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You stop a little sports court. One of my favorite
segments as sports and law intervene. It's that sports court
time of the It's time to play judge and dury jury.
What's the verdict on the biggest headlines in sports and law?
It's time to play a little bit of sports court.
Each week, we're breaking down the real life legal drama,
intersecting with your favorite athletes, teams, and leagues. From contract
disputes and iokaos, sideline scandals and court room battles. We're
diving deep with Utah's most trusted injury attorneys. We got
Garrett impressed in Handy on the line. Gentlemen, how you
guys doing today?
Speaker 4: Hey, Ben doing well? How you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm doing fantastic. Always a pleasure, always a blessing talking
sports in law with you guys. Number one, Let's I
guess level set. Any recent news on Parker Kingston before
we get into some of the other sports court topics today.
Any other news and notes coming out of the Parker
Kingston situation?
Speaker 4: Oh man, I haven't seen any headlines. The last week
spoke he'd been granted bail. Certain restrictions and requirements of
his baill was, you know, to wear an ankle brakes
that get off of all social media, no more contact
with the alleged you know, victim or her family or friends,
stuff like that. I haven't heard anything other than I think,
you know, we know what the process right now is
the prosetitution has to release their evidence to the defense
so the defense can start preparing the defense and decide that.
And I think they're supposed to have a hearing in
front of the judge February twenty fifth, which I think
they'll probably start setting dates for things. But I haven't
heard anything.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, no, I appreciate the update. Let's get into
a little local update. You v response to a WHACK
lawsuit and counters with a lawsuit in Utah and emotion
for preliminary injunction. What do we have here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we talked about this a few weeks ago, and
this is a really I think this is an important story.
What we got three things legally going on. A few
weeks ago, the WHACK sued UVU and said, hey, you're
leaving and bounce into the big web. You owe a
million dollars in exit fees. And we saw part of
a letter from the UVU president where she said, blot out,
she said, we ain't paying you these fees. We don't
owe them. And they wondered to wait a minute, what's
going on because exit fees are pretty common, and the
WAC commissioner said, no, you owe them as part of
your contract. This is a breach of contract. And oh,
by the way, if you don't pay them, and this
is really the basis of everything going on. If you
don't pay them, you are prohibited from playing in any
postseason tournaments. Your players are prohibited for getting any awards.
And you know that's really important because the Whack tournaments
for men's and women's basketball coming up, and both teams
are apparently pretty good. The women's track and field indoor
track and field is coming up, I think a baseball
the conference baseball tournament is coming up, and so the
WAC wants to flex its muscles and say, if you
don't pay this, you don't get this. And it's also
been reported that they pulled them for many broadcasts of
their games, which is really petty. So that's in Texas,
and apparently UVU filed a motion to dismiss based on
jurisdictional grounds. But at the same time, the other two
things going on. UVU, through the Attorney General of Utah,
who represents all state agencies, including UVU as a state
agency file that was called a verified complaint and they
have basically said it's a thirty seven page thing. But
basically they said to the WHAC, No, you're in breach
of contract. And the basis of their claim is, hey,
a few years ago, the WHAC was falling apart, and
the WAC came to their member schools and said, hey,
if everyone sticks around for a couple of years and
signs a commitment agreement. This is in twenty twenty four,
you sign a commitment agreement to stick around for two years.
Part of this, if you fulfill this, you'll get a
cumulative amount of standard revenue distributions. And this is the
part that goes to the heart of what's going on.
