Sports | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 21
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Russia has been banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea scheduled to begin in February. Russia prides itself on its athletics, but a long investigation revealed state-backed doping of numerous athletes during at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia. The New York Times explained what this means:
The country’s government officials are forbidden to attend, its flag will not be displayed at the opening ceremony and its anthem will not sound. Any athletes from Russia who receive special dispensation to compete will do so as individuals wearing a neutral uniform, and the official record books will forever show that Russia won zero medals.

Last February, I blogged about the sexual abuse allegations against former U.S. Olympic Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician Larry Nassar. The allegations came up in September 2016 and by November the number of women grew to 50. The number is now over 140. The number kept growing, with members of the latest U.S. Gymnastics team claiming Nassar abused them. An attorney representing one victim said the case is "Penn State all over again" due to "the same kind of institutional failures, involving multiple victims violated by a trusted staffer." On Wednesday, Nassar pled guilty to numerous charges of sexual abuse. His agreement with the prosecutors contained a prison sentence of 25 to 40 years.

NBC sports announcer Al Michaels blamed Trump stoking tensions in the "take a knee" nonsense plaguing the NFL. In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Michales said he believed the kneeling controversy was simmering down until Trump weighed in, "once the president made those remarks in Alabama, at that particular point it was like throwing a match into a gas tank.”

The NFL has started an investigation over allegations that Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston groped a female Uber driver in 2016. BuzzFeed News reported:
A letter, viewed by BuzzFeed News, was sent from the NFL’s special counsel for investigations, Lisa Friel, to the Uber driver on Thursday. “The League has been informed that you may have been the victim of such a violation perpetrated by Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Jameis Winston. The league takes allegations of this nature very seriously and has opened an investigation into this matter,” the letter read.

Papa John's, the pizza restaurant chain headquartered in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, has been on a mostly bad publicity roller coaster for several weeks. The company's founder and CEO John Schnatter spoke out against the national anthem protests at NFL games, claiming they were hurting the company's bottom line.

The magazine GQ has named former quarterback Colin Kaepernick its citizen of the year since becoming a "powerful symbol of activism and resistance" since he took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality. GQ said that this action has put Kaepernick in the same company of Jackie Robinson, the man who courageously broke the color barrier in baseball and had to endure ACTUAL racial injustice and brutality. Or Muhammad Ali, who protested the Vietnam War and refused to serve when he was drafted, which forced boxing to lock him out. EXCUSE ME?

Beloved former Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully has said that he will never watch another football game due to the player protests during the national anthem. From ESPN:
Said Scully: "During the fall and winter, I watch the NFL on Sunday, and it's not that I'm some great patriot. I was in the Navy for a year, didn't go anywhere, didn't do anything, but I have overwhelming respect and admiration for anyone who puts on a uniform and goes to war. So the only thing that I can do in my little way is to not to preach; I will never watch another NFL game."

A disabled Navy veteran has refused to receive an honor from the New Orleans Saints due to some players taking a knee during the national anthem. From NOLA.com:
Retired Navy Cmdr. John Wells, executive director of the national Military Veterans Advocacy, was named a Peoples Health Champion, an award given by the Medicare health insurance advantage organization to citizens over 65 who have made significant accomplishments after reaching "senior citizen" status.

FIFA has decided to reject a request from the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to sanction Israel due to athletic activities that take place in the West Bank. From The Jerusalem Post:
"The FIFA Council takes note of the documents adopted by international governmental bodies concerning the relationship between Israel and Palestine – such as United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which comprises recommendations without sanctions – but has decided that it should not take any position on their contents," the statement read. "The FIFA Council acknowledges that the current situation is, for reasons that have nothing to do with football, characterized by an exceptional complexity and sensitivity and by certain de facto circumstances that can neither be ignored nor changed unilaterally by non-governmental organizations such as FIFA."