Tag: Lawsuit

Report: Jerry Jones, Roger Goodell scheduled to testify in Sunday Ticket lawsuit

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys owner and NFL commissioner are among those taking the stand in a $7B lawsuit that could change how football fans watch games.

Jerry Jones is scheduled to testify in court this week, possibly as early as Monday.

The Cowboys owner’s appearance on the stand in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles is part of a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit brought against the NFL regarding the pricing of the popular Sunday Ticket package, which airs out-of-market games for fans who subscribe to the service, with plans currently starting at $349 per year.

League Commissioner Roger Goodell was also scheduled to testify on Monday. NFL Chief Media and Business Officer Brian Rolapp has already appeared, per the Sports Business Journal, and a deposition from Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been played for the jury in the case.

Jones is said to be on the schedule for early this week.

Plaintiffs in the case, which dates back to 2015, have claimed that by forcing Sunday Ticket customers to purchase (previously through DirecTV; now through YouTube TV) an entire NFL season’s worth of games, the league is in violation of antitrust laws. They are seeking $7 billion in damages in the class-action suit.

The NFL has denied any wrongdoing.

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Customers for years have asked that they be allowed to purchase one team’s schedule of games or subscribe on a week-to-week or even game-by-game basis for a lower price point. Some, including ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio on Monday’s edition of the Pat McAfee Show, have suggested that the league has purposely kept the Sunday Ticket price inflated (ensuring a smaller overall number of customers) to help drive viewers instead to local affiliates of CBS and Fox, their major network partners.

Florio says that evidence already introduced in the case “supports the notion that the league preferred fewer subscribers at a high price, and that the league did not want (for example) ESPN to offer the package for $70 per year or to make a per-team option available.”

“However this plays out,” Florio told McAfee, “it could force the NFL to really change the way the games are made available to consumers, and that’s a win for all of us.”

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Randy Gregory’s lawsuit ‘has nothing to do with the Broncos’

Randy Gregory’s lawsuit names the Broncos, but the NFL is his target. “They [the team] have done nothing wrong,” Gregory’s agent said.

Former Denver Broncos outside linebacker Randy Gregory has filed a lawsuit against the NFL and his ex-team that claims fines levied against him were discriminatory, according to The Denver Post‘s Parker Gabriel.

Although the Broncos are named in the lawsuit, Gregory’s agent, Peter Schaffer, has clarified that the pass rusher’s complaint is against the NFL.

“This has nothing to do with the Broncos,” Schaffer told KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis. “They have done nothing wrong. This is all about the NFL. Really what this is all about is a player’s right – a citizen’s right – to take the medicine that a doctor has prescribed for him.”

The lawsuit says the NFL fined Gregory $532,500 “for repeated positive THC tests since March 2023,” according to Gabriel. The pass rusher twice sought permission from the league to use Dronabinol and was denied.

“Gregory claims he was prescribed Dronabinol to help address social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder,” Parker wrote. “While NFL players are no longer suspended for testing positive for THC, it is still a banned substance by the league and positive tests are subject to fine.”

Denver signed Gregory to a five-year, $70 million contract in 2022. He was healthy for six games that year and totaled two sacks. Last fall, Gregory recorded one sack in five games with the Broncos before being traded to the San Francisco 49ers. He now plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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Cowboys’ Prescott will not face criminal charges in ’17 assault case

From @ToddBrock24f7: Police investigators say they found “insufficient evidence” to press charges in the 7-year-old case. The woman’s lawyers say it’s not over.

Dallas police will not pursue criminal charges against Cowboys quarterback  Dak Prescott in the sexual assault incident alleged by a Fort Worth woman he met in 2017, but lawyers for the woman say the matter is not over.

According to the Dallas Morning News, investigators found “insufficient evidence” to support the woman’s claims that Prescott forced himself on her in the backseat of an SUV in the parking lot of the club where she worked seven years ago. Her attorneys contacted Prescott just a few months ago demanding $100 million in exchange for her silence; Prescott’s legal team announced a $100 million defamation lawsuit and criminal extortion charges in response.

Prescott admits to having known the woman but denies any assault took place.

