Friday Sports Briefs

Pop Warner Limits Contact in Practice to Avoid Concussions

From Kurt Warner to Tom Brady Sr., there has been a lot of recent talk concerning whether kids should play football in light of the dangers posed by concussions. In response to these concerns, the Pop Warner youth football organization has implemented new rules limiting contact in practice, according to the Associated Press (via Washington Post).  The rules, developed by Pop Warner’s medical advisory board, are as follows:

…coaches must limit contact to no more than one-third of their practice time. It is also banning full-speed, head-on blocking or tackling drills in which players line up more than 3 yards apart. The organization says coaches can have full-speed drills where players approach each other at an angle but “not straight ahead into each other.” It also says there should be no head-to-head contact.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

The Big East Sues TCU

The Big East is involved with another lawsuit involving conference realignment, this time bringing suit against Texas Christian University (TCU).  The suit arises from the reported $5 million fee that TCU agreed to pay if it did not ultimately join the Big East after agreeing to do so.  Alicia Jessop has a thorough analysis on the Business of College Sports blog.

Athletes Owning Equity in the Products they Endorse

Brian Socolow of the Sports Law Blog has an excellent post on athletes owning equity shares in business ventures, such as the products that they endorse.  Socolow discusses the advantages for both parties and the application of morals clauses.