Case of the week

I originally thought about making this the case of the day, but then I finished the article, and I think it's COTW worthy.

In New Tampa, Florida, they have a nice little Little League. However, as is the zeitgeist, unruly parents muddling up the games with their yelling has been an issue. So they assigned "directors" to be at the games to politely ask any non-politely behaving "adults" to leave the field.

Fred Grady is a partner at Holland & Knight in Tampa dealing primarily with construction law and, self-proclaiming, sports law (and, judging from the picture and the upcoming story, he seems to get his hands deep into douchebag law as well). Well, one day Fred allegedly knocked his own kid in the head with a water bottle and was caught by the on-duty director Linda Harrell. She asked him to leave the premises, and, after a brief appeal to another director, Grady put his tail between his legs and peaced out.

And now he's suing for defamation. He claims Harrell humiliated him in front of fellow parents and clients (?!) and wants money from the Little League to make him whole.

The league president is not amused:

"We have over 1,000 children in our league where our goal is to build self-esteem, character and strong citizenship," Wooden said. "I guess we should have added Fred to the list of children."

She is siding with Harrell, who Wooden says had no choice but to act quickly. Wooden says she wishes Grady were more concerned with the children and less about himself.

"If Fred wants to use his firm and his power and put pressure on New Tampa Little League, so be it," Wooden said. "It's just annoying with all the things I need to deal with. ... Come to me if it has something to do with the kids, to make this park better."

The JP had a not-too-dissimilar incident a few weeks ago in a soccer game that resulted in a red card for language (you think those dissents were strong, you should see me cuss out an improper arbiter), and while it's totally ok (and often quite fun) to humiliate someone who makes bad decisions at a sporting event, even this litigator stops a step short of suing the league.

By the way Holland & Knight, this is really shitty press for you guys.