Rules of the Game

Sports law is an ever-growing field that requires constant updates, analyses, and research. Rules of the Game: Sports Law provides the most up-to-date information on hot-button issues such as crime in sports-including sexual harassment and assault both on college campuses and in private homes-sports litigation-especially pertaining to concussions-and publicity, privacy, and defamation rights of the athlete in today's social media-crazed world where reputations can be destroyed in an instant.
Rules of the Game is an engaging and informative book written by one of the leading authorities in the field. Michael E. Jones offers readers the basics-such as how contracts are formed, the rights of athletes, labor laws, the NCAA, and copyright and trademark laws-but also covers much more. Jones discusses such essential topics as gender equity in sports, performance enhancing drugs and testing, international competition, and sports liability. The growth of multi-million and even billion dollar sports franchises requires enhanced professionalism in the area of negotiating sports and endorsement contracts, and the major players in the sports agency field are covered in full.
Rules of the Game contains appendixes that offer valuable resources, including a sample drug testing consent form, a standard player contract from the NFL, and a National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) representation contract. With key words and discussion questions at the end of each chapter, this book is a comprehensive yet highly readable text for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Michael E. Jones, Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, has spent decades at the intersection of ethics, technology, law and the humanities, helping students and professionals alike explore a world increasingly shaped by rapid digital transformation. For more than forty years, he has taught university courses that probe the ethical boundaries of emerging technologies, governance rules, and intellectual property and how these forces are reshaping our understanding of creativity, law, sports, and the arts.
He has authored nine foundational books about sports law, entertainment law, and art law and has advised Olympic athletes, museums, and creative professionals at every level from PBS TV stars to street artists. But just as critically, he has pushed audiences to ask hard questions about fairness, authorship, and the human consequences of technological progress.
His latest book, soon to be published by Bloomsbury later this year, What Art Is Now: Creativity in the Age of AI, tackles one of the most urgent: What happens to human creativity when machines can mimic or even replace it?
Michael earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Denison University, followed by an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to receive his law degree from the University of Miami and pursued further graduate degree studies in law and art at Harvard University. He studied fine art at the Art Students League and the New Hampshire Institute of Art, co-edited with his wife, Christine, a book on legendary photo-journalist Rowland Scherman, co-produced with Christine a film documentary on esteemed painter Nancy Ellen Craig, and has served on boards from Provincetown to academia to the Olympics.

Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter 1: College Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
Chapter 2: Gender Equity in Sports
Chapter 3: International Sports and the Olympics
Chapter 4: Performance Enhancing Drugs and Testing
Chapter 5: Governance and Labor Issues in Professional Sports
Chapter 6: Sports Agents and Contracts
Chapter 7: Intellectual Property and Sports Law
Chapter 8: Privacy, Publicity, and Defamation
Chapter 9: Sports Liability: Torts
Chapter 10: Crime, Justice, and Sports
Appendix A: Drug Testing Consent Form
Appendix B: Standard Player Contract (NFL)
Appendix C: Required NFLPA Representation Contract
References
Index
About the Author