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It is top a little sports court baby, love me
from sports Court, and I think you will as well.
If you've never tuned into sports, We're gonna talk about
sports and law, playing judge and jury what's the verdict
on the biggest headlines in sports and law today. Each week,
we're breaking down the real life legal drama, intersecting your
favorite teams, your athletes, your leagues that you love, contracted
few t l chaos, sideline scandals, you name it, we
talk about it.
Speaker 2: Courtroom battles galore.
Speaker 3: We're diving in deep with the Utah's most trusted injury attorneys.
Typically we got both of them online, but today we
just have Garrett Handy Onlla line.
Speaker 2: Garrett, how the heck are you? Man? Thanks for joining us?
Speaker 1: Hey doing great? Ben, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3: Hey, I appreciate you hopping on to discuss all of
these topics here. Let's start off with this first one here,
what's next in the scandal that has ensnared Chauncey Phillips.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this has been quite a story, right, I mean
it was a bombshell when this thing landed. I think
it was last the end of November, just a few
months ago. The you know, really big federal indictment involving
this rigged poker ring, right that was backed by the
mafia and Chauncey Billups is the big name of course,
uh in this case, I mean there were I think
there's a total of thirty one defendants, so a lot
of people involved in this. You know, Chauncey Billups and
most of these people have all pled not guilty, but
things are are moving along in the process. I mean,
if you're if you remember really what his involvement is
and how it's alleged is that he was basically kind
of a just a celebrity and a big name and
would and they used him to lure victims to the
poker table.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: It was like, hey, do you get a chance to
play poker with Chauncey Billups. And so Chauncey Billups there
was there to lure these people in and then it
was a rig These were rigged games, right, I mean
they'd lose the first one or two games to these
unsuspecting marks and then you know, up these bets and
take their money. So it's a big list. But what
came out just this week in a court hearing in
New York this isn't These charges are in the Southern
District of New York. The prosecutors are reporting that they're
going to reach plea deals with about two dozen of
these defendants. So this case may be wrapping up. I
don't know how that's gonna affect Chauncey Billups, but I
would expect if there are plea deals happening. We've got
a lot of defendants that are you know, turning state's
evidence and that they're potentially ready to testify against Chauncey Billups.
And so we'll see what happens. The judges said that
we're looking at maybe a November two trial eight, so
kind of moving along. The other thing that came out
is and the judge has put a protective order on
all of this evidence. But they've got over one hundred
thousand pages of phone and bank records. There's a lot, right,
So it's going to be a big It'll be a
big case and we'll just kind of continue to follow it.
Speaker 3: Man, just so much drama, so much, I mean, so
many bad decisions, right and uh man, I just hope
everything you know turns out an a justice in a
judicial injustice filled way.
Speaker 2: Going forward here, let's.
Speaker 3: Talk a little bit about ex Michigan assistant Chris pa Patridge.
He's filing a lawsuit over the twenty twenty three firing
from the Wolverines. Is it justified give us a breakdown
of this one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly so. So Partridge. He he was a linebackers
coach at Michigan and and he was really caught up
in the twenty twenty three sign signs stealing scandal of
course at Rock to Michigan, you know, where they were
alleged of, you know, going to other teams stadiums and
watching practice and stealing these signs. So he got wrapped
up in this, and and there was an investigation of
course by the NCAA, and they looked into it and
ultimately he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the nc
double A. And so he's moved on. He's now actually
with the Seahawks linebackers coach. He's got an NFL job.
But this lawsuit that he's brought as he said, hey, look,
my dream is actually to be a college football coach.
I wanted to stay in the college ranks. I wanted
to become a head coach in college and my reputation
has been tarnished in such a way that that's going
to be really hard for me. And you guys used
me essentially as a scapegoat, right, And there's it sounds
like there's some compelling evidence of that that the the
athletic director at Michigan and some other things. They kind
of quickly just started pointing fingers, you know, and some
of this, you know, what ended up coming out is
a few players came to him and said, hey, I'm
kind of nervous, like I'm the in c double A
is poking around and they're they're asking me questions what
should I do? And according to him, he told these players, hey, hey,
tell the truth and be you might want to get
your own lawyer, saying that's all I said to them, Right,
I didn't do anything. I didn't do any thing wrong,
and you guys have just used me as a scapegoat
and throwing me under the bus. So yeah, you know,
another more drama at Michigan.
Speaker 3: More drama at Michigan. The Big Ten seems to be
a place of drama recently, Ohio State, Michigan.