“I want to thank the Dallas Police Department and Dallas County District Attorneys’ office for their thorough investigation of the allegations against Dak Prescott,” attorney Levi McCathern said in a statement, as reported by the DMN. “As we knew they would, they found nothing in their extensive exploration of the facts that would support a criminal prosecution. We are confident that at the end of law enforcement’s investigation into the extortion case that they will find the accuser and her attorneys just as guilty as Dak is innocent.

“As I have said from the beginning, Dak is a great football player, and an even better human. He would never assault any woman. These false accusations were brought up seven years after the alleged events for one reason and one reason only: to line the pockets of the accuser and her attorneys. Their behavior is an affront to all the true survivors of sexual assault.”

Representatives for the quarterback’s accuser said in a statement that “this is in no way an exoneration of Mr. Prescott” and made it clear they will not be deterred in pressing the matter.

“Unfortunately, it takes victims a while to come out, and that makes these cases hard to prosecute,” said Yoel Zehaie, the woman’s attorney. “But we thank DPD for their efforts. However, we are still moving forward with our counterclaims. …They have been giving us the runaround on setting a court date because their lawsuit was a pure PR stunt. They know the truth, and it will come out in this suit.”

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The woman’s lawyers just this week asked to have Prescott’s countersuit dismissed on the grounds that it violates a Texas statute prohibiting retaliatory lawsuits meant to silence sexual assault victims.

“If we are successful,” they wrote in an email per ESPN, “Dak could face severe monetary sanctions.”

McCathern called the motion to dismiss Prescott’s claim “total nonsense,” saying it “misrepresented the relevant facts and misconstrued the law as it applies to them.”

He added that his team plans to file additional claims for “malicious prosecution.”

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Report: LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan could face $74 million lawsuit in Canadian court

The potential lawsuit comes at a bad time for not just LIV Golf, but also the PGA Tour.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan – the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the chairman of LIV Golf  – could be facing a $74 million lawsuit, according to a report in The Athletic.

Legal papers that were sent to Al-Rumayyan at various PIF addresses in Saudi Arabia, New York and London (as well as the stadium of PIF-owned Newcastle United in England) allege the 53-year-old “carried out the instructions” of current Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with “the malicious intent” of “harming, silencing and ultimately destroying” the family of the Kingdom’s former intelligence chief, Dr. Saad Aljabri. The Aljabri family is seeking $74 million in damages.

Aljabri was a top aide to former Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was removed from his post in 2017 and has been in detention since 2020. At the time, Reuters reported bin Nayef had been forced to step aside “in an effective palace coup,” but a Saudi official said the claim was “unfounded and untrue in addition to being nonsense.”

From The Athletic:

The claim Aljabri hopes to bring against Al-Rumayyan will, if the Canadian court grants permission, allege that defendants including Al-Rumayyan were “directly involved” in a three-and-a-half-year campaign between June 2017 and January 2021 to pursue the family of Saad Aljabri, who is a former top aide to Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

Why a Canadian court? Aljabri fled Saudi Arabia for Turkey in 2017 and then made his way to Canada. Three years ago, Saudi state-owned firms claimed in a Canadian lawsuit that Aljabri had embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds, an accusation that Aljabri has denied.

The documents sent to Al-Rumayyan this month ask the Canadian court for permission for Al-Rumayyan and others to not only be added to an existing court case, but for a new claim to be brought against them as well. The PIF and board member Mohammed Al Al-Sheik have also been listed as intended co-defendants in the legal papers.

The potential lawsuit comes at a bad time for both LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. The Saudi-backed circuit is less than a month from hosting its first event of 2024 in Mexico and the Tour is currently engaged in conversations with the PIF and outside investors to form a for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. The PIF is governed by Al-Rumayyan and bin Salman is its chairman. Al-Rumayyan was also originally tabbed to be the chairman of the new entity’s board if an agreement is reached.

For more on the history of tension between Crown Prince Bin Salman and Aljabri and the Kingdom’s involvement in its sovereign wealth fund, read the full report here.

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Patrick Reed’s $750 million lawsuit against Golfweek, others has been dismissed again

“Reed does not meet the required pleading of actual malice to hold the press liable for defamation,” Corrigan wrote.

For a second time, Patrick Reed’s $750 million defamation lawsuit against a number of golf media members and outlets — including Golfweek — has been dismissed.

Originally filed in August of 2022 in Texas and later refiled in Florida the next month, the lawsuit included the likes of Golf Channel’s Damon Hack, Shane Bacