Marquette Law Review Volume 97 Article 7 Issue 2 Winter 2013 Making the Right Call: Why Fairness Requires Independent Appeals in U.S. Professional Sports Leagues Jeremy R. Abrams
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr Part of the Law Commons Repository Citation Jeremy R. Abrams, Making the Right Call: Why Fairness Requires Independent Appeals in U.S. Professional Sports Leagues, 97 Marq. L. Rev. 469 (2013). Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol97/iss2/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marquette Law Review by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 34609-mqt_97-2 Sheet No. 132 Side A 03/17/2014 11:30:34 ABRAMS-10 (DO NOT DELETE) 3/10/2014 12:33 PM MAKING THE RIGHT CALL: WHY FAIRNESS REQUIRES INDEPENDENT APPEALS IN U.S. PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LEAGUES Historically, the commissioners of the U.S. professional sports league have had a duty to preserve the integrity of the leagues. Developing from this concept through collective bargaining between the leagues and players’ associations, the disciplinary systems of the leagues are designed to keep conflicts out of the U.S. courts. Recently, these systems have come under considerable public scrutiny questioning their fairness and effectiveness and, in some cases, the integrity of the commissioners and sports. Specifically, there have been issues with conflict of interest of the commissioners and arbitrary decision-making in disciplining players.