alabama, and Illinois have introduced bills that would exempt NIL deals from state income taxes. Legislators in Louisiana are reportedly about to introduce a bill of their own. The goal, they hope, is to entice recruits to their flagship universities, both strengthening their rosters and potentially earning more money through more ticket sales.

But the potential pitfalls of such legislation could outweigh the benefits, according to two tax experts who spoke with Front Office Sports. Giving athletes a tax break means states would ultimately sign away their ability to earn extra tax revenue without any meaningful impact in recruiting or increased athletics earnings.

NIL earnings have become a key factor in players’ decisions of where to enroll or transfer—and they’re expected to become even more important in the potential revenue-sharing era. But they aren’t the only factor.

Some say offering tax incentives wouldn’t even improve recruiting because of the disparities in state tax laws that already exist. Katie Davis, a partner at James Moore & Co. consulting firm that works with athletic departments nationwide, notes that Florida, for example, doesn’t have any state income tax, while other programs, even within the SEC, reside in states that do. Since the NIL era began in 2021, she says, there’s no evidence of a major recruiting advantage because of that tax disparity.

“I think what would probably move the dial in recruiting more would be if coaches had tax professionals on retainer,” Davis tells FOS.

The main reason why tax incentives for players aren’t an effective tool is what University of Central Arkansas economics professor Jacob Bundrick describes as a “prisoner’s dilemma.” If multiple states begin introducing NIL tax breaks, it ceases to become a competitive edge for schools.

“If you’re the first mover on this [policy] there might be an advantage,” Bundrick, who has studied the impact of state tax incentives in the sports industry and beyond, tells FOS. “But if there really is an advantage, and we see that in terms of spending and enrollment, you can expect that other states will follow.” At that point, having a favorable tax policy becomes a matter of keeping a level playing field, rather than providing a significant competitive boost.

The NHL is clearly riding a wave of popularity and prominence with the hugely successful 4 Nations Face-Off quickly giving way to the Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin and his GR8 Chase. Next up is an outdoor game in Columbus poised to make its own history.

The league said that a Stadium Series game Saturday between the Red Wings and Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium, normally the home of Ohio State football, is set to draw more than 90,000 people. Regardless of the actual final count, the game will generate the second-largest attendance figure in NHL history, trailing only the 2014 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, which drew 105,491.

“This is an iconic place,” NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer said of Ohio Stadium. “I’ve watched some incredible sporting events take place in this building. It’s special to be here and for us to actually look at what will be the second-largest crowd in the history of these outdoor games, and to know that even though it started many years ago, we’re still going strong.”

Team Issues
The Stadium Series game, the league’s final outdoor contest this season, also marks a rise for both franchises—on and off the ice.

The event is the first outdoor game ever in Columbus, completing a long journey for the Blue Jackets to bring one of the showcase league competitions to the Ohio state capital.

The Red Wings and Blue Jackets, meanwhile, currently hold the top two wild-card slots in the Eastern Conference, giving the event additional competitive drama. Detroit, an Original Six NHL franchise that previously dominated the league at several points, is attempting to return to the postseason for the first time since 2016.

Columbus, meanwhile, is looking for its first playoff trip since the 2019–2020 season heavily altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and is planning to bring its iconic goal cannon to Ohio Stadium for the outdoor game.

The two teams will have a mini-playoff series, of sorts, preceding the Stadium Series game with another clash Thursday night in Detroit. The NHL has used this back-to-back scheduling strategy several times before involving an outdoor game, and is aimed in part at creating a more feisty on-ice atmosphere for the featured event.

Among the 300-plus individuals who have lodged objections to the House v. NCAA settlement, one anonymous letter submitted just before the Jan. 31 deadline stands out, offering an explanation for why there weren’t hundreds if not thousands more objections.

“We are writing this anonymously because we fear the possibility of retribution against the co-author of this letter, who is a Division I student athlete and a member of the class,” states the undated letter, which was entered into the case docket Monday. “We hope you understand and appreciate how difficult the situation is for current student athletes who wish to object to the settlement proposed, in part, by the NCAA, which represents the schools for which they compete. Whether it was intentional or not, the threat of roster cuts accompanying this settlement has silenced the voices of a large portion of the class that believes its interests conflict with the interests of the class representatives.”

Michael Hausfeld, an attorney who represented Ed O’Bannon in his landmark antitrust case against the NCAA and currently represents several objectors to the House settlement, is all too familiar with the culture of fear. “College athletes, by nature of their relationship with coaches and their desire to participate in the athletic program, are hesitant to take any action that they believe might produce a negative response,” Hausfeld said, adding that unlike with most legal settlements, college athletes who opt out of this one will maintain an ongoing relationship with the defendant, potentially lasting for years.

The arbitration panel deliberating over the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx has ruled in favor of Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, a significant step toward the duo completing their acquisition of the NBA and WNBA franchises.

The three-person panel ruled that the pair did not violate the terms of their 2021 purchase agreement, which Taylor claimed when he called off the final two payments, and should be allowed to continue with the acquisition, according to a spokesperson for the Rodriguez and Lore group. The 2-1 decision comes following arbitration hearings that started at the beginning of November and continued into the new year.

The ruling likely clears the way for Rodriguez and Lore to continue with their purchase of the Timberwolves and Lynx. The pair owe Taylor about $942 million to acquire the roughly 60% stake still outstanding, and that money was put aside in escrow last year, Sportico reported in October.

Sports media management start-up ScorePlay has nabbed $13 million in investor money from a swath of athletes and well-known investors, including NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, soccer legend Alex Morgan and Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six VC fund.

ScorePlay offers tools that allow teams and leagues to automate the ways they organize and distribute content, simplifying what often remains a complex process with different types of media spread across various software platforms.

In a release announcing the investment, ScorePlay said that in its four years of operation it has amassed a client list of some 200 sports organizations, including NBA and NHL franchises, more than 100 European soccer clubs plus leagues including MLS and NWSL. ScorePlay uses AI to streamline storing, tagging and distributing sports clips.

Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison in federal court Thursday.

Mizuhara, 40, pleaded guilty last year to committing bank fraud and filing a false tax return after a scandal that rocked the baseball world last spring. He admitted that he stole close to $17 million from the baseball star starting in 2021 to fund an illegal gambling habit.

In the two-plus years Mizuhara spent betting with an illegal bookmaker, he racked up $180 million in losses, going over $40 million in debt to the bookie, according to prosecutors.

Mizuhara has been ordered to pay back the nearly $17 million he stole from Ohtani, and undergo three years of supervised release. That part of the sentence will likely be rendered moot by Mizuhara being deported to Japan upon his release, something his lawyers called a “virtual certainty” in his plea agreement. Judge Judge Holcomb said Mizuhara’s ability to repay Ohtani “remains to be seen.”

Joe McNally, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said Thursday Mizuhara pretended to be Ohtani to try to acquire money in phone calls 24 different times. “Mr. Ohtani is a victim in this case,” McNally repeated several times.