It says, if you do that, this would include reduced
and or waived exit fees. And so now Ubused coming
in saying, hey, Whack, we complied with this. You're in
breach of contract of the contract by trying to enforce
these exit fees. We informed you in July of last
year that we're going to leave and we're going to
stick around for another year, and that'll be up in
June of twenty twenty six. Coming up here. So that's
the second thing going on. They're suing. They're basically suing
the WHACK, but they have to because now they've filed
a motion, and the motion hits on two important things. First,
they want a temporary restraining order from the judge, saying, hey,
let's put everything on hold. Don't let the Whack enforce
these things. We can fight about all that stuff down
the road months down the road. And that's pretty informal,
that doesn't require a hearing. But the more important thing
is they've said, on top of the temporary restraining order,
we want a preliminary injunction. And the preliminary injunction basically says, Whack,
you are prevented from you are enjoined from enforcing these
terms that you say are in place, primarily preventing our
kids from playing in these postnaments, these postseason tournaments and
getting awards and having a chance to really do what
they work for. That's what kids work for. And they say,
and here's the standard of preliminary injunctions. It says, if
UBU does not get a preliminary in junction, they will
suffer reparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief. What
that irreparable harm is if the players don't get a
play in these tournaments. You know, if they're prevented in
a couple of months go by yeah, that's a reparable
harm because guess what, they can't go back and play
in those tournaments again. The second part of it is
this irreparable harm are players not being able to be
in these postseason tournaments. That outweighs anything that you're complaining
of whack meaning you're complaining of, oh, we haven't got
our exit fee of a million dollars and they're saying
we can, we can negotiate that down the road. So
this irreparable harm is the most important thing. And then
the final part of it is that you have to
show for a preliminary injunction, is that you know, with
the preliminary in junction, if this case goes down the road,
we think that we will prevail on our claims meaning
breach of contract and a promis story estoppel claim. So
that's in front of the judge now, and I think
that'll be set for a hearing. We'll hear more about it.
But my guess is the judge it's a Utah judge now,
you know, and we claim we count on them being uhh,
impartial and fair. I think they'll look at this and say, yeah,
this this qualifies. This meets the requirements of a preliminary injunction,
and I bet we'll hear that that's in place. But
there's still the fight going on in Texas.
Speaker 3: Crazy times in the collegiate world. Even the power structure,
Uh there's uh, there's dominoes falling left and right with
uh these uh these you know, the college football landscape
restructuring of common which is let's turn our cast our
games over to the National Football League. Mahomes thatat Mahomes
and Travis Kelsey are facing a trademark lawsuit over a steakhouse.
What's going on?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. So they teamed up and they've got
a steakhouse called fifteen eighty seven Prime. They're in Kansas City.
And the reason it's called fifteen eighty seven you can
probably put this together, but that fifteen is Mahome's number
and eighty seven is Kelsey's, right, so put it together,
fifteen eighty seven Primes. So they've just opened this steakhouse,
you know, very expensive steaks if you want to go
get one. But they have been sued by a sneaker
company called fifteen eighty seven Sneakers. You know, they got
the same number in their name. They claim They are
a US owned designed by Asian American culture, defined by
Asian American culture, so some sort of Asian American culture
shoe brand. I'm not really familiar with them, but you know,
when I looked into it a little bit, the reason
they claimed fifteen eighty seven is they say that is
the year Filipino sailors arrived in California. I did not
know that, but apparently so they're both claiming the fifteen
eighty seven And so the Sneaker Company fifteen eighty seven
Sneakers has sued fifteen eighty seven Prime the Steakhouse for
trademark infringement. And some of this ben What it involves
is kind of a who won the race to the
trademark office and filed their application for trademark. The Sneaker
Company did last October. However, they were in business before
the Steakhouse. But on the other hand, the Steakhouse fifteen
eighty seven Prime they also filed trademark applications back in
twenty twenty three and twenty four, so you know, they've
got applications in the trademark office first, and you know,
we'll see what happens. I mean, it's kind of a
fun story. But we've seen a lot of different types
of trademark cases over the years in these sports legal stores,
all kinds of different issues. Usually involves apparel and stuff
like that, but here we got a steakhouse and a
sneaker company. So who knew?
Speaker 3: You got to be judicious? I mean, look, Google is
is alive and well, right, the search engines are alive.
Well all right, Yeah, it doesn't take that long to
double check the uh you know, the the the IP, right.
