Sports Solidarity

David Foster has spent the last decade representing athletes. He left a career as a prosecutor to give players the same power as the people across the table.

Foster served nearly 10 years as Deputy General Counsel for the National Basketball Players Association. When NBA players backed their G League counterparts, he became the first executive director of the G League players' union. Today, he sits on the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Host Harry Marino sits down with Foster to discuss how NBA players helped organize the G League, what players taught him about life as a professional athlete, and why he believes college athletes deserve the same right to bargain as any other worker.

Chapters

00:00 The Prosecutor’s Path to Sports Labor

04:44 How the G League Union Was Born

09:49 Why the NBA Embraces Unions

15:16 The Human Side of Collective Bargaining

23:01 The 500-Page CBA: Why Details Matter

30:49 NBA Stars as Union Leaders

36:12 The Knight Commission and College Sports Chaos

38:30 NIL, Transfer Portals, and the “Sky is Falling” Crowd

45:59 Why Universities Resist the Solution That Works

Referees and officials have one of the toughest jobs in sports. Perfection is the expectation, and the blame comes the moment something goes wrong. Over the last decade, they've unionized rapidly.

Lucas Middlebrook has been at the center of that shift. He's counsel to the National Basketball Referees Association and the Professional Soccer Referees Association, work that started with NBA referees some 15 years ago. Since then, he's helped officials across the WNBA, G League, Major League Soccer, National Women's Soccer League, and United Soccer League organize and win contracts.

Host Harry Marino sits down with Middlebrook to discuss what it takes to organize an entire occupation, why the best negotiators lean on relationships instead of pounding the table, and why the hardest organizing fights, like combat sports, are still ahead.

Chapters 

0:00 Introduction 

2:21 From Airline Law to Sports Labor

4:43 Building a Union From Scratch

8:19 A Landslide at the Ballot Box

10:15 One Union, Three Leagues

14:56 The NBA Says Yes Without a Fight

25:43 30 Days Locked Out

28:06 The FIFA Loophole

35:28 What Makes a Great Negotiator 

41:13 Advocacy Meets Pragmatism

44:15 Why Combat Sports Are Harder to Organize

51:02 Two Roads to a UFC Union

54:20 The Jake Paul Factor

1:03:09 The Antitrust Irony

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Professional boxing is one of the oldest sports in human history. It's also one where the athletes are the least protected. Fighters are treated as independent contractors, which strips them of basic employee rights and the ability to unionize. Their share of the sport's revenue sits around 10 percent. In baseball, football, and basketball, where athletes have unions, that number is closer to 50.

Ernie DiStefano and Peter Olney are working to change that. They aren't chasing a headline or a big-bang announcement. They're getting into the gyms and meeting fighters where they are.

C.A.A.N builds a base one athlete at a time, offering vocational placement, contract review, financial literacy, and treatment referrals. The goal is to give fighters options and leverage they've never had. 

Host Harry Marino goes behind the scenes with DiStefano and Olney to talk about what it takes to start something in one of the toughest spaces in all of sports, when victory is anything but assured.

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• www.caangroup.org
• H.R.4624 - Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act of 2026
• To donate: caangroup.org/donate 

Chapters 

• 00:00:00 - Introduction 
• 01:37 - The CAAN Origin Story 
• 06:13 - Nobody Speaks for Boxers
• 10:51 - The Independent Contractor Lie
• 12:50 - Build the Base First
• 14:09 - What CAAN Actually Does
• 16:39 - Peter's 50 Years on the Line
• 22:28 - The Hard Part of Organizing
• 24:04 - Who the Ali Act Really Helps
• 28:28 - What It Takes to Win
• 34:37 - Why Ernie Fights: A Ripple of Hope
• 37:13 - Why Peter Fights
• 39:27 - The George Foreman Gala
• 40:40 - Closing

Major League Rugby just came through the hardest offseason in its history, losing nearly half its teams. In that exact moment, the players did something remarkable: they came together and ratified the first collective bargaining agreement in U.S. rugby history. The deal prioritizes rights and standards over headline dollars and includes an economic reopener that gives both the players and the league flexibility to respond to the league’s changing financial conditions. It is a foundation, not a finish line.

