Scrutiny

The fourteenth amendment of the constitution states that: “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws.” This is commonly referred to as the Equal Protection Clause (EPC) of the constitution. There have been times where laws have been passed that have violated the fourteenth amendment; in these instances it is up to the court to decide whether the laws were necessary, important, or just a reasonable action. When the court looks at these matters concerning the EPC it is called scrutiny.

There are three types of scrutiny: Strict, Immediate, and rational basis. The type is determined by the type of discrimination and to what degree the issue is analyzed. Strict scrutiny is the most rigorous and leaves no room for error. Strict scrutiny applies in instances that involve race or national origin, or if fundamental rights are being denied. The governmental action in cases of strict scrutiny will survive the court only if the action is absolutely necessary and there is no other way to accomplish the objectives. Immediate scrutiny is not as rigorous as strict scrutiny and applies in cases which involve discrimination based on gender, illegitimacy and alienage. To survive immediate scrutiny the government’s need must be important and the actions taken have to be substantially related to the goal. The final type of scrutiny is called rational basis. This is applied in instances that are not covered by strict or immediate scrutiny. The standard is much lower than other scrutiny types and the government only has to show that the basis for their actions is rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest.

Link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6266163

Barry Bonds ex-mistress testifies that he used steroids. This is interesting in the way that a car wreck is interesting. I think Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire tainted the game of baseball with their steroid use so on some level it is fun to see him taken down a notch, although I don’t wish prison time on anybody, even Barry Bonds.

Risk Management

Risk management is important to all sports organizations. Any injury or accident that could be prevented could cost the team or organization dearly in terms of monetary damages or public opinion. There are three phases to risk management: Recognition, Analysis, and action.

The first phase is recognition. This involves thinking about hazard categories and specific hazards within those categories. For example, if an organization sees “slipping and falling” as a hazard category they would then identify areas that present the most danger like bathroom floors, stairwells, and entryways. Once the organization recognizes a hazard they must then decide whether the hazard is significant enough to be addressed. If so, they can then move on to phase two: analysis. Analysis is broken down in to two parts, risk identification, and risk evaluation. Risk identification involves finding hazards and determining the potential liability that might result if the hazard is not addressed. There are several ways to identify risk. One is to review incident and accident report forms to determine if there is a pattern or cause of past incidents. Another method of risk identification is using simple common sense to determine if something is a hazard, hazards detected by common sense are probably obvious and should be addressed first. One example is the netting behind the goals at a hockey game. These were not always in place despite pucks flying into the crowds at high speeds. It was only after a fan was killed that the nets were used even though common sense could easily see that it was a problem. Risk evaluation is determining the extent of risk that the hazard poses. They must assess how likely an injury or accident is to occur, and if so, how severe the injury. Finally, once risks have been recognized and analyzed there must be some sort of action. There are four options for action: retention, treatment, transfer, and avoidance. The actions that are determined must be formalized and implemented in the form of policies and procedures. It is very important that all of these are understood and put in place because they organization could face further damages if someone is injured and the policy was in place to prevent it but not followed. Preventative action is much more cost effective than paying damages in the courtroom later.

Link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=6229876

Barry Bonds perjury trial begins. This is interesting because of the implication it has for baseball and the record books. Even though Bonds is already guilty in the court of public opinion an official revelation that he lied could be even more damaging for baseballs reputation.

Title IX

Title IX has been instrumental in providing athletic opportunities for women, and has been huge factor in maintaining gender equality in schools. However, an unfortunate byproduct of Title IX has been some school’s policy of cutting men’s teams instead of adding women’s teams. Schools have three options in which they can be in compliance with Title IX regulations. Many choose to use the “proportionality test” which calls for schools to provide participation opportunities for male and female students in numbers that are substantially proportionate to undergraduate enrollment. To meet this requirement many schools cut men’s teams rather than add female teams as it is expensive to add and then maintain new athletic programs. However, this has resulted in far fewer opportunities for men and accusations that Title IX has created the same situation for men that it attempted to correct for women.

Some argue that predominantly male sports like football should be excluded from the proportionality test. Football would almost never be cut because it is in many instances the face of the university and a selling point for applicants. However, the average football team boasts upwards of 70 participants and skews the proportion of male athletes. To meet requirements of proportionality many schools have added numerous women’s programs in swimming, soccer, or lacrosse, but cut many men’s teams. This means the average male student that wants to play a sport other than football is out of luck. By excluding football from the proportionality test the variety of sports opportunities would be more equal for men and women. This is not an acceptable solution to many critics though who say that schools don’t have to cut men’s programs and should find a way to meet compliance using one of the other tests rather than the proportionality test. They also argue that excluding football from proportionality would cause further financial drain on schools as they must now maintain more programs for both men and women. There are no easy solutions to the problems of Title IX. Even though it is a much needed and useful piece of legislation, it has also been used to create discrimination in other areas. It seems as though true equality will always be difficult to achieve.

Link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6167142

This is a story about ESPN columnist Howard Bryant who has been arrested and accused of domestic violence and assaulting a police officer. This article is interesting in that is a strange reversal of fortune for a media personality. They are usually in the position of reporting the story rather than being the story.