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00:00:00
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, which means we talk sports and the law with our sports legal expert, the man, attorney Stuart W. Penrose. It's awesome to have you, sir. How are you?
00:00:10
Speaker 2: Awesome to be back, Mo. I'm doing great. I got to say, though, last night, and I'm optimistic about Bearcat basketball. Don't get me wrong. I think we're going to do well with this coach. But for one night only, I left Fifth Third Arena thinking we were in the Wes Miller era. And I was thinking of some lawsuits I wanted to file myself. But, you know, that's beside the point.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: Can I sue for years of accumulated restlessness at night as I agonize over Cincinnati Bearcats' missed free throws?
00:00:43
Speaker 2: Mo, I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you.
00:00:47
Speaker 1: Frustrating.
00:00:48
Speaker 2: All right.
00:00:48
Speaker 1: Well, hopefully it gets better. Only the third game. We'll see.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: Only the third game. Optimism runs high.
00:00:56
Speaker 1: It does. Just as long as the other teams never play zone defense, we'll be fine. All right. We've talked about the Protect College Sports Act, which, you know, even for those who don't follow politics, they understand, like, we now have a lame duck Congress, a significant shift in who's going to be controlling both branches of Congress. And so are we now considering the Protect College Sports Act dead?
00:01:25
Speaker 2: It's a long shot that it's going to get passed at this point, at least as it is right now. I mean, but we knew this going into the midterms anyways. And, you know, it's pretty obvious Democrats would likely at least take the House. And, you know, here we are. And, you know, how motivated is a lame duck Congress going to be to pass this as is right now? I mean, Republicans already have a razor thin majority there. You know, is Mike Johnson going to be that motivated to whip up votes to get this through? I mean, there's already Republicans in the House that are skeptical of the bills as is. There's plenty of Democrats that want it to be more player friendly. Yeah, I think the odds that it's going to get passed between now and the new Congress in January are very, very, very slim.
00:02:10
Speaker 1: Without diving too much into red versus blue, is there a possibility that the Democrats go, OK, like now it's our turn at this legislation. And so we want to craft something that helps create some guardrails for college sports. But it's going to look a lot different and have a lot more different stuff in it, for lack of a better way of putting it, than the legislation that has already been kicked around.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Well, certainly it's possible, but it's not going to look exactly like it is now. But, you know, it had pretty heavy bipartisan support in the Senate. It got, you know, quite a few votes, you know, above 50. That said, I mean, you'd expect it to be a lot more player friendly. And, you know, perhaps they, you know, come up with a bill that President Trump doesn't like. He's got to sign it into law at the end of the day. So there still needs to be, you know, some level of bipartisanship there. And, We know how good Congress is at getting things done in general. So, you know, we could be looking at the Wild West and, you know, college sports being held up by patchwork litigation and, you know, injunction here, no injunction there. And, you know, maybe a lot more of the same for the, you know, for the years to come. I hope not. But, you know, it seems that that's more likely than not from what I see.
00:03:26
Speaker 1: Our sports legal expert is attorney Stuart W. Penrose from the Manila Law Group. We've talked about the two Cleveland pitchers who are being accused of pitch rigging as a part of a sports gambling scandal. Their trials are underway. The defense is actually introducing things like scouting reports and hot and cold zones that we see when we follow baseball as evidence to prove that the pitches that are in question here made tactical sense. And so how do you explain baseball strategy? And I'm like complex baseball strategy to a jury of people who might not be baseball fans, might not know the difference between a fastball and a slider.
00:04:10
Speaker 2: Well, here's the thing. I mean, they don't need to turn the jurors into baseball scouts, Mo. They just have to show them that there's legitimate reasons why a pitcher might, you know, make a particular decision to throw a particular pitch. They're going to argue the standard, you know, of prosecution here, which is beyond a reasonable doubt. You know, the reality is the defense technically doesn't have to prove anything. They just have to create enough reasonable doubt, you know, for him to get for these two men to get acquitted of the charges. we're not talking a lot of pitches either. Uh, my understanding is for class, they were talking 18 pitches over 17 games over a course of two years. And Ortiz, apparently we're only talking about two pitches over two games, one pitch in each game. Um, so I'm really interested to see what the prosecution has to bring forward here. You think there has to be some, you know, concrete communications, you know, text emails, something to, to tie them to this. Um, Otherwise, there's a lot the defense can bring forward here to try to poke holes in this.