“Mr. Mizuhara took advantage of Mr. Ohtani’s vulnerability as a [non-English speaking] person trying to navigate the celebrity baseball world in the United States,” McNally said.

In January, Mizuhara and members of his family filed letters to the judge in support of his character, saying he was “severely underpaid” while “on call 24/7” for Ohtani and asking for an 18-month sentence. Mizuhara’s attorneys claimed he had a “longstanding” and “severe gambling addiction” that began when he was 18 years old and intensified while working for Ohtani. They said he went to casinos four or five times per week, started racking up debts “virtually from the start” that his parents had to pay back, and started sports betting when he was 22.

Prosecutors received the full sentence that they had sought. In a pre-sentencing filing, they fired back at Mizuhara’s claims that he faced serious debt—“he had no expenses,” they contended—or had a “longstanding” gambling addiction.

Judge Holcomb had many of the same questions Thursday that prosecutors had raised in their filings. He asked how Mizuhara had financial struggles while Ohtani bought him a Porsche SUV, paid his rent, tipped him five-figures per year, and paid for his wife’s flights to and from Japan. Holcomb said Mizuhara’s letter wasn’t credible and full of misrepresentations and omissions.

Mizuhara initially faced a maximum sentence of up to 33 years in federal prison, but prosecutors sought less after he pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators.

Reports emerged in March that Ohtani’s own accounts had paid $4.5 million to bookie Mathew Bowyer’s illegal gambling operation. Mizuhara originally said that Ohtani was involved, then admitted he did it all behind his friend’s back. In April, federal authorities said the amount stolen from Ohtani was more than $16 million. Mizuhara agreed to a plea deal in May, and pleaded guilty in June.

Audio has also surfaced of Mizuhara pretending to be Ohtani on a call with a bank while attempting to wire $200,000 for a “car loan.”

“It was very obvious after some time he was stealing money and not asking Ohtani for permission,” Bowyer told the New York Post in a story published Monday.

It’s a little early for the first battle of the NFL collective bargaining negotiations to commence, but not for skirmishes. This 2025 Super Bowl week may well become known for the initial grappling over the CBA, which expires in 2031.

NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell, who’s been in the post for 18 months, took a decidedly different tone than he did in his introductory press conference at the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where he was conciliatory and seemed open to an 18-game season. This week, however, Howell slammed the idea.

“The first time I heard Roger mention 18, I think it was draft weekend, and he did an interview on The Pat McAfee Show,” Howell said of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. “And so the first conversation we had was, ‘Did I hear you?’”


Players on the Super Bowl week panel with Howell, including NFLPA team president Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Austin Ekeler, threw scorn not just at 18 games, but also 17, which the NFL went to in 2021. NFLPA players narrowly passed the 2020 CBA that added the 17th game, suggesting the league will have a tough negotiation on its hands in the future if it pushes for one more game, given the disdain expressed for 17.

That’s likely why Goodell sought to turn down the temperature Monday in saying 18-game discussions would wait for formal CBA talks, after pushing the idea last year.

The NFLPA also rained on the NFL’s announcement of a regular-season game in Australia in 2026, saying hours later it had concerns about the lengthy travel effects on player health and safety.

The NFL locked out the players in 2011 when CBA talks hit an impasse. After four and a half months of litigation and further talks, the sides signed a 10-year CBA. In 2020 the parties agreed to another decade-long labor pact, which had substantial player opposition. CBA talks typically heat up several years before expiration. But as this week’s muscle-flexing signals, the public jockeying starts even earlier.

The NCAA said Thursday it was barring transgender women from competing in sports.

The restriction, effective immediately, “limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only,” the governing body said in a statement.

The move was expected after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday declaring that trans women were barred from competing in the women’s category in school sports at all levels.

Though there were believed to be fewer than 10 trans women—among roughly half a million NCAA athletes total—competing, the Trump administration had signaled it would move against them.

NCAA president Charlie Baker had said for months that he sought federal clarity on the issue.

“President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” Baker said in the NCAA’s release.

Trans athletes currently on women’s teams are allowed to continue practicing and receiving school-sponsored medical care under the new policy.

In a social media post, Trump called the ban “exciting news” and said that he expected the “Olympics Committee” to follow suit ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. (There are separate committees governing Olympic sports in the United States and internationally.) Trump has also said he would deny visas to transgender women seeking to enter the United States to compete.

Trump’s Education Department—which he has said he plans to ultimately disband—announced Title IX investigations into San Jose State and the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday.

Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, an openly transgender woman, was at the center of a culture war after she transitioned in the middle of her career. A volleyball player at San Jose State is believed to be transgender but has never spoken publicly about her gender identity. Her Spartans team is the subject of ongoing litigation; a federal judge declined a request to block her from playing in the Mountain West tournament.

The previous NCAA policy allowed individual sports to follow their national body’s policies on transgender participation, and as such varied widely. Most international sports permit transgender women to compete with restrictions on their testosterone levels.

One Democratic member of the House called the Trump order “dangerous” and “illegal” in a statement to Front Office Sports on Wednesday. Several families are suing the Trump administration over a similar order barring federal funding of gender-affirming healthcare for people under 19.

The Trump administration has said it has the power to dictate sports rules under Title IX, the law that bans sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational institutions.

Umpire Pat Hoberg has been fired by MLB for sharing sports betting accounts with a professional poker player who bet on baseball, the league announced Monday.

Hoberg also intentionally deleted messages central to MLB’s probe into his conduct, the league said.

An appeal process conducted by a neutral factfinder in accordance with MLB’s collective bargaining agreement and the MLB Umpires Association upheld commissioner Rob Manfred’s decision to terminate Hoberg’s employment. Hoberg is eligible to apply for reinstatement no earlier than the start of 2026 spring training.

The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules governing sports betting conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,” Manfred said in a statement. “An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way.

Super Bowl 2025 will be the most legally watched U.S. broadcast in 2025.

It might also be the most illegally watched one.

That framework is found in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1998. The DMCA became law at a time when many people connected to the Internet through landline phone connections. The DMCA assures content creators that works displayed on the Internet are protected by copyright law. However, the DMCA features several limitations that weaken that protection. One limitation is DMCA’s safe harbor to online service providers (OSPs), including cloud service providers, search engines, and social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

In recent years, sports leagues have urged Congress, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the U.S. Copyright Office, among others with authority over intellectual property, to reconsider this model.

Fox reported Tuesday a 20% boost in revenue to $5.1 billion for its fiscal second quarter that ran from October to December 2024, while net income more than doubled to $388 million. It was the second straight robust period for Fox following a strong first quarter, and while political advertising surrounding the election was critical, sports remains a core underpinning for the entire company.

Murdoch said the lone sports disappointment for Fox during the quarter was the abrupt demise of Venu Sports, the sports-oriented streaming service developed in partnership with ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery. The shuttering arrived just days after ESPN parent company Disney reached a deal to acquire a majority stake in Fubo, which had legally challenged the formation of Venu Sports.

