Ultimate Practitioner

Sports-law. This fairly new field is exploding into universities everywhere. Why? People like to keep that inner child within themselves, while growing up at the same time. Some might say that the essence of sports-law is to stay young. Others might say that the essence of sports-law is to enter a field of work that you love. Believe it or not, the essence of sports-law is a combination of power, fame, and knowledge.

If on is to look deeply into sports-law, they will find that there is more to it that being a lawyer. Not only do you have to be aware of the regular laws that exist, but for the given sport the lawyer has to be aware of the rules and how the league’s rules tie into the law. There may be things that are legal, but when with a sports team, are not legal. For example, Ben Roethlisberger,quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was in a motorcycle crash the year after he won the Super Bowl. He was not wearing a helmet, crashed, and was seriously injured. It is legal to ride a motorcycle in Pennsylvania without a helmet, but the lawyers on the case tried to find something in Roethlisberger’s contract that said he had to wear one. Nothing was found, and nothing happened to Roethlisberger. You see, there are many things that sports lawyers must look for and take into account when researching a case, this is the essence of the knowledge.

Fame. Obviously there are famous people involved with sports-law. Now, I do not know off the top of my head the name of O.J. Simpson’s lawyer, but if I see a picture of him, I would know that it is O.J.’s lawyer. He may not be as famous as O.J. but people know who he is. The judge involved with Michael Vick’s incident with dog fighting is also now famous not by name, but appearance. In this sense, many people get into sports-law for the fame. Sure nobody knows their name, but if a picture is seen, then everybody will realize that they are “famous.”

The last ingredient in the essence of sports-law is power. If you think about it, the people who come up with the codes of conduct for professional athletics have all of the power in the world. If they say that an athlete can not eat spaghetti on Tuesday, then they can not. Having power over someone that is more famous than you is huge. Nobody knew who Roger Goodell (commissioner of the NFL) was until he had to deal with Michael Vick. But he had the power over someone that people knew, so he in turn became famous, and had power.

Deep down, sports-law does not lie in passion or love of a profession, the essence is being the “ultimate practitioner.”

O.J. Simpson's lawyer O.J.’s Lawyer, Johnny Cochran