EA Sports Settles With College Athletes
By Ken Reed
Electronic Arts (EA Sports) and the Collegiate Licensing Company have negotiated settlements of the lawsuits brought by former and current college athletes, including former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, regarding the unauthorized use of the players’ likenesses in video games and related merchandise.
”Today’s settlement is a game-changer because, for the first time, student-athletes suiting up to play this weekend are going to be paid for the use of their likenesses,” according to attorney Eugene Egdorf in a statement. Egdorf represents former Rutgers quarterback Ryan Hart, who sued EA Sports in 2009.
No settlement figures were released. The O’Bannon suit against EA Sports, Collegiate Licensing Company, and the NCAA was calling for billions of dollars in media/gaming revenues to be shared with college athletes.
The player lawsuits against the NCAA remain in place.
Steve Berman, who is the lead attorney for former Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller, who brought one of the lawsuits, said the settlement will now allow attorneys to focus on claims against the NCAA.
”We hold that the NCAA intentionally looked the other way while EA commercialized the likenesses of students, and it did so because it knew that EA’s financial success meant a bigger royalty check to the NCAA,” Berman said in a statement.
The EA/Collegiate Licensing settlement is hopefully the first step toward economic justice for big-time college football and basketball players. The amateur rule at the highest level of NCAA athletics is the civil rights issue of our time.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #30 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The State of College Athletics with Dr. David Ridpath: Problems and Potential Solutions – Ridpath is a sports administration professor at Ohio University and a long-time member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank.
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Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
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Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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