The current quarter for Fox, of course, will be highlighted by Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, to be shown by the network. There already have been boosts from expanded measurement methodology from Nielsen, and ad sales that in some instances have reached an unprecedented $8 million per 30-second unit.

Candace Parker, Peyton Manning, and Predators owner Bill Haslam and his wife Crissy are the face of a strong bid for a WNBA team in Nashville honoring the late Tennessee Vols legend Pat Summitt.

The team would be called the Tennessee Summitt and play at Bridgestone Arena starting in 2028. The bid also includes plans to build the team a practice facility.

Haslam is also the former governor of Tennessee and takes full control of the NHL’s Predators in July. Country music power couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are also part of the bid. Parker and Manning are two of the best-known athletes to come out of the University of Tennessee. The Haslams would be the team’s controlling owners, and the former politician said public funding wouldn’t be used for the team. The group filed their bid Thursday, according to The Tennessean, which first reported the news.


Summitt stands as one of the most influential basketball figures of all time, having led the University of Tennessee to eight national championships and a 1,098–208 record in her 38 seasons as head coach. She died in 2016, four years after retiring, following an early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

“Tennessee is the DNA of everything women’s basketball stands for,” former WNBA star Parker said. “I’m excited to be part of the group working to bring a WNBA team to the state and honor Coach Summitt’s legacy.”

Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena is an important part of this bid. The downtown venue can seat 18,500 fans for basketball games in a market that doesn’t already have a basketball or major women’s sports team. And it’s a city that’s hungry for new teams—Nashville SC joined MLS in 2020, and was top-five in the league in attendance last season.

The other big commitment is the plan for a dedicated practice facility, something all three recent expansion bids in Golden State, Toronto, and Portland also had. As WNBA players fight to set a standard for facilities across the league, it’s unlikely the league would choose a city that couldn’t offer a dedicated training space.

But as strong, star-studded, and sentimental as the Nashville bid might be, it’s up against stiff competition. More than a dozen other cities have expressed interest in bringing in a WNBA franchise, and commissioner Cathy Engelbert has been clear about wanting to add only four teams during this round of expansion, leaving just one spot remaining.

Patrick Mahomes is behind efforts in Kansas City, as is Jayson Tatum in St. Louis. Owners of the Rockets, Bucks, Pistons, and 76ers have all submitted a bid or expressed interest in getting a team for their cities.

Haslam also said he would be interested in taking the team on road games around the state to Knoxville—home of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame—Memphis, and Summitt’s hometown of Clarksville. Before he was governor, Haslam grew up and was mayor of Knoxville, where the university is based, during Summitt’s coaching tenure.

“It’s kind of fun to give a personal tribute to somebody I’m both a fan of and was a friend of mine,” Haslam said. “You think Pat Summitt and you think excellence in everything, from the court to how [her players] handled themselves off the court, and what they’ve gone to do since then.”

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has been accused of sexual misconduct by six massage therapists at four spas in the Baltimore area, according to a report by The Baltimore Banner.

The therapists allege a yearslong pattern of abuse and misconduct, and two spas—Ojas and Studio 921—told the Banner that they had banned Tucker as a customer.

The therapists told the Banner that the behavior from the kicker included “exposing his genitals, brushing two of them with his exposed penis, and leaving what they believed to be ejaculate on the massage table.”


In a six-paragraph statement posted on X/Twitter, Tucker denied the allegations, calling the story “unequivocally false” and claimed the outlet was “deliberately misconstruing events as nefarious.”

“In accusing me of misconduct, the article takes innocuous, or ambiguous, interactions and skews them so out of proportion they are no longer recognizable,” Tucker’s statement read.

Tucker’s attorneys, Thomas A. Clare and Steven J. Harrison of law firm Clare Locke, also denied the claims of sexual misconduct and said he was never banned from any spas.

“Mr. Tucker has never behaved inappropriately during any massage therapy session, and certainly never in the manner described [by the reports],” the lawyers told the Banner.

Ojas said Tucker was “terminated as a client” in 2014, while Studio 921, which is no longer operational, allegedly banned Tucker in 2016. Tucker’s attorneys showed the Banner emails indicating Tucker had been invited back to Studio 921 for additional appointments in 2018.

“We are aware of the Baltimore Banner’s story regarding Justin Tucker,” a Ravens spokesperson said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “We take any allegations of this nature seriously and will continue to monitor the situation.”

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The accusations against Tucker come two years after Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was accused by over two dozen women of sexual misconduct for massage appointments spanning from 2019 to 2021. He has settled 25 of 27 lawsuits over the last three years.

Watson was suspended 11 games and fined $5 million by the NFL in 2022. He was traded from the Texans to the Browns in the middle of the investigation, and he received a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract in 2022 from Cleveland.

Tucker, 35, is a 13-year NFL veteran and widely regarded as one of the best kickers of all time. He won a Super Bowl with Baltimore and is a five-time Pro Bowler whose performance dipped to career lows this past season.

Nine former Division II Western Oregon women’s basketball players are suing their coaches and school, alleging abuse they say they suffered in the program.

The players are seeking $28 million and additional punitive damages.

The 58-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Marion County Circuit Court claims coach Jessica Peatross and assistant DJ Marlow physically abused and bullied the players. The coaches called them “brats” or “babies,” caused multiple overuse injuries, bloody feet, and vomiting from excessive drills, threatened them after bringing their concerns to the athletic department, and forbade anyone who reported the abuse from rejoining the team this season, the suit says. Peatross and Marlow started at WOU in June 2023.

The athletic director, Randi Lydum, is also a defendant in the suit, which claims she misled the players by assuring them their complaints would be heard and taken seriously. The suit even says Lydum acknowledged that she had a poor track record with coaches because she had already fired a soccer and volleyball coach over abuse claims. But, the filing says, the coaches punished the players for being “dramatic” and “tattletales” by going over their head to Lydum, who didn’t resolve their concerns.

“She made me feel like I could confide in her,” player Ana McClave said of Lydum. “And she told me that everything that was happening was wrong, and that it would get fixed, and there would be solutions to the problem. But it only made it worse.”

WOU, president Jesse Peters, and dean of students Malissa Larson are also named as defendants. The suit says multiple parents reached out to Lydum and other school officials, but that led to reduced playing time for their daughters and no action.

“We received the lawsuit and are currently in the process of reviewing its contents,” a spokesperson for the university said in a statement to Front Office Sports.

The 76ers’ planned arena in downtown Philadelphia is no more.

Less than four weeks after the city council there approved the NBA team’s long-controversial arena and mixed-use development, 76 Place at Market East, the franchise has dramatically pivoted—instead striking a large-scale deal with Wells Fargo Center owner Comcast Spectacor to stay in the South Philadelphia sports complex, Front Office Sports has confirmed.

The far-reaching deal, quickly coming together over the recent holidays, contains at least three major components:

The 76ers and Comcast Spectacor will enter a 50-50 partnership for the development and ownership of a new arena in the existing sports complex. Comcast Spectacor had long offered this deal during downtown arena deliberations that roiled the city for several years, but until now, the 76ers had resisted it. In the current Wells Fargo Center lease, the 76ers are a tenant and have a less robust financial presence there.
Joint pursuit of a WNBA expansion franchise.
A separate, non-sports development to be built at the 76 Place at Market East site, near Philadelphia’s Chinatown.

It’s been eight years since the North American Soccer League—which operated between 2011 and 2017—sued the U.S. Soccer Federation, accusing it of violating antitrust law and demanding an injunction that would have forced U.S. Soccer to recognize NASL as a Division II league. The case, which has grown to include Major League Soccer as a co-defendant, will head to trial this week in a Brooklyn federal court following jury selection.

The case centers on U.S. Soccer’s oversight of pro soccer leagues and how U.S. Soccer applies standards to determine whether a league has earned recognition as a Division I, II or III league.

As NASL sees it, U.S. Soccer and MLS illegally conspired to insulate MLS (Division I) and the USL (Division II) from competing with NASL in ways that harmed the relevant markets for sanctioning soccer in the U.S. and Canada. NASL blames U.S. Soccer and MLS for “driving it out of business” and “preventing it from obtaining the profits it would have received as a league competing in Division I or II.”

New York Knicks game in 2017 has sparked a disagreement between Oakley and Madison Square Garden Networks over MSG’s access to medical records related to Oakley’s alleged injuries.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Sullivan ruled that Oakley is not compelled to turn over medical records from an orthopedist or his communications with a psychotherapist, but instructed Oakley to provide the full name and contact information of a licensed massage therapist Oakley has only identified as “Darra.”

Oakley cites three medical providers (an orthopedist, psychotherapist and massage therapist) as treating his alleged injuries. Sullivan reasoned that since Oakley isn’t in possession of medical records related to the orthopedist, Oakley isn’t compelled to produce those records. The judge noted MSG can subpoena the orthopedist for the records, and if the orthopedist refuses, MSG can petition Sullivan to compel the orthopedist to comply.

A federal judge on Thursday struck down the U.S. Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX that would have made gender identity, as well as biological sex, a protected class under the statute.

While the rule—and the judge’s decision—don’t directly apply to equity in athletics, it does have indirect implications for what counts as gender discrimination on sports teams. The ruling also bolsters the ability of the incoming Trump Administration to enact restrictions on transgender athlete participation.

“The Final Rule and its corresponding regulations exceed the Department’s authority under Title IX, violate the Constitution, and are the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action,” the U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Danny Reeves, wrote in a 15-page opinion.

The lawsuit was brought against President Biden’s DOE in April by the attorneys general for Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia. At the center of the case: Title IX, the 50-year-old statute that prohibits any educational institution that receives federal funding from discriminating “on the basis of sex”—and is the statute used to require equal sports participation opportunities and resources for women’s sports at all school levels.

The Department of Education released Title IX interpretations in April that would extend the statute’s sex discrimination prohibition to protecting against discrimination based on all gender identities. Among other things, it theoretically would have provided protections to transgender students by allowing them to file complaints if they felt they faced prejudice at school, or perhaps even on sports teams. (While the DOE doesn’t have the ability to rewrite laws, it can publish interpretations of them that vary from administration to administration.)

The rule, which went into effect in August, was challenged by several state AGs in federal court in two separate cases. Judges blocked the DOE from enforcing the rule in 10 states, but it wasn’t until Thursday that a judge had struck down the rule from a national perspective.

“The court’s ruling is yet another repudiation of the Biden administration’s relentless push to impose a radical gender ideology through unconstitutional and illegal rulemaking,” Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “Because the Biden rule is vacated altogether, President Trump will be free to take a fresh look at our Title IX regulations when he returns to office next week.”

President-elect Trump has vowed that his DOE, which he appointed WWE cofounder Linda McMahon to lead, would reverse these interpretations (though now, he won’t have to). He’s also pledged to ban transgender athletes from playing women’s sports through executive action.

The DOE had previously considered a sports-specific Title IX interpretation that would have awarded significant protection to transgender athletes who wanted to play sports on teams that aligned with their gender identity, rather than their assigned biological sex at birth. But the DOE rule withdrew the proposal in December, citing both pending court cases on the issue and the number of public comments they received.

Meanwhile, the Republican-led House has made it a priority to vote on a bill that would ban transgender athletes from women’s sports by rewriting Title IX altogether. The “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” would add language to the statute defining sex discrimination as only related to a person’s biological sex at birth. The law would prevent protections for transgender people via Title IX and help pave the way for a ban on transgender athletes playing women’s sports in virtually all educational settings.

The future of the San Diego Padres is at stake in a lawsuit brought on Monday by Sheel Kamal Seidler, the widow of late team owner Peter Seidler.

Expect the defendants—two of Seidler’s brothers, Bob and Matt Seidler—to not only argue that they have fully performed their fiduciary duties as trustees but also that their sister-in-law is misconstruing the wishes of her late husband and their late brother in ways that undermine his legacy. Matt said some of this already, not in a legal filing, but in a public letter addressed to fans on Tuesday.

Because the case involves sharply conflicting retellings of meetings, discussions and personal intentions, witness testimony will prove crucial. Among the witnesses who could be called to provide testimony are MLB officials and Padres employees—including players—who interacted with the Seidlers, particularly with respect to which person(s) appeared involved in important club decisions and what Peter Seidler indicated about his wife and brothers. Central to the case is whether Sheel Seidler was unlawfully denied a chance by her brothers-in-law to succeed her late husband as the Padres’ control person, who is the person regarded by MLB as the club’s decision-maker.

As the College Football Playoff semifinals play out—Notre Dame beat Penn State 27-24 on Thursday night to advance to the title game—each of the remaining coaches is not only fighting for his first national championship but also potentially a big salary bump.

Friday night’s Cotton Bowl features the two highest-paid coaches of this year’s final four, with the Longhorns’ Steve Sarkisian and the Buckeyes’ Ryan Day each earning more than $10 million this season. Sarkisian received a raise and contract extension in February 2024, while Day’s most recent deal was signed in 2022.

While this year’s CFP runs have already resulted in six-figure bonuses for some coaches, a national championship victory could extend the winning coach’s salary even higher.

In 2022, Georgia gave head coach Kirby Smart a raise of more than $3 million annually, from roughly $7 million to $10.25 million, after his first national championship in 2021. Smart’s pay was bumped again in 2024, and he is now the highest-paid coach in college football, making more than $13 million each year.

In 2020, LSU boosted former head coach Ed Orgeron’s salary from $4 million to $6 million after the Tigers won the 2019 national title. However, not even two full seasons later, LSU paid Orgeron a $17 million buyout, firing the coach midway through the 2021 campaign. After Dabo Swinney won his first national championship at Clemson in 2016, he saw his annual salary jump by more than a million to $6.5 million. He now makes more than $11 million per year.

Notre Dame announced a contract extension for head coach Marcus Freeman in December. Since the university is private, his salary is not public information like others. However, Irish Illustrated reported his pay was being bumped from roughly $7 million to more than $9 million.

