Sports Employment Law Issues

Originally published by Rob Radcliff.

A number of interesting employment law related stories in the world of sports:

1.  Steve Sarkisian – Sarkisian was a star quarterback at BYU and former coach of the University of Washington until taking over the helm of USC.  Reports are that he has an alcohol problem and appeared at work under the influence.  USC fired him on Monday.  No idea what the USC employment handbook looks like but I would imagine the athletic director consulted with counsel before making such a move.  The ADA covers alcholism when the employee can performe the essential functions of his or her job.  Will see what Sarkisan does, if anything.  Hopefully he can get his life back on track.

2.  Fantasy Football Insider Trading – There are two major online fantsasy football betting platforms – Draft Kings and Fan Duel.  Turns out that some of their employees were trading on “insider information” and doing quite well.  Basically, they were using information about what players were being used by participants and making betting decisions based on this information which is not publicly available.  They would then use the information on the other site meaning Draft Kings’ employees would use the information to play on Fan Duel.  The New York Attorney general is now looking into the matter.

3.  Greg Hardy – Cowboys’ defensive lineman has been out of football the last couple years because of domestic violence.  I’ll spare you with the details but the allegations out there involved beating up his girlfriend and guns.  He returned to the gridiron on Sunday and by all accounts was good.  Unfortunately, some of his comments before the game involved using the phrase “guns a bazin’”.  Poor word choice to say the least.  So the Cowboys, Greg Hardy, and Jerry Jones were under the microscope over the weekend.  Doesn’t seem like it really matters but bad things can happen with employeees have daily access to the media.

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