Significant Sports Law Cases Trivia Quiz

Answer: All eight were found not guilty

Since there was no law making throwing ballgames a crime, the players were charged with conspiring to defraud the public, and conspiring to injure the business of the American League and of Sox owner Charles Comiskey. The case fell apart when Comiskey's chief financial officer testified that the Sox gate receipts were much higher in 1920 than they had been in 1919. All eight were then found not guilty by the jury after less than three hours of deliberations. Courtroom spectators let out a series of raucous cheers at the announcement of the not guilty verdicts.

However, the day after the verdicts were announced, the new baseball Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, issued a statement saying that "Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball." All eight players were permanently banned from baseball, a ban which remained in effect throughout the lifetimes of the eight players. The last of the eight to die was shortstop "Swede" Risberg, who died in 1975.

Answer: Baseball

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the case of Federal Baseball Club v. National League that baseball was exempt from the Sherman Anti-trust Act, because baseball was not interstate commerce. It is sometimes erroneously stated that the basis for the decision was that baseball is a sport, not a business, but the true basis was the finding that a baseball game is a "purely state affair", i.e., not interstate commerce.

This case has been widely viewed as anomaly in legal circles, as baseball clearly is a business and clearly is engaged in interstate commerce. However, it was upheld by the Supreme Court in the 1972 case of Flood vs. Kuhn, mainly based on the doctrine of "stare decisis", meaning the court refused to admit that the 1922 decision was a mistake. Unlike the 1922 decision, the Flood case resulted in a 5-3 split decision, with the three dissenters vigorously contesting the majority's view. However, the majority position that it was up to Congress to change the law was the prevailing view.

Although Flood lost his quest for free agency, the language of the Supreme court decision weakened baseball's infamous "reserve clause", which bound a player to a particular team, and an arbitrator in 1975 ruled against the reserve clause, ushering in the era of free agency.

Answer: Los Angeles

The NFL by-laws permitted the other owners to block a move without giving a reason, and the owners voted 22-0 to deny the unpopular Davis the right to move. The jury ruled this was an anti-trust violation, and Davis was permitted to move to LA for the 1982 season. The Raiders remained in LA for thirteen years, before moving back to Oakland prior to the 1995 season.

Answer: The right to enter into his own sponsorship deals

During the 1980s the NFL owners created the NFL Trust, giving it the exclusive right to enter into licensing agreements with sponsors. After Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million, he entered into his own sponsorship deals, resulting in the NFL suing him in 1995. Jones counter-sued for $750 million on antitrust grounds, resulting in a settlement which gave him the rights he sought. Jones' ownership of the Cowboys has been spectacularly successful, leading to a 2017 valuation by Forbes magazine of $4.8 billion for the Cowboys franchise.

Not bad for an initial investment of $140 million!

Answer: Golf

Martin suffers from a congenital defect which makes walking difficult. The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) ruled that he couldn't use a golf cart when playing in PGA events. He sued and won a 7-2 decision in the U.S. Supreme Court, based on the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Answer: Yes

This case went all the way to the United State Supreme Court, which in 1984 delivered a 7-2 decision holding that the NCAA policy did indeed violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. As a result, universities have been free since then to negotiate their own contracts with the TV networks.

Answer: United States Football League

With Donald Trump involved as the owner of one of the teams (the New Jersey Generals), the USFL operated from 1983 to 1985. The league then pinned its hopes for survival on an anti-trust suit against the NFL. After a 42-day trial in 1986, the jury ruled that the NFL was indeed a monopoly, but awarded damages of only a nominal one dollar.

The World Football League was in operation in 1974 and 1975 before folding.

The Arena Football League operated from 1987 to 2008, with as many as 19 teams playing. In 2009 it went through a bankruptcy, and since then successor organizations have tried to revive it with limited success.

The All-America Conference operated from 1946 to 1949, after which it disbanded and three of its teams (Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, and Baltimore Colts) were admitted into the NFL.

Answer: Yes

O'Bannon won in the trial court in 2014, and then won in the appellate court in 2015 after the NCAA appealed. However, the appellate court limited the remedies available from those ordered by the trial court, and the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from this decision.

Answer: No

The full NLRB did not dispute the director's finding that the Northwestern players were employees, but it refused to take the next step and allow those players to unionize. The rationale for this decision is quite murky, and I can't undertake to explain it.

Answer: Muhammad Ali

Ali burst onto the national scene when he won the Olympic light heavyweight gold medal in 1960, when he was still known as Cassius Clay. He moved up a weight class to win the heavyweight world title in 1964 by defeating Sonny Liston.

Ali was stripped of his crown in 1967 when he refused to join the military, and he wasn't permitted to fight in a sanctioned match until he was reinstated by the boxing authorities in 1970 while his case was still in the appellate stage. He finally regained his heavyweight title by beating George Foreman on October 30, 1974, in the famous "Rumble in the Jungle".