Host Harry Marino talks with Chris Mattina, Executive Director of the U.S. Rugby Players Association, about how the deal got done. This wasn't a showdown. Players and the league both understood the sport's future depended on getting it done together, and they bargained collaboratively with an eye toward growth. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how players won a seat at the table and a first contract.

Chapters: 

• 00:00 - The Need for Player Protection
• 03:19 - Rugby Background and Culture
• 06:44 - The Unique Rugby Culture
• 09:43 - Path to Union Leadership
• 15:20 - The Recognition Campaign
• 23:38 - Negotiating Through Crisis
• 25:58 - Collaborative Bargaining Approach
• 30:26 - Player Solidarity
• 34:50 - CBA Victories
• 43:22 - Rugby's American Future

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A week before the World Cup arrived at SoFi Stadium, roughly 2,000 bartenders, servers, cooks, and dishwashers represented by UNITE HERE Local 11 voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Days later, they won a new contract: raises of up to 30 percent, stronger workplace protections, and a unique provision giving workers the right to strike if ICE or Border Patrol activity at the stadium poses a threat to their safety. And perhaps most importantly, the contract will expire on April 30, 2028, aligning with over 100 other stadium, hotel, and airport concessions contracts that expire before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Host Harry Marino talks with Local 11 Co-President Kurt Petersen about how the union identified the World Cup as a moment of maximum leverage and secured top priorities for membership. Get a behind-the-scenes look into a masterclass in labor negotiating.

Chapters: 

• 00:06 - Introduction
• 02:45 - Local 11’s decision to focus on ICE
• 09:08 - Mega-event leverage strategy
• 12:16 - 2028 Olympic strategy
• 18:59 - Cross-union coordination
• 21:54 - Sports worker solidarity
• 26:26 - The button
• 28:11 - Conclusion

It's hard to envision a time before soccer was big business in the United States. But until a few decades ago, U.S. national team players weren't even paid and had little say over their travel or working conditions. 

That's where Mark Levinstein comes in. Mark is a legendary sports lawyer who has represented USMNT players as head of the U.S. National Soccer Team Players Association since it formed in the mid-1990s. Today, players receive 80% of the World Cup prize money. Mark has been at the table every step of the way. 

In this episode, Mark joins Harry for a rare public conversation to share the inside story of this union, from its fledgling days in the '90s to the bright lights of the World Cup today. He also gives a behind-the-scenes peek at how the USMNT players helped the women's team secure equal pay and offers some thoughts on a range of other issues, including the possibility of collective bargaining at the college level and his charity Athletes for Hope.

Resources 

• USSoccerPlayers.com 
• AthletesForHope.org
• HBO’s US Against the World 

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

01:30 - World Cup Revenue Sharing 

08:12 - Origins of USNSTPA 

16:45 - First Collective Bargaining Agreement

21:21 - Equal Pay Negotiations 

30:02 - How the Men's Team Backed the Women's Equal Pay Fight

36:48 - Revenue Sharing Breakthrough

46:42 - Future of Equal Pay 

49:41 - The Principles That Built a Union

56:25 - How the USNSTPA Actually Works

01:00:00 - Evolution of the Sports Industry

01:11:52 - College Sports at a Crossroads

01:22:02 - Athletes for Hope 

01:30:47 - Closing Remarks 

In this episode, Harry sits down with UFL player-leaders Kenneth Farrow II, Jack Kramer, and Kedrick Whitehead Jr. to discuss how players came together to build the United Football Players Association and negotiate a historic collective bargaining agreement.

Before organizing, players faced inadequate health coverage and little say in the conditions affecting their careers. Instead of accepting the status quo, they built a union.

What started as isolated conversations in the locker room grew into a league-wide effort — and the first CBA in UFL history. How did they do it? 

