Two weeks ago, I wrote about wokewashing and the board of directors. I discussed companies that tout their social justice credentials to curry favor with consumers but in fact treat their employees differently. I touched on the difference between companies jumping on the “anti-racism” bandwagon and those like Nike, which took an unpopular stand in 2018 by supporting Colin Kapernick, who at the time was considered a pariah for taking a knee during the national anthem. Some commentators predicted boycotts but in fact, Nike had a 31% increase in sales following the ad campaign. One sporting good store owner who publicly called for a boycott actually went out of business.

Four years after Kapernick took a knee, professional basketball, hockey, soccer, and tennis players took a walk protesting a police-involved shooting of a Black man. Although the Milwaukee Bucks spurred the walkout by refusing to play against the Orlando Magic in the playoffs on Wednesday, LeBron James reportedly led what could have been a season-ending strike of the West Coast teams. One hundred league staffers also temporarily walked off the job today in support. Michael Jordan, basketball legend and team owner, helped broker a deal for the

As I mentioned in my Show Me the Money!” blog last week, back in March of 2014 the Chicago District (Region 13) of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that Northwestern University football players qualified as employees and could unionize and bargain collectively.  Although this decision was later overturned, the national level NLRB’s final holding specifically targeted unionization efforts at private schools – leaving the door wide open to revisit this issue at some point with respect to public universities.

Although the Regional decision was reversed, I was interested in Peter Sung Ohr’s (Director of Region 13) analysis, especially with respect to athletic scholarships.  He noted that although student-athletes don’t officially receive paychecks from universities, they do receive “a substantial economic benefit for playing football” in the form of scholarships.  He also focused on the extent of control exerted by coaches on players (something that has been touched on quite a bit in academic literature) and the amount of time players spend on football related activities, ultimately concluding that receiving scholarships in exchange for playing football amounts to a contract-for-hire between employer and employee.

I was inspired to write my 3rd sports/ tax paper, Northwestern, O’Bannon And