Speaker 2: You wonder if you know.
Speaker 3: Success and money breed corruption, all manner of corruption.
Speaker 2: What do you know? You what do you know? The
you know the Yeah, it's crazy, man, that's even scriptural.
You would say.
Speaker 3: Let's talk a little bit about Michael Johnson, who's accused
of fraud of over five hundred thousand dollars secret payment
from a Grand Slam Track.
Speaker 2: What do you have here? What's the latest here?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you remember Michael Johnson. I mean he this was,
you know, kind of going back to famous track athlete
from the really from the nineties. I think he ran
in Barcelona and Atlanta. I think he's got four or
five gold medals, I mean really decorated US track champion.
And so what he did a couple of years ago
is started essentially a professional track league I guess I'll
call it called Grand Slam Track. And the idea was
they were going to have these meets. They were going
to have one in Jamaica and three in the United States,
and this was going to attract a lot of fans
and younger, younger fans to you know, watch these the
big stars in the sport, just as a way to
promote this sport. And so this really comes out of
a bankruptcy filing. So cut to the chase, Grand Slam
Track did not make it. They were way underwater, not
making money, not attracting the fans that they thought and
not generating the revenue that they thought they would either.
So what he's been accused of is as the as
this company, I guess i'll call it the league. Grand
Slam Track is going under last summer, Michael Johnson, secretly,
the allegation is Get writes himself a check for five
hundred thousand dollars as the as the as the thing's
going down, and he says it's it's to repay his
own loans he had. He was owed two point two
million dollars of money. Anyway, fast forward to December and
Grand Slam Trek Track filed the Chapter eleven bankruptcy. And
so what's happening now is you have a whole bunch
of creditors, right, including athletes and other people who had
put money into this venture to make it go there,
and now there's no money to pay them, right, the
other creditors, And so they're looking at it going, well,
wait a minute, why does Michael Johnson get his money back? First?
Why did he How does he get to take five
hundred thousand dollars. There was no board meeting, there was
no oversight, nobody approved this, right, and we're getting left
out to dry, so that this is a fraudulent transfer essentially,
and so they're they're they're suing over that they're also
suing because it looks like the athletes and however you
want to look at it, they're getting taken care of
a lot better than these other creditors, right, They're they're
gonna get maybe eighty five cents on the dollar, where
these creditors might get ten cents on the dollar. And
and the allegation as well. Okay, Michael Johnson, you just
trying to save face with these other athletes and keep
them in your good graces. You don't care about us, right,
You're gonna leave us out to dry, even though we
have our own legal rights. So so that's what it's about,
is just who's gonna get paid back out of this bankruptcy?
Speaker 2: Ah?
Speaker 3: Yes, the the money, the money, the money, five hundred
thousand dollars secret payment, crazy stuff. How about a million dollars?
I'm gonna up the end of a little bit. Now,
one million dollars. The Whack has allowed Utah Valley basketball
teams to compete in tournaments after the one million dollar payment.
What's the latest will the Wolverines and their million dollar fee?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Things things got a little dicey actually this week
with the Whack and UVU and Essentially, as we've kind
of talked about, of course, this grows out of UVU's
intention to leave the conference and that there's this buyout
clause that's a million dollars, and the whole dispute was right,
UVU said, well, we're not going to pay it, and
in retaliation, the WAC said, well, then we're not going
to let UVU play and put our postseason tournament. We're
not going to broadcast your games, We're otherwise not going
to promote UVU. So UVU random court of course here
in the state of Utah filed for a preliminary injunction,
which was granted. Right. The court here found that that
UVU players would suffer irreparable harm if they weren't allowed
to play in the in the conference tournament, which is
happening right now. And so the little caveat was that
that this million dollars that's still in dispute, right, so
the underlying you know, essentially a breach of contract dispute
is still ongoing, but that this million dollars would get
deposited more or less than an escrow account, right, and
the money hadn't been deposited yet. And according to the whack.
There was a deadline, and that deadline was Tuesday at
five pm, just this week, and basically they kind of
and it's so funny how these things happen. Now, all
the statements come. It's on Twitter, right, they're saying, Hey,
if we don't get the money by five pm, then
then you guys have violated this court order which which
gave you the injunction and and so we're not bound
by that court order to you know, let UVU play
in the tournament. So anyway, I haven't seen the evidence
that the money was deposited. According to UVU, it was
in process that essentially the court would hold this money
pending the outcome of the the underlying case. But I
mean it's yeah, it's all money today, right then, all
these all these disputes, it's over money. I mean, sports
is a big business. It would have been shamed to
have those kids left out and not let them play.