In 2021, Penn State signed James Franklin to a 10-year extension that pays him $8.5 million annually.

The business arm of the MLB players’ union has dropped its lawsuit against the parent company of the Pittsburgh Pirates and convenience store chain Sheetz.

In August, MLB Players, Inc. filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh against Sheetz and the Pirates claiming the chain used its jersey patch deal with the team to post images of players on social media far above the limit established in the $100,000-per-year sponsorship agreement. The suit said Sheetz “wrongfully exploited” Pirates players Paul Skenes, Oneil Cruz, Andrew McCutchen, Nick Gonzales, Carmen Mlodzinski, and Connor Joe by overusing their name, image, and likeness without union approval.

The next day, the two sides reached a verbal agreement, and a Pirates spokesperson told Front Office Sports at the time that the team anticipated the complaint would be withdrawn.

MLB Players, Inc. dropped the lawsuit Dec. 23.

The long-running legal battle between Fubo and Disney over the formation of Venu Sports is over—and in perhaps the most dramatic way possible—as the ESPN parent company is acquiring a majority stake in the rival streamer to create a potentially market-shaking joint venture.

Disney will merge its own Hulu + Live TV service with Fubo’s operations to form a new entity with more than 6.2 million North American subscribers. The new venture will be held by 70% of Disney shareholders, with Fubo owning the rest and running operations. The deal also includes a $220 million payment to Fubo from the Venu Sports partners—Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery—as well as a $145 million loan from Disney to Fubo scheduled for January 2026.

With Altice, the owner of the Optimum cable system, and MSG Networks at odds in the New York metropolitan area, two state legislators have made it clear that they want both sides to resume negotiations to bring Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and New Jersey Devils games back to their customers.

Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who represents the 22nd Assembly District in Long Island’s Nassau County, and state Sen. Jamaal Bailey, who represents parts of The Bronx and Westchester County, were among the first local officials to call attention to the impasse. They’ve remained in contact with both sides since the blackout went into effect at midnight on New Year’s Day.

A new carriage deal will be appreciated by their constituents, but it’ll be critical for both carrier and channel. Both Bailey and Solages’ districts represent over a half-million residents, all within Altice’s coverage map, and as is the case around the country, many of them have already cut the cord in recent years. The operator closed out Q3 with 1.94 million video subscribers, down 13% vs. the year-ago 2.23 million.

The ownership transition of the Padres, recently thought to be a straightforward process, is now anything but, and threatens to heavily alter the team’s immediate future.

Two weeks after John Seidler, the older brother of late Padres owner Peter Seidler, was set to become the team’s new designated control executive, Peter’s widow, Sheel, has filed a lawsuit that, among several other claims, alleges two other brothers-in-law have wrongly “schemed to solidify their control of the Padres” and have “falsely cast themselves as Peter’s true heirs.”

The 97-page action against two other Seidler brothers, Matt and Bob—filed in probate court in Travis County, Texas—alleges multiple breaches of fiduciary duty, fraud, and gross negligence, as well as racism against Sheel Seidler, who is of Indian descent. In particular, she alleges several members of the extended Seidler family engaged “in multiple racist, profane, and hateful communications directed at” her because of her ethnicity.

The NWSL has found its 16th franchise.

A group pining for an expansion team in Denver has won its bid with a $110 million expansion fee, more than double the previous NWSL record set by Bay FC, and already made its first payment to the league Tuesday, according to Sportico.

Denver was chosen over groups from Cleveland and Cincinnati. Caitlin Clark joined the Cincinnati bid, which NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman called an “honor.”

A representative for the NWSL told Front Office Sports that “the expansion process is ongoing, and we look forward to sharing more later this year.”

The group is led by future controlling owner Robert Cohen, the CEO of IMA Financial Group, who was also part of Denver’s WNBA bidding group who courted league execs with venue tours in August 2023.

The Denver fee demonstrates just how quickly women’s sports have exploded. In April 2023, the NWSL awarded a team to the Bay Area for a $53 million expansion fee, though the ownership group there did commit a total of $125 million for more resources. Boston won an expansion bid for the same price in September 2023. The next month, the WNBA picked its first in a series of expansion teams, awarding Golden State a team for a reported $50 million fee. In 2024, the league chose Toronto and Portland, both of which each paid similar expansion fees to Golden State but made nine-figure commitments to the league in total.

Expansion teams aren’t the only way the NWSL is attracting a boatload of new investors. In July, Bob Iger and Willow Bay shattered the league’s valuation record by purchasing Angel City FC for a deal valuing the club at $250 million. The record it dwarfed—March’s San Diego Wave sale valuing the team at $120 million—was also double the previous high of $63 million for Portland last January.

The New York Racing Association on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss itself from a lawsuit recently filed against the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and others in a Kentucky federal district court.

The case will not end, however, as Churchill Downs Inc. remains a plaintiff against HISA, a private regulatory organization that Congress vested with power to oversee the sport

The lawsuit contends HISA’s application of its fee assessment methodology violates the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. The Federal Trade Commission, which reviews HISA proposed rules and regulations, is also a defendant. HISA has refuted the claims and argues the plaintiffs have simply refused to comply with a fee assessment methodology approved by the FTC.

The HISA Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in 2020, created the regulator. Both Republicans and Democrats, including act sponsors Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), supported the idea that national and uniform safety standards would prove more effective at addressing racetrack safety, competition, transparency and other horseracing problems than had varied state standards.

Last month, HISA released a report showing a substantial drop in racing-related equine fatality since HISA launched its anti-doping and medication control program in 2023. The fatality rate dropped by about 21% year-over-year. “As safety and integrity continue to improve,” HISA CEO Liza Lazarus stated, “we’re reminded that our mission to protect the well-being of horses and riders will preserve the sport for generations to come.”

The lawsuit doesn’t challenge the lawfulness or wisdom of HISA’s measures to make the sport safer and enhance its integrity. In fact, even in suing HISA, NYRA emphasized it was “strongly supportive” of HISA’s regulatory mission. The lawsuit is instead a narrow objection over how HISA calculates fees. The plaintiffs argue the HISA Act contemplates an assessment based on starts but that the method used by HISA blends starts and purses, meaning total prize money paid to race winners.

In a statement responding to NYRA and HISA resolving their dispute, NYRA president and CEO David O’Rourke said in a statement he was “pleased to have reached this agreement.” He added, “HISA’s ongoing work and overall mission are critically important to the future of thoroughbred horse racing.”

The battle between Cleveland and the Browns over the city’s intent to invoke Ohio’s “Modell Law” and keep the team from relocating to the suburbs is likely just beginning. Team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, however, are still moving forward with their ambitious plans to build a $2.4 billion domed stadium and mixed-use development.

The Haslams officially executed a clause Thursday to purchase 176 acres of land in Brook Park, Ohio, where they intend to build the stadium complex. The move arrived just three days after the city sent a formal notice regarding the Modell Law—named for late former Browns owner Art Modell—stating that a pro team in Ohio playing in a publicly supported stadium cannot move without giving the city in question six months’ notice and an opportunity to buy the franchise.

Together, the two moves further show how divided the team and city leaders are on the Brook Park proposal. The Browns have already sued the city, seeking to have the Modell Law ruled unconstitutional, while mayor Justin Bibb is just as determined to protect Cleveland’s rights. The Haslams, however, made no reference to that ongoing dispute in its announcement of the land acquisition, and instead have also made several other related moves—including naming a development partner and an architect for the project as they proceed toward a planned 2029 opening.


“While work remains with our public partners on the project, this is a key step in our efforts to create a responsible, long-term stadium solution that delivers a world-class experience for our fans, attracts more large-scale events for our region, and positively impacts our local economy,” Haslam Sports Group COO Dave Jenkins said in a statement regarding the land deal.

The Browns have not finalized a financing plan for the effort, but have said they intend to have the public sector cover half the development costs.

Jimmy and Dee Haslam on Monday threatening legal action via Ohio Revised Code 9.67—more popularly known as the “Art Modell law”—unless the Browns provide “the City or others with the opportunity to purchase the team, as required by law.”

Bibb wrote the Browns have until Jan. 9 to respond or face unspecified legal action. One potential action would be Cleveland petitioning a court for an injunction to stop the NFL franchise from taking relocation-related steps. The Browns could contest that petition and argue the city lacks the legal justification for an injunction.

In October, the Browns sued Cleveland in an Ohio federal court. The lawsuit contends that the Modell Law violates several provisions of the U.S. Constitution and that, even if the law is found to comply with the Constitution, the Browns have followed it.

Two weeks ago, the Methstreams owner told Discord members that one of their domain names had been locked amid the ongoing battle between rightsholders and those circumventing distribution deals. Around the same time, anti-piracy organization The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) announced that it had helped shut down hundreds of websites, many based in Vietnam, that had attracted more than 800 million visits in the past year.

Media companies pay billions for exclusive rights to broadcast live sports, and advertisers in turn pay billions to reach the fans that are watching. The NFL’s current media deals, for example, are worth more than $125 billion; the NBA‘s most recent round is worth $77 billion. The illicit streams often come via foreign feeds, meaning the broadcasts (and the ads) are frequently not intended for U.S. audiences. In severe cases, that lost revenue could threaten the solvency of sports organizers and the events they put on

Finding that use of a “puck shaped object” predictably and naturally flows from ideas about hockey and is thus not protected by copyright law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held last Friday that Fanatics didn’t infringe on a hockey puck-shaped cavity memorabilia product that is “filled with melted rink ice from noteworthy hockey games” and called “Slice of the Ice.”

As summarized in an opinion authored by Judge David J. Porter, William Grondin has designed several versions of the Slice of the Ice. The sculpture resembles the Stanley Cup trophy and contains water that is, in fact, melted rink ice from noteworthy NHL games, usually Stanley Cup games. Grondin negotiated licenses with the NHL to obtain the ice and later sold his sculptures to NHL teams which in turn sold them to fans.

The failure of the slimmer government funding bill backed by President-elect Donald Trump and meme-wielding billionaire Elon Musk pushed the federal government closer to a midnight Friday shutdown. But it also gave new life to D.C.’s efforts to lure the Commanders back to their ancestral home.

“We aren’t dead yet,” a congressional source told Front Office Sports after the House voted down an alternative spending bill, 174–235, Thursday night.

The RFK Stadium bill and the continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through March was put in doubt after Musk uncorked a series of tweets about the size of the bill along with proclaiming a potential stadium for the Commanders in D.C. “should not be funded by your tax dollars!”

Ultimately, the RFK provision—which would let D.C. develop the land where the stadium is still being demolished—was removed from the most recent, slimmer funding bill.

Since it was introduced in the House in July 2023, the RFK Stadium bill has never had any funding attached to it. In fact, the version that exited the House Oversight Committee and was approved by a 348–55 vote in the GOP-controlled House in February already included language that guarded against the very thing Musk called out. “The District may not use federal funds for stadium purposes on the campus, including training facilities, offices, and other structures necessary to support a stadium,” the bill states.

Netflix will enter 2025 with a drastically bigger sports footprint than it entered 2024 with.

On Friday, the company announced it had reached an agreement with FIFA to stream the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cup.

The competition is the first one to be acquired in full by Netflix and will provide U.S. fans with access to every match in addition to studio shows. The deal also includes Puerto Rico, covers all languages and will include dual telecasts for both English and Spanish broadcasts in the country. Netflix also plans to produce documentaries that detail the lead-up to the World Cup, which will feature some of the world’s top players and explore the global growth of women’s soccer.

The deal ends a 12-year run for Fox, which held the English-language rights for the tournament since the 2015 Women’s World Cup. It will mark the first time that any World Cup matches, men’s or women’s, will be broadcast by a streaming service and not linear television.

“This is a landmark moment for sports media rights,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in the release. “As a marquee brand and FIFA’s new long-term partner, Netflix has shown a very strong level of commitment to grow women’s football.”

Professional sports figures across the country have become targets for home break-ins this fall.

The string of burglaries began in mid-September in Minnesota and has since expanded across the country. Burglars are most often planning attacks during games when they know athletes will be out of their homes. Many of the residences that were targeted did have alarm systems, but in most cases, they weren’t turned on.

“It’s clear there’s some organized fashion here that we hope that the FBI and the authorities can handle,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week.

Until Sunday, all the incidents had occurred in the Midwest. Two athletes have been hit in the Minneapolis area, which is having its own string of high-end home break-ins that included Twins owner Jim Pohlad’s mansion in October 2023. Also in 2023, Los Angeles Dodgers players Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy experienced home invasions.

U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett, who in August granted FuboTV’s motion for a preliminary injunction to bar Walt Disney, ESPN, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery and Hulu from moving forward with their sports-centric streaming platform dubbed Venu Sports, denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss the lawsuit on Monday.

The ruling, which followed the parties’ oral argument held before Garnett last Friday, was expected since Garnett previously expressed skepticism toward the defendants’ arguments when she issued the injunction. The parties have been ordered to complete fact discovery by March, and the case is currently scheduled for a three-to-four-week trial in the fall of 2025.

De’Vondre Campbell’s 49ers career is over—and likely at a discount cost.

The team is suspending Campbell for the final three games of the regular season after he refused to enter Thursday’s game against the Rams in the third quarter, according to multiple reports. Campbell had been the team’s starting linebacker all season but saw his role reduced after teammate Dre Greenlaw returned from a torn Achilles, which he suffered in February’s Super Bowl. His refusal to play will end up costing him more than $800,000.

The NCAA on Thursday scored a significant legal victory when the Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled for the association in a case brought by former Ole Miss assistant athletic director Barney Farrar that challenged the constitutionality of the NCAA’s sanctions against then-coach Hugh Freeze’s football program.

