Expressing some impatience with the lead lawyer for the NFL, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson in today’s scheduled hearing of Brady v. NFL strongly hinted that she believes she has jurisdiction over the ongoing NFL lockout. In addition, Nelson said she was having “a hard time” understanding how she can “protect a lockout” in the absence of a players union. Those points were two of the key tea-leaf readings that emerged from the hearing in St. Paul -- which began this morning and was continuing at press time.

The members of the NFLPA decertified their union last month and charged that the league’s 32 owners have banded together, in violation of antitrust laws, to lock them out. The players are asking Nelson, who has been a federal judge for just four months, to issue an injunction to lift the lockout. That, in turn, could lead to a full-blown antitrust case and, the players argue, could put them back to work under “the status quo.”

The owners’ lawyers, led today in St. Paul by David Boies, argued in legal documents before today’s hearing and again this morning in court that the decertification of the union is “a sham” and that this labor dispute is a matter for the National Labor Relations Board, not Nelson’s federal courtroom. The NFL has a charge pending at the NLRB contending that the disclaimer is a sham.

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IOC Finance Commission Chair Richard Carrion today said that the organization "plans to sell the next set of lucrative U.S. Olympic television rights by mid-June, with networks given the option of bidding on two or four games." Carrion said that he "expects three networks to compete for the contract and that the winning fee will surpass" the $2B that NBC Universal paid for rights to the '10 Vancouver and '12 London Games. Carrion declined to say which nets were likely to make bids, but the contenders are "widely expected to include incumbent NBC, ESPN and Fox" (AP, 4/6).

The IOC today confirmed the inclusion of six new events for the '14 Sochi Olympics. The events are ski half-pipe, women's ski jumping, biathlon mixed relay, figure skating team event and luge team relay. Five other events -- ski slopestyle, snowboard slopestyle and Alpine team parallel competition -- are subject to a further feasibility study. A decision on the inclusion of these five events will be made within the coming weeks (IOC).

SportsNet N.Y. started an extensive multi-platform marketing campaign today to protest Dish Network’s decision to drop the channel from its line-up. Channel execs would not say how much they are investing in the campaign, which is hitting N.Y. and surrounding markets in newspapers, online and on radio. The campaign focuses on Dish’s decision to drop SNY while raising rates. “Mets season has started, so take action now and drop Dish,” one newspaper ad reads. SNY is the official home of the Big East conference and schools like Rutgers and Syracuse.

Much of the campaign is geared toward areas where Dish has a large concentration of subscribers, like Connecticut and Syracuse. SNY bought ads in five papers, including the N.Y. Daily News, Hartford Courant and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. It bought online ads at five sites including NYPost.com and Newsday.com. It also bought radio ads on 15 stations covering the N.Y., Hartford, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, Newark and Rochester markets.

MLBAM and Auditude today announced a partnership for digital ad serving and monetization. The multiyear deal enables MLBAM to deliver video advertising across its live game-streaming and video-on-demand content, all MLB team websites and on mobile devices (MLBAM). MLBAM and Auditude will work to "enable the creation of custom advertising units and integrated cross-platform campaigns for brand advertisers." Per the deal, Auditude will also "assist with the sale of MLBAM's video advertising inventory." MLB in '08 signed a three-year deal with Yahoo to handle "online and video advertising for MLB.tv" (MULTICHANNEL.com, 4/6).

Dove Men+Care today is breaking the next round of "Journey of Comfort" videos that feature golfers Stewart Cink and Davis Love III. The videos will be shown throughout golf broadcasts this spring and on Dove's website. Dove also has created a "Tournament of Comfort" online golf game that allows users to play different holes from renowned golf courses around the world for a chance to win golf-related prizes (Dove).

The Atlantic 10 and ESPN have agreed to a two-year TV contract extension to televise both men's and women's basketball games through the '12-13 season. The conference will make at least 32 appearances in each of the next two seasons across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. ESPN will select eight match-ups totaling up to 16 appearances on either ESPN or ESPN2. The deal includes a live telecast of the women's championship finals in '12 and '13 (Atlantic 10).

Knicks F Carmelo Anthony has signed a multiyear deal with Johnson Products Co. (JPC) to endorse its Ultra Sheen Men ethnic hair care line. Anthony will appear in advertising and promotional campaigns, cause-marketing and community outreach programs as well as personal appearances for JPC and Ultra Sheen Men. JPC's partnership with Anthony is the first of its kind since the company was acquired from Procter & Gamble in '09 (JPC).