In this episode, the organizers share a behind-the-scenes look at the campaign and the wins that followed.

Chapters 

00:00 Introduction 

01:04 Building the United Football Players Association

07:18 Life Before the CBA

10:57 Bringing Players Together 

13:38 Negotiating the First CBA in UFL History

17:37 The Player-Centered Bargaining Philosophy

20:14 Building Unity During Negotiations

22:35 The Health Care Holdout That Extended Negotiations

24:08 What's Next for the UFPA

37:43 Advice for Working People 

42:37 Closing Remarks 

In this episode of Sports Solidarity, host Harry Marino is joined by Brandon Copeland, co-founder and CEO of Athletes.org and former NFL linebacker, and Casey Floyd, co-founder of DYK Media, for a timely conversation on Washington’s continued push to reshape college athletics.

The NCAA-backed SCORE Act was pulled from this week’s House agenda, but the broader effort toward federal intervention in college sports remains active. Casey and Brandon break down what’s still in motion in Congress and what it could mean for athlete rights, compensation, and the ability to organize and challenge NCAA rules.

The discussion focuses on how proposed federal frameworks could shift power further toward institutions while limiting athlete leverage, legal recourse, and representation in policymaking. They also dig into ongoing debates around antitrust protections, transfer restrictions, health and safety, and labor rights.

Casey and Brandon highlight the continued absence of athlete voices in key policy conversations and warn that the possibility of federal involvement raises major questions about the future structure of college sports.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction

01:29 – Big 12 commissioner’s position on SCORE Act

04:02 – Guest introductions

04:35 – SCORE Act deep dive with Casey Floyd

08:38 – How likely is the SCORE Act to pass?

13:18 – Health and safety concerns

16:54 – NFL vs. NCAA safety protocols

18:03 – Professional sports comparison

20:09 – NCAA’s strategic approach

23:56 – House settlement

29:22 – Collective bargaining benefits

30:39 – Athletes.org

36:44 – Historical context and current reality

39:42 – Conclusion

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

Athletes.org 

Read AO's SCORE Act Open Letter

DYK Media 

Fort Lewis’ first student-athlete, Ray Dennison, killed playing football, echoes through NCAA history 

The first episode of Sports Solidarity with Harry Marino goes inside the historic effort to unionize Minor League Baseball.

Harry Marino is joined by Joe Hudson, Jose Brizuela, and Brandon Withers, three player leaders who helped drive the campaign to organize thousands of minor leaguers.

They share what life was like before the union, how organizing took shape across clubhouses, and how players turned difficult conditions into a successful nationwide movement.

This is the story of how it happened, what it took to win, and what changed afterward.

Resources mentioned in this episode: sportssolidarity.org

Listen, rate, and subscribe! Stories of players fighting for fair pay and rights in sports.

Timestamps:

• [00:03:42] - The Shocking Reality of Minor League Life
• [00:04:27] - The Fyre Festival Sandwich Moment
• [00:17:26] - The Housing Victory That Changed Everything
• [00:22:34] - The Chaotic Union Card Drive
• [00:25:41] - Overcoming Fear and Building Momentum
• [00:29:33] - The Courage of Latino Players
• [00:36:16] - Life After the Union: Dramatic Improvements

Sports is a trillion-dollar industry.

But sports aren’t just games – they’re workplaces.

Sports Solidarity with Harry Marino goes behind the scenes of one of the most visible and powerful industries in the world.

The show is hosted by Harry, an attorney and former professional baseball player who led the unionization of Minor League Baseball and has since led landmark collective bargaining negotiations across the sports industry.

Each episode takes you inside locker rooms, union halls, and boardrooms to hear real stories from the people who have lived them. From athletes to organizers to industry insiders, Sports Solidarity examines how labor, power, and money collide in professional sports.

If you care about sports, labor, or the future of work, listen in to hear the conversations happening behind the scenes.

The first episode drops on Tuesday, May 5th. Follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

SportsSolidarity.com