Michael McCann (born March 28, 1976)
[Mississippi College School of Law](_blank)
. LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. (accessed 8 August 2013) is an American attorney, professor and sports journalist. McCann is the director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the
University of New Hampshire School of Law.
[McCann, Michael » UNH School of Law](_blank)
University of New Hampshire School of Law. (accessed 8 August 2013) He is also a regular contributor to ''
Sportico'' on sports-related legal issues.
Early career
Michael McCann is a native of Andover, Massachusetts. He was admitted to the
Massachusetts Bar in 2002.
He served as legal counsel to Rep.
Marty Meehan of Massachusetts and as a communications aide to
Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly.
In 2004 McCann represented former
Ohio State running back
Maurice Clarett in his attempt to enter the
NFL draft. Although Clarett initially won his case, the decision was overturned by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
[See ''Clarett v. Nat'l Football League'', 369 F.3d 124 (2d Cir. 2004), cert. denied, 125 S. Ct. 1728 (2005)] Clarett ultimately participated in the NFL Draft
the following year.
Academics
Prior to joining the University of New Hampshire School of Law faculty, McCann taught at
Mississippi College School of Law,
Yale Law School,
Boston College Law School and
Vermont Law School. At Yale McCann oversaw a sports law and analytics reading group, the first course of its kind offered at any law school. He also co-founded The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School.
[Director of Sports Law Institute, Professor of Law - Vermont Law School](_blank)
Vermont Law School. (accessed 8 August 2013) In 2015, McCann taught a course on the
Deflategate scandal at UNH. He was named a “Dream Team law professor” by Prelaw Magazine in 2023.
McCann has authored over 15 articles for nationally recognized
law review journals, including the ''
Yale Law Journal'', ''
Wisconsin Law Review'', and ''
Boston College Law Review''. In 2008 he chaired the section on law and sports for the
Association of American Law Schools.
McCann is also the editor and co-author of ''The Oxford Handbook of American Sports Law'', as well as co-author of the book ''Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA'' with
Ed O'Bannon based upon his lawsuit against the NCAA regarding its restrictions on endorsement deals and compensation for players’ appearances in video games.
McCann testified before the U.S. Senate in 2021 as an expert witness in a hearing on name, image and likeness and related college sports law hearings. That year, he was named one of the “11 Entrepreneurs, Marketers, and Coaches to Follow” by the International Business Times, citing specifically his opinions on the “Mike Tyson/Roy Jones Jr. exhibition fight” and “his famous 2011 piece on the Mayweather Jr. plea deal”.
In 2023 McCann was named a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard University Law School, where he taught the course Legal Research, Writing and Analysis I to the full incoming LLM class year. He has also taught intensives outside of university, including one at the headquarters of the UFC on IP and antitrust.
That year the Academy of Legal Studies in Business also awarded McCann and his co-authors the Best Sports and Entertainment Law Paper for 2023.
Sports journalism
McCann has written several hundred columns for ''Sports Illustrated'' and its online edition, SI.com, since joining its staff in 2007. At ''Sports Illustrated'' in 2012, McCann was instrumental in exposing former
Arkansas football coach
Bobby Petrino's hiring of his mistress as a player development coordinator. McCann was the first journalist to interview
Lance Armstrong after the disgraced cyclist publicly admitted to
doping during a January 2013 television program hosted by
Oprah Winfrey. McCann also wrote extensively on the 2011-12
Penn State child sex abuse scandal.
McCann serves as a legal analyst for
NBA TV.
[Condotta, Bob]
"Audio — NBA-TV legal analyst Michael McCann talks about Kings/Seattle situation"
'' The Seattle Times'', February 20, 2013. (accessed 8 August 2013) In November 2012 he was cited by ''
The Huffington Post'' as a "must-follow
Twitter account for
NBA fanatics.".
["40 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts For NBA Fanatics"](_blank)
'' The Huffington Post'', November 19, 2012. (accessed 8 August 2013) Since June 2020, McCann has been a legal analyst and senior sports legal reporter for Sportico.
In all he has written more than one thousand legal and investigative stories for the popular press,
with more than one thousand for Sports Illustrated
and more than 900 for Sportico.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCann, Michael
1976 births
Georgetown University alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Living people
Massachusetts lawyers
People from Lawrence, Massachusetts
Sportswriters from Massachusetts
University of New Hampshire faculty
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
Mississippi College School of Law faculty
St. John's Preparatory School (Massachusetts) alumni