NCAA v. Farrar strengthens the NCAA’s longstanding legal position that, as a private membership organization where member schools and conferences voluntarily join, it has the contractual right to adopt and enforce compliance rules that govern the conduct of member institutions and their staff.

Brewers CEO Rick Schlesinger is optimistic that the district board will vote Wednesday to approve an amended ballpark lease that would keep the team in Milwaukee through 2050.

A year ago, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill to provide $550M in public funds for future renovations at American Family Field over the next three decades. The amended ballpark lease will align with the already approved legislation, and include $110M in additional financial responsibilities by the Brewers.

A federal lawsuit accusing the American Hockey League and nine AHL teams of music theft is entirely off key, the AHL insists in a newly filed court document.

The AHL on Thursday answered a complaint brought in September by Associated Production Music (APM), a production music company with a catalog that includes the famed theme songs for Monday Night Football and The People’s Court and more than 650,000 other tracks. APM accuses the AHL and teams of using licensed songs without APM’s permission or paying for a license. The complaint cites more than 230 videos on team-affiliated Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms that allegedly use copyrighted songs.

Last Friday, Adidas filed an amended complaint against Aviator Nation and Mycoskie in an Oregon federal district court. Adidas and Aviator Nation have litigated for years and in this new filing, Adidas argues Aviator Nation has infringed on its trademarks by selling “sweatshirts, sweatpants, hoodies, shorts, and related apparel featuring parallel-stripe designs that are confusingly similar” to Adidas’s three-stripe mark. According to Adidas’ complaint, the two companies signed settlement agreements in 2012, 2013 and 2022. As Adidas tells it, Aviator Nation agreed to stop selling certain kinds of apparel that allegedly infringes the three-stripe mark.

Two U.S. senators sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department about concerns that DraftKings and FanDuel are conspiring to maintain a duopoly over the sports gambling and daily fantasy markets.

Senators Mike Lee (R., Utah) and Peter Welch (D., Vt.) penned a letter Thursday to FTC chair Lina Khan and assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s antitrust division Jonathan Kanter, which Lee posted to social media Friday. The letter says it “seems that FanDuel and DraftKings have arguably acted as one company” since the FTC, state of California, and Washington, D.C., sued in 2017 to block their merger attempt, and the companies called it off. The legislators ask the regulators to “undertake any investigative or enforcement actions necessary” to make sure the companies aren’t violating antitrust law outlined in the Sherman Act.

The Dodgers star, who is seeking baseball cards valued at more than $325,000 his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara fraudulently purchased, will be getting them once Mizuhara is sentenced in January. Ohtani requested a hearing in California’s Central District court late last week as part of the restitution in the federal case against Mizuhara for stealing more than $17 million from Ohtani to pay off millions in sports gambling debts.

Once Mizuhara is sentenced, the government will move for an order “to reflect Ohtani’s superior interest in the property.”

The legal fight over ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx likely won’t be resolved until January, at the earliest, according to multiple people familiar with the ongoing arbitration process.

The legal teams for current owner Glen Taylor and prospective buyers Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are scheduled to answer final questions of clarification with the three-person arbitration panel in early January, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the matter is not public. The arbitrators are expected to finalize their opinions after those answers are provided.

A federal judge in Puerto Rico last week dismissed Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims, as well as tortious interference with a contract, abuse of process and breach of fiduciary duty claims under Puerto Rico law, against FIFA, which the Puerto Rico Soccer League (PRSL) accuses of illegally suppressing economic competition on the island.

But U.S. District Judge Raúl M. Arias-Marxuach denied FIFA’s motion to dismiss PRSL’s antitrust claim, meaning the case will remain in litigation and enter pretrial discovery where the parties will provide testimony and share evidence.

The fallout over Warner Bros. Discovery’s failure to retain its NBA broadcast rights has led to more litigation.

An investor lawsuit seeking class action status was filed in a New York federal court Monday, alleging WBD “made public misrepresentations or failed to disclose” the economic fallout of the NBA negotiations. WBD took a $9.1 billion write-down in value for TNT and other WBD cable channels after Amazon secured the “C” NBA package, leaving TNT without regular or postseason broadcast rights for the first time since the 1988–1989 season.

Los Angeles–based attorney Brian Schall wrote in the complaint that WBD’s “boilerplate risk warnings” were “not tailored to WBD’s actual known risks” of losing the NBA in violation of federal securities laws.

“As a result of defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline

in the market value of the company’s securities, plaintiff and other class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” Schall wrote in the complaint. As of now, the lone plaintiff is Richard Collura. In addition to Warner Bros. Discovery, CEO David Zaslav and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels are named as defendants.

If class action certification is granted, the lawsuit would cover investors who “purchased or otherwise acquired WBD securities” between Feb. 23 and Aug. 7 of this year. WBD stock slipped 11% during that period to $7.71. WBD stock has since recovered and traded above $10 over the last week.

A WBD spokesperson referred a Front Office Sports inquiry to the company’s sports division. WBD Sports has not responded to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The NBA’s new 11-year, $77 billion domestic broadcast and streaming pact that begins next season was agreed to over the summer. Amazon will pay $1.8 billion per year for the “C” package. (WBD paid $1.2 billion annually under its current deal.) Disney’s ESPN secured the “A” package for $2.6 billion per year, and NBCUniversal is on the hook for $2.45 billion annually for the “B” package.

After WBD failed to retain broadcast rights for the NBA, the company sued the NBA in July. In the breach-of-contract lawsuit, WBD alleged the league didn’t provide it with a chance to match Amazon’s offer in violation of the current rights agreement between WBD and the NBA.

That lawsuit was settled earlier this month. As part of the settlement, WBD will have rights to NBA highlights as well as the ability to broadcast some NBA games internationally.

Separately, WBD and ESPN agreed on a deal to license TNT’s Inside the NBA. The popular show featuring Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson will air regularly on ESPN and ABC starting next season.

Tyreek Hill’s traffic citations from a viral arrest in September were quietly dropped Tuesday after the officers failed to appear in court.

His lawyer says, though, that Hill is still seeking more documentation before proceeding with a planned lawsuit.

The officers who issued the citations against the Dolphins star wide receiver, in what became a viral moment before the team’s September season-opener, failed to appear in court Monday, which led to their dismissal. Hill was ticketed for careless driving and failing to wear a seat belt on his way to the stadium. The stop escalated after police pulled Hill from his car, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him, all while he was on the phone with team security.

“Where all the internet cops now,” Hill wrote Tuesday.

Miami-Dade’s police department told Front Office Sports that the officers failing to appear in court was not planned, and was an “oversight.”

“The Miami-Dade Police Department is aware that a docket of citations issued to multiple individuals including the non-criminal citations issued to Mr. Tyreek Hill have been dismissed because the officer did not attend the hearing,” the department said in a statement to FOS. “A citation dismissed due to this reason does not indicate that the citation held no merit. An internal review as to why the officer did not appear in court has revealed an oversight on his behalf. This matter will be handled administratively.”

Danny Torres, the officer who pulled Hill from his car and forcibly handcuffed him, was placed on administrative leave shortly after the video went viral.

