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Hey everyone, Andy here. Quick served. I am out in Vegas. I just woke up. I'm here to play Pickle Slam 3 and that's not even the weirdest part about my morning. Now with the news of Yannick Sinner. Coming to a deal with WADA for three months, starting February 9th, ending May 4th.
So we're in a weird spot because we filmed a full episode with the CEO of ITIA on Thursday, Karen Morehouse, where she walked us through all the steps and what might happen. This wasn't on the list of options. So I think we're all kind of taken by surprise. We're going to have to. figure out what we can use from that, producer Mike. But I think...
Based on what I've seen, I've talked with Chris Eubanks this morning, and there seems to be a lot of confusion. A lot of people still don't know the processes. So maybe there's something valuable still there from our conversation last week. JW, you woke up this morning. Thoughts? Yeah, for the record, Karen Morehouse did not know that this was afoot when we spoke to her barely, you know, not even 48 hours ago. So bear that in mind. This is essentially a plea deal.
Yannick Sinner now has assurances he won't miss a major, having won the previous one. WADA is assured that they would not be, you know, that their appeal would not be unsuccessful, the appeal that they launched. I think the 90 days is about right, and we can talk about that. I mean, I think that's fair and proportional to the facts here. I do think we should be talking a bit about the when. I mean, this is, you know.
Suspending your kid for three days if it starts on a Friday from school is a lot different than starting on Monday morning. And I think that the manipulated timing is almost more problematic than this 90-day, what essentially is a 90-day sentence. Yeah, it is. It is. And listen, I don't think I just say this up front. I don't I don't think Sinner knowingly cheated. I don't think he intentionally did. I think his trainer.
you know, fucked up in epic ways, but we are responsible for what our team... Teams do. That is why we are here, out of suspension. Not because they found Sinner at fault, not because he knowingly was doing anything, but because we are responsible for our teams. It's just... It's a it literally if you can handpick a date. Right. It's I'm going to start this.
I don't know, 10 days after the Aussie Open, and I'm going to end it, not even right before the French Open, right before I make my return to Rome. And the Masters 1000 there, like, you could not have handpicked. a better sweet spot for Yannick Sinner to take this deal, which is either, you know, strange or it's the best coincidence that's ever happened to the center team.
Yeah, Rome also being the largest event in the country of the player that we're talking about. And you know what's weird about this, Andy, is that... WADA never contested the facts, right? They never said, wait a second, you didn't consider what happened on the Tuesday or someone's testimony was contradictory. All WADA seemed interested in was you've got to have a penalty in strict liability. It's what you said. If you have a code that says you're.
responsible for what you put in your body. You can't allow an athlete who tests positive twice to skate. Okay, fine. Why would this have taken this long to reach this plea agreement if this sort of deal was always on the table?
Why would it have happened in the middle of February when WADA appealed this not long after the U.S. opened? So, yeah, I mean, the timing couldn't have worked out perfectly. You're right. Not only does Sinner not miss a major, but he gets to play in the biggest event in his home country. I'm sure the ATP is thrilled.
Wada, I guess, can say, listen, if we hadn't appealed this, he would have totally skated. Now we've got 90 days and you no longer can say, hey, my trainer. I mean, think about what would have happened if he had skated entirely.
Any athlete with plausible deniability who had doping at the hands of a trainer or someone on their entourage would escape meaningful penalty. That's not a good result. The flip side is that one year suspension, you know, that could be 10% of an athlete's career. One year suspension. When the report said there's no finding of fault or negligence, that seems awful harsh. So I think 90 days is probably about right. But yeah, it's a little weird that this fits.
perfectly into a window that allows the player to not only not miss a major, but play in Rome. I think that's what's going to kind of stick in people's craw. What, getting suspended during spring break? Doesn't count as much as getting suspended. Exactly. It is extremely convenient timing. I want to know, like my mind automatically goes like, what's this negotiation like?