So I'm glad that at least that's been happening.
Speaker 2: Amen to that.
Speaker 3: It's you know, the the conference realignment drama in Sagas.
I mean, what's interesting is we haven't seen a whole
lot of like litigation on that front. I know, there's
been threats with like the ACC and teams possibly leaving,
but it's hasn't seemed to like really, I don't think
any finds have been levied. Anyway, I thought it was
interesting that the whack was was the example of, Hey,
this is the stay we're taking. You're not leaving. The
whack uvu getting made an example of. So I thought
that was interesting. I got another thing for you, my
colleague here, Ap was wondering. And now we didn't prep
Garrett for this, but this is off the cuff conversation.
Recently we've seen coaches, and most recently Morgan Scalley, head
coach of Utah, give two million dollars back to the
athletic department.
Speaker 2: Of the football prom Was it football the football pro? Okay?
Like the NIL program though? Is it just the football program?
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like, you know, so we were talking about this is
like wait, like is that like some sort of like
is there is there like NC double a bylaw.
Speaker 2: Issues with that? Is there any sort of legal issues
with that?
Speaker 3: Could this end up being somewhat controversial? Like on the
service you're like, oh that's so nice, right, Like what
a what a guy?
Speaker 2: What a gentleman.
Speaker 3: What a scholar, right, you know, what a what a
what a philanthropist giving back to these young student athletes,
poor student athletes. They have no they don't have food,
they don't have clothing. They're just you know, just bottom
feeders now in this in this world. Anyway, I just thought,
you know, i'd soft toss it to you and give
me your thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure. I got to think about what
the legal ramifications are. I mean, my my initial impression
is this is a pr move right, This is an
and I think it's a way for like a Morgan
Scalley to send a signal to the boot to boosters,
University of Utah boosters, which is to say, hey, we
need money for our athletic department, and we need it
so badly that I'm even willing to put my own
money on the line, right, my own salary and give
back some money. And so I'm hoping you'll do you'll
follow follow suit right and do the same. I'm gonna
put my money where my mouth is, and you need
to too, because the new age of college sports is,
you know, money makes the world go round. So I
think that's mostly what's happening. But I'm gonna I'm gonna
give that some thought. If there's some legal ramifications to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very intriguing to me. What does it say, ap, what's.
Speaker 4: The least the Their official statement is it's two millions,
two million dollars to the Utah football program.
Speaker 2: So to football program. Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Just it wasn't clear to me if it was going
specifically to players, like as if he's paying two million
of players.
Speaker 2: I was wondering, well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well there used to be like I mean used
to like, you know, you couldn't even let the kids
come over to your house tea. I think you can
feed them. I think that's what you could do as
a coach. You could feed them. But that was just.
Speaker 4: Wondering if that was going to be an issue with
the revenue share?
Speaker 2: Is that? Yeah, what boundaries is he may be crossing? Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know if he is.
Speaker 3: It's a it's this is a true free market, capitalistic
world we're living in. There's no by laws anymore. There's
no legal rampification for for nothing right now, right Garrett,
it seems like it's everything's in play.
Speaker 1: Everything's kosher, right right, and well it is a moving
target of course with this stuff. But I mean it
would make sense, you know, I think along the lines
of what you're saying for Morgan Scalley to if he
wanted to get a legal opinion, he could certainly do
get that. But to make this you know, quote unquote
contribution in the right way, whether he's got to do
that through into an nile collective, you know, as opposed
to again where there's kind of some co mingling of
money and then who is it actually going to?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I mean, if it just goes into a you know,
a larger fund, maybe there's you know, nothing wrong with that,
but yeah, it just brings up a lot of questions.
Is all new new territory, new ground that we're covering
all the time.
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, I will say this much, you know, Morgan
Scalley donating ten percent of his contract to the you
you know and tithes and offering.
Speaker 2: I'm kidding, what a guy? What a guy?
Speaker 3: Anyway, last thing, actually, any updates. I do think we
have a maybe a hearing was it with Parker Kingson's
that March twenty fifth is the next come around go
around for for.
Speaker 1: This that's yeah. I think that's right. It was an
April hearing it and it did get moved up. I
haven't heard anything anything lately on this.