Stephanie Daniels, Miami-Dade PD’s director, announced an internal investigation to review the incident, the day it occurred.

“I’m committed to transparency and accountability to the community with any situation involving my officers,” Daniels said in a statement. No outcome of the investigation has been released yet.

Hill had previously called for Torres to be fired.

“Each action that a law enforcement official takes is governed by standard operating procedures,” Hill said in a statement two days after the arrest. “We are of the opinion that the officer’s use of force was excessive, escalating, and reckless. We are demanding that the officer be terminated effective immediately.”

Hill’s attorney, Julius Collins, told FOS the Dolphins star still plans to pursue legal action against the department.

“We are still waiting for additional documentation from MDPD and information from internal affairs from their investigation before we proceed with legal action,” Collins said.

“As anticipated, the traffic citations against Tyreek Hill were dismissed,” Collins said Tuesday in a statement with fellow attorneys Devon Jacob, Stephen Kelly, and Jeffrey Neiman. “Police officers should not issue citations unless they are willing to testify in court, under oath, with respect to same. Officer Torres and [Manuel] Batista’s absence from court today evidences their knowledge of wrongdoing. These officers should be disciplined for their failure to appear. Mr. Hill was entitled to have his day in court and the officers failed to appear.”

Video from the incident shows officers dramatically escalating the traffic stop. After pulling over Hill for allegedly speeding, officers pulled him out of the car. They then shoved him to the ground, placed a knee on his back, and later put in a bar hold. The video also shows an officer threatening to break Hill’s car windows if he didn’t get out of the car.

“The events that occurred on Sunday, September 8, 2024, are just a reminder of the realities of the many injustices that people of black and minority communities face at the hands of law enforcement,” Collins said in a joint statement with Hill days after the incident. “While we are in no way accusing the officer of being racist, we are accusing the customs and practices of law enforcement from a historical standpoint of being discriminatory and oppressive to black and minority communities. We cannot ignore this fact and remain silent on the issue just because it’s a tough conversation.”

“If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, worst-case scenario, we would have had a different article — ‘Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium,’” Hill said the day of the incident. “That’s worst-case scenario. Or ‘Tyreek Hill put in handcuffs and taken in and booked.’”

The Dolphins called Miami-Dade’s police’s treatment of Hill “overly aggressive and violent conduct” in its statement after the incident while adding the organization has “a strong and positive relationship” with the police department.

“Everyone is behind Tyreek,” Drew Rosenhaus, Hill’s agent told Dan Le Batard days after the detainment.

Rosenhaus previously told FOS in an email, “We are working with the Dolphins to reach out to local enforcement leaders to set up a discussion with Tyreek and other Dolphin players.” Collins said a discussion did eventually take place.

What would a PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf battle be without a little cash up for grabs? Actually, a lot of cash.

Next month’s made-for-TV team golf match in Las Vegas will see Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler compete against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka for a purse of at least $10 million, Front Office Sports has learned. And the purse will be paid in crypto.

On Tuesday, a new title sponsor was announced that will see the event officially named the Crypto.com Showdown. The announcement said the match would feature “a multimillion-dollar purse to be paid in CRO cryptocurrency,” which is the native token of the Cronos blockchain created by Crypto.com.

A spokesperson told FOS it is an eight-figure purse, but would not share details about exactly how it will be distributed among the winning and losing teams.

A figure of at least $10 million makes the prize money for the four-player event larger than most standard tournaments on the PGA Tour (outside of major championships and signature events), which typically range from roughly $8 million to $9 million, with winners taking home first-place checks of more than $1 million.

When U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney denied a motion for a preliminary injunction sought by Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports in their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR earlier this month, the judge explained that Jordan’s group failed to establish what specific harm or harms would occur without an injunction.

The Rays have suffered yet another serious hit to their hopes of building a $1.3 billion ballpark and staying in the Tampa area, as the St. Petersburg, Fla., city council voted Thursday to delay issuing bonds funding part of the construction. But it’s the team itself that likely has rendered the largest amount of damage to the pursuit.

The decision by a 5–2 margin puts on hold $287.5 million of bonds—nearly half of the planned public-sector contribution toward the new stadium. The council also approved and then later rescinded its approval of $23.7 million in appropriations for repairs to the Tropicana Field roof, which suffered major damage last month from Hurricane Milton and represents the largest and most critical part of an estimated $55.7 million bill for initial stadium restoration.

The city vote on the bonds for the new ballpark closely followed and mirrored Tuesday’s move by the Pinellas County commission to delay for a second time its consideration to issue bonds supplying another $312.5 million toward the stadium. Like the county’s consideration, city leaders are grappling with using taxpayer funds for a new stadium during a time of extreme local need because of the storm.

“I need to know more. There’s too much that’s vague with our infrastructure needs,” said city council member Gina Driscoll.

A case that threatened to upend the marketplace for college sports apparel ended Tuesday when a federal jury in Pennsylvania ruled in favor of Penn State in its lawsuit against online retailer Vintage Brand.

Penn State proved that Vintage Brand, which sells vintage T-shirts, throwback hats, retro tees, socks, magnets, koozies, mugs, cutting boards and similar products associated with sports teams, infringed PSU’s trademarks by selling products bearing the school’s imagery without permission. The jury awarded Penn State $28,000 in damages, but the verdict’s real value is in a judicial finding that infringement occurred. That finding upholds a longstanding relationship between trademark law and college sports merchandise.

Penn State sued in 2021, noting that Vintage openly sells products that “free ride” off the university’s fame by using logos and imagery. Consumers may have wrongly believed they found a licensed seller for products that Penn State sells. The products at issue were sold from 2018 to 2021 and, according to Vintage, generated less than $25,000 in revenue.

Penn State v. Vintage Brands has been a focal point of attention among intellectual property law professors over the last few years. Of particular interest has been Vintage’s defense and how it could disrupt conventional understanding of trademark law.

Vintage unsuccessfully argued that its use of historic images—which Vintage argued are already in the public domain as documented history—ought to be viewed as lawful under trademark law. The company, which stressed it used a disclaimer to tell consumers that its products were not licensed by Penn State, noted that a trademark is not intended to serve as an ornamental or decorative feature. A trademark should instead identify the source of a good and distinguish it from other goods. As applied here, consumers might not believe that Vintage products using imagery from Penn State’s storied athletic history were made or authorized by Penn State. Instead, the use is merely ornamental or decorative.

Had that defense prevailed, it would have provided more confidence to Vintage and other online retailers that draw from the historical accomplishments of college athletics programs in designing and selling vintage products. Penn State is not alone in suing Vintage. Purdue, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Stanford, Utah, Washington and Washington State have also filed suit. They have raised essentially the same set of arguments and complain that unauthorized use undermines their sales. Unauthorized sales also diminish the value of licenses colleges sell to apparel and merchandise companies that produce jerseys, collectibles and other products.

Vintage can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Although the ruling is also not binding precedent on cases in other federal districts, it is a victory for colleges and their official licensees.