Speaker 2: It's not that hard. Yeah, you could also search the
trademark office, but you're right, just the quick Google search
should should turn this up, and you should realize there's
a problem. I mean, we talked not too long ago
about the remember with the Utah Mammoth. There's a mammoth
bad company up in Oregon, right, I mean these are
things that yeah, you could figure out and and try
to deal with early on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, whatever happened with that? D Was there a conclusion yet?
Is that still open?
Speaker 2: We'll have to look into that and get an update
on it. I'm not sure.
Speaker 4: I think it's still open, but they might have negotiated
a deal.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, maybe get a update on a later date.
But let's get into blind Brian Flores getting a big dub,
getting a big win. Judge rules that discrimination case against
the NFL does not need to proceed to arbitration and
can advance to court. What's the latest year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a big dub. This is a big dub.
Let me tell you about it. About four years ago.
We've been following this story four years ago. Brian Flores
a former head coach in the NFL, and he's held
a number of assistant coach positions. He applied for and
interviewed for a few head coaching jobs with the with
the Dolphins, the Giants, and the Broncos. And you know,
anyone that knows about interviews in the NFL, the Rooney
Roll Rule requires teams to automatically interview minority candidates for
executive positions and for head coaching positions. Well, Brian Flores
didn't get any of these positions, and he apparently got
wind of something and he claimed that it was discrimination
against him and they had no intention of ever hiring him.
So he sued the NFL. He sued the Dolphins, the Giants,
and the Broncos alleging discrimination. And so this is in
court files it in federal court, and here comes the NFL,
the big hammer, and says, not so fast. Brian Flores. Remember,
we've got an arbitration clause. Whenever an employee, a player,
a coach sues the NFL, we got to go to arbitration.
And why do they want it to go arbitration. Guess
who's the arbitrator, one and only, mister Roger Goodell. So
the NFL files emotion and goes to the court and says, no,
everyone's agreed to this, we got to go to arbitration.
Well the lower court said, no, we don't agree with that,
based on, you know, claims of discrimination. These are constitutional claims.
They claim, no, this doesn't have to garb tration. He
gets to continue in court. Well the NFL, you know,
trying to flex their muscles again. They do not want
this to go to court. They file an appeal with
the Court of Appeals, and now the Second Court of
Appeals has come back and they have agreed with Brian Flores,
and they basically said this not only this violates the
Federal Arbitration Act, it doesn't check the boxes that need
to be there for fairness. It also they also claim
that there's the four the seconds could note that they
added procedures they're not in place, and and the bottom
line is they just said, this just isn't fair. This
isn't fair that someone could sue a party and the
head of that party gets to come in and serve
as the judge, jury and determination on this and the executioner.
And so they've agreed with Brian Flores and basically said
you can continue now. And we have heard any of
the discovery that's happened, the stuff that's come out, but
they're saying this hits continue, you get to get a
trial date. I'm gonna I'm gonna make a prediction right
now that we're going to report to you down the
road that the Brian Flores case has settled for a
confidential amount because the NFL does not want this in
front of a jury. They like to be in control.
They have to pay a few If they have to
pay a few shekels out of their pockets, they'll do
it because it looks bad, especially a discrimination claim. The
other one that happened was John Gruden, who you know,
all these emails come out about him slamming on Goodell
and and he loses his job and he'll never coach
in the NFL again. He's sue the NFL and he
actually won his too. But the NFL and the NBA
and all of these groups, they have a really good
record of pushing these into arbitration. So there's a couple
of I think it's a really good sign that you
can hear have your dispute heard in court and let
it heard by a third party and not by the
person that you're suing.
Speaker 3: Crazy times and then football league and look, yeah, they
got a monopoly on a sport. Okay, pretty much, And
so last time I checked, monopolies don't necessarily breed justice
and the egalitarian principles, right.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I think anyone in this case. There are
cases where arbitration is a is a great thing and
it's less expensive, it's a little more predict predictable, it's
it's faster. A lot of corporations they have arbitration clause
because they just don't want to get dragged into court.
And you know you but in those cases, the parties
on both sides usually select a what they agree to
the arbitrators, so they both look at and say, here's
who we want to arbitrate it because they feel that
arbitrator could be fair and impartial.
Speaker 3: Love that breakdown, gentlemen, We're in a sports court segment
brought to you by Handy and Handyhandy Law Utah dot Com,
your trusted injury he's the best in the business. A
couple of last weeks here before we let you guys go,
Guardian's pitcher is seeking to shift more blame onto teammates
in a pitch rigging case. What's going on here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, these are two Guardians pitchers. They're both defendants in
a criminal case. These are federal charges levied against them
for a picture rigging scheme right where they're throwing certain
pitches so that betters can make money. And it's a conspiracy.
We're seeing this a lot now, unfortunately in sports. But
so these two pictures are co defendants, right, and co
conspirators in this in this scheme. But the one pitcher,
Luise Ortiz, he's saying, wait a minute, I really didn't
have anything to do with this. I you know, I
was taking my orders from the other picture, whose name
is Emmanuel Clase. I didn't really know anything about this,
you know, I threw me you know, maybe he threw
two pitches, is really what they're saying, but that Clay's
through like two hundred pitches. And so Clace was the
main kind of mastermind of this in the bullpen. And
so what Ortiz is doing is he's kind of flipped
on his code defendant and is saying, Hey, my case
should be separate from his. I don't want to show
up in the court with Emmanuel Clays because it's gonna
be unfair. I'm gonna be found, you know, basically guilty
by association. We all kind of know how that what
that is, and so he wants out of it. One
of the funny things then that I thought you guys
might think was funny is some of the text messages
have come out, which is how they use some coded language.
This Emmanuel Clays this picture with the guy who was
setting up the betting scheme with these betters that were
in the Dominican Republic, and so he gets a text
the picture does this says throw a rock at the
first rooster in today's fight. And then the picture responds
and says, yes, of course, that's an easy toss to
that rooster. And then what's funny to me is case
there was any confusion about what he was going to do,
he says, I'm gonna throw it low. Don't worry. So
they've got the text messages and I mean these you know,
they were using some coded language, but I don't, you know,
it's pretty easy to see through, I think. So that's
going to be a big part of the government's case
against them.
Speaker 3: Love it great breakdown. Last thing, this one may be
of interest for BA fans. Mos upon a time, the
Uyu recruited Jaden Rashata to provo Missippi State quarterback Jen Rashata.
Group of defendants, including former University of Florida head coach
billion A. Pier, have settled Rashata's first of his kind
NIL fraud lawsuit. And kind of an interesting thing here
with the connected nil collective.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Jaden Rashata, he was a five star recruit
coming out in twenty twenty two. He had a deal
in place with Miami for nine point five million, and
you know, four years ago that doesn't sound like much.
Nine point five million over four years. Well, University of
Florida came to him and said, hey, we'll give you
fourteen million over four years and you'll get signing bonuses,
a five hundred thousand dollars signing bonus. Well, that sounded
pretty good at Jade and Rashata. So he flipped to
Florida and lo and behold, Florida didn't pay him this,
and he's there was some confusion, and he so he
sued University of Florida, then coach Billy Napier and a
few of the boosters and their collective, claiming essentially breach
of contract. You enticed me to come to University of Florida.
I gave up a good deal and you didn't make
good on it. And so he sued him, and it's
been going for a few years and we've just learned, well,
the defensive uniits of Florida was Jaden, you got that wrong.
That wasn't really the numbers, even though there was a
text that said we need to lock this guy down
and we need to pay him and lock him down.
Speaker 3: So as one sec here, as uh uh, we actually
have to to go to break right here. I apologize
to cut you off because this is intriguing one. But guys,
I want to invite everyone to head on down to
head on over to Handy Law Utah Handy Law Utah
dot com. Call them set up at a point if
you've been injured. H Utah's most trusted injury attorneys eight
O one two six four sixty six seven seven. That's
eight A one two six four sixty six seven seven.
That's handy law Utah dot Com. Thanks so much, gentlemen.
We appreciate you.
Speaker 4: Thanks Ben.
Speaker 2: Thanks