Speaker 2: But so let me ask you this one. Oh go ahead,
go ahead, No, no, go ahead, Sorry I cut you off.
Speaker 1: Well, I was just going to say a little bit
of a side note. We've talked a lot about sports gambling,
all these you know, lawsuits and controversies about that. B
YU alum Mickay Coppins, who's a great journalist. He's a
writer for the Atlantic, and he's got a big cover
story out just today about about sports gambling, and it's
a great read. It's a long article, but I just
wanted to kind of share that with some of your
listeners there who might be fans of his writing. You know,
there's some discussion in there about being a BYU alum,
so it's kind of good.
Speaker 3: Well here's a philosophical discussion then, as as you brought
that up, because I've you know, on this show, we
have done advertisements for for like these gambling sites, and
I came to the point where like, man, I don't like,
I don't gamble myself when I when I've tried it,
I've lost money, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, wow, why I would I even do that?
Speaker 3: I mean, it could be fun at the blackjack table
whatever Texas holding with the boys, you know, has fans
asked to have a nice uh you know, cold beverage,
you know, have it like a late night with the
boys and have some fun there and and put in
a little bit of fun money in there, et cetera.
But you know, I do think the there is uh,
the the young men are just getting demolished right now
with the game of fication of gambling and sports. They
love sports, obviously, and you know, they want to make
a little bit of money and they think that they're
competent enough to go gamble, and what they realize is
they lose more than they win.
Speaker 2: And then you get addicted.
Speaker 3: And I mean the dopamine and the biochemistry behind it all.
It's pretty crazy, man, to see what's happening. And and
uh and this is where it gets philosophical though, a
lot of people think that without gambling and the sports book,
that sports and the money that booies, it goes away.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that is Does it go away?
You know what I mean? Does it? Does it disintegrate.
Speaker 1: There's an argument about that that in recent years, for example,
like TV revenues have been have been dropping, and so
you know, leagues and teams have been looking for ways
to generate more revenue. I mean, if you I mean
in the not too distant past, right, I mean, it
was the leagues, it was the teams that were saying,
no way, we cannot allow sports betting. This will be
the end of you know, of fairness in sports, and
we just cannot have it. And guess what, as soon
as it was allowed, I'm telling you, these leagues and teams,
with their arms wide open, went running right towards sports
betting and have totally embraced it, right, I mean, if
you want to talk about kind of philosophical moral issues,
I mean, they have had no problems cashing in on this.
And again maybe that's a way to make up for
some other revenue deficits. But it's a huge industry. It's
just massive.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that the stats are something as you're talking
about kind of younger men. I mean it's like forty
I mean almost half in a certain age range. You know,
it might be like teen to twenty nine or something,
you know, I have done some sports gambling, so it's
really big.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know, it's crazy times in the in
the sports and law world. That's what we do here
at Onto Utah's ESPN Ready to Network. Bring on Garrett
and typically Preston.
Speaker 2: We wish him well. He was able to join us today.
Speaker 3: From a handy Law Utah handylawuta dot com. But but
it's not sports and law that you guys are always
talking about.
Speaker 2: You're talking about injuries and law.
Speaker 3: Typically, give us a little breakdown of what you guys
do best there at Handylawutah dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. We do talk sports law in here,
but really we are a personal injury law firms. We
help people who've been injured in accidents. A lot of
times that mean, you know, people have been in a
car accident and been injured and if it wasn't your fault,
we help people through that process and make sure they
get the compensation that they deserve. So we'd love to
talk to any of the listeners out there with your
legal questions and see if we can help you out.
Speaker 3: Boom Shock a lock. Garrett, we appreciate you, big ugaroar
to you. We salute you. Thanks for laying some knowledge
on us today and enriching our lives with a little
sports court today.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 3: All right, there you go. That's Handy in Handy Handy
Law youthah dot com. Garrett Handy. If you've been in
an accent, you've been injured, give them a call, set
up an appointment, get a get get them as an
as an advocate for you there at Handy law youtah
dot com. Coming up next, we have a player profile.
I caught up with legend Glasger number eighty eight, soon
to be if he earns.
Speaker 2: It, number one. Could you imagine eighty eighth? You good
number file? So he could be number one.
Speaker 3: And by that I don't make it necessarily mean like
wide receiver one, but actually the number one, he's gonna
tell you what he's shooting for and what he's got
to earn because the number one is actually open right
now on the roster.
Speaker 2: Apparently I was not I was not aware that. But
he's got