Right. Like we're OK. Well, you know, we have to do something like how does this conversation take place to avoid this trial? I think I have more questions about what we're reading this morning than I have maybe. going up to this point right like i felt pretty confident like uh you know i don't think he did it on purpose i can't imagine why you would put your entire career at risk for you know like you'd like to say a speck of sand in a swimming pool
That gives you no added benefit. That doesn't seem like a likely sequence of events. So I tend to believe that Yannick at least was acting in good faith. the entire time now this whole thing with the the you play the first major you win it and then you take a little you know siesta and then you continue on uh with a week you know a warm-up tournament in rome and then you don't you miss no majors
Now, I don't know how this, and maybe it's just, you know, good fortune for the center team, but the timeline is borderline laughable. Yeah, and how many other athletes? Theme that you've raised from the start that I think is really valid is this is not unique to tennis, but the wealthier you are, the more you can afford not just high level legal representation, but sort of creative outcomes.
You know, this is a theme of criminal law. And I think what we have here, how many other athletes that got popped say, wait a second. You can negotiate these things, and even if WADA appeals, you can still, short of the actual appeal hearing, reach some kind of meeting of the minds, and you can creatively manipulate the timing so you don't miss anything. Why didn't I have that option? So, again, I mean, one of the headlines, 90 days. OK, fine. That that seems ballpark.
But there are a lot of questions about the process start to finish here. There are a lot of process questions that I think people need to answer. Yeah. And from the beginning, even when ITA before, when we first heard the. The ruling from them, there was no fault, no negligence. I said, listen, if they would have suspended him for six months, I'm like, yeah, that sucks. But like you're responsible for.
Your people, or if it was three months, that seems right. Like two years, I had like a sinking feeling in my heart about that. I was like, oh man, if you. If there's a world where he didn't do anything purposely wrong and then you get two years or a year taken away, that felt very heavy to me. That felt insane. But like I read the breaking news, accepts deal. I'm like, OK, I didn't even know that was in the office.
as like an option and then second one like I read the dates and I kind of started chuckling to myself I'm like someone's really good at their job This week on Prof G Markets, we speak with Alice Hahn, China economist and director at Greenmantle.
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They're officially saying, hey, we accept his explanation. It's really just about this actual code and by the virtue of the CAS precedent that the athlete bears responsibility. How responsible are you for your team? About three months and no majors missed, maybe. That's about where we're at. Yeah, it is all really interesting.
I don't know. At least there's clarity now. There's no trial in April. People, I also got a text from Eubanks. He's like, people are running with you. Like, see, we told you he was guilty. Listen, one thing I want to make very clear, like to anyone listening to this. They didn't relitigate any facts. They accepted the facts of the case as they were. It was basically.
Do we have to penalize him because of a stake made by his team under our rules? They decided yes, three months. The ITA decided no three months. It went to a special panel. Here we are.
This is what has happened. They didn't really get the facts against Yannick Sinner to where all of a sudden they could prove that he was doing something intentionally. That just needs to be a base setting for this. And on the other side, this... this timing is like kind of it's almost impossible how great it is for center.
Yeah, I just think there are a lot of players. I mentioned Nick Jari, who essentially very similar fact pattern. He did not have the benefit of a plea bargain 90 days. I think, you know.
There are going to be 10 percent of the people are going to say this guy is an irredeemable doper. And 10 people, 10 percent of people are going to say this is a complete railroad. And I think most people in the middle are going to say, yeah, 90 days, you can't have nothing. A year sounds too harsh, given the facts. And yet.
Timing, timing, timing. I like your analogy. The one-week suspension starting on the Friday of spring break is a lot different than the one-week suspension finals week. And I think... Whether it's good lawyering or whether this is WADA maybe realizing that they didn't have the case they thought they did initially, the timing is really dubious here. Yeah. Guys, I never thought I'd say this in my life. I got to cut this short because I have to go prepare for pickleball. Timing, timing, timing.
Mike, I wish you luck cobbling together an edited version of our conversation with the ITIA CEO. I thought we had like a breaking news show. I thought it was on the edge. I thought we were. cool and we were figuring out how to get the tough interviews and now maybe a little fucky magoo right yeah i mean i i'll reach out to karen too uh karen morehouse was wonderful yeah she was great by the way she was awesome straight clear and i do think there's still value she explained
all of the processes, all of the facts in a very calm, straightforward way without us getting distracted by Twitter headlines, everything else. So I still do think there's some value there. Yeah. Listen, Mike, I'll get back there after I'm done pickling and we'll do what we have to do to put a show out on Tuesday.