00:05:16
Speaker 1: If there's evidence of manipulation, how hard is that to combat if you're the defense?
00:05:25
Speaker 2: Well, again, I mean, you're going to come back to standard, a reasonable doubt. And I think what you're talking about, you know, what they're bringing forward, you know, scouts on hitters, you know, patterns of pitches, you know, whatever is the best way to do it. That's what I would do if I were their counsel. You know, my understanding is that they're attacking the credibility of one of the conspirators as well, too, and saying that, you know, this person manipulated these men and,
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you know, they weren't involved in this scheme.
00:05:54
Speaker 1: All right, let me ask you about Live Golf, which is ceasing operations. It's liquidating. They're going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When this idea was first hatched, what you heard about more than anything else was the funding behind it, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, seemingly infinite amounts of money. So how does a league backed by infinite amounts of money end up in Chapter 11?
00:06:19
Speaker 2: Well, I will say, Mo, it's one of my life dreams to meet and be connected with the powers that be of Saudi Arabia and have them pay me for some discernible or indiscernible skill. It still hasn't happened yet, but if anybody knows any of these folks, please introduce me. I'd be very, very appreciative of that. And I'm sorry, I lost track of your question.
00:06:43
Speaker 1: How does a league backed by seemingly infinite amounts of money, endless amounts of money, how does something like that end up in Chapter 11?
00:06:51
Speaker 2: Well, the Saudis pulled their funding. Simple as that. I mean, it seems like they had had enough of funding a league that wasn't making any money and didn't seem to have much fan support, and they pulled it. So, yeah, I mean, that's what happened. It seems like the money is endless over there, but it doesn't mean that they're going to spend needlessly forever.
00:07:14
Speaker 1: Players who signed up for Liv, you know, they chase the money. Massive guaranteed contracts. What happens to those guarantees when there's liquidation?
00:07:22
Speaker 2: Well, your contract's only as good as, you know, who the other person signing it is and what they have to bring forward. You know, on the face of it, they're likely not secured creditors. I mean, they're not, you know, banks or lenders that are going to have... you know, collateral against the assets of the company, they would likely be unsecured creditors unless they were given some sort of other, you know, collateral against their assets. That said, I mean, we've all heard that a lot of these folks, especially the big guys, got big money up front. You would think that most of these folks knew what they were getting into and knew that something like this was always going to Yeah, the end seemed inevitable.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: It was a matter, I think, for a lot of folks of when and not if. For the players who want to jump back to the PGA Tour legally, can the PGA keep them out on the outside looking in?
00:08:21
Speaker 2: Legally, yes. I mean, they're a private employer. They certainly can do that. I mean, my understanding is that you can play your way into PGA based upon your results on other circuits. So certainly they could do that. And, you know, there would be some... You know, some controversy about, you know, with whether they would go in or not. And, you know, certainly there could be some legal legal fights there. That said, you know, Moe, they let Brooks Koepka back a year or two ago and, you know, set aside a path for him to do so. And, you know, he paid certain financial penalties to do it. The people that run the PGA Tour aren't stupid. They know that there's star power in a Bryson DeChambeau and a Jon Rahm. You would think that at some point, cooler heads would prevail. It's to everybody's benefit, financially as well, for the top players to be back on the PGA Tour. And you have to think that cooler heads would eventually prevail, even if they've got to pay penalties to come back.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: All right, if I need somebody to ensure that I get my endless amounts of money from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, or if I need legal representation for another matter, how do I get a hold of you?
00:09:30
Speaker 2: I have no serious letter to give you against the Saudis, Moe. I hope to never be in that situation. But if somebody's in a car accident, if they're in a slip and fall, if they have a bankruptcy issue, a criminal issue, I want them to call my firm, the Manila Law Group at 513-723-1600. We can help you out. If it's their fault, it's our fight.
00:09:51
Speaker 1: 513-723-1600. Our sports legal expert attorney, Stuart W. Penrose. The best there is. You're the man. Thanks so much.
00:09:58
Speaker 2: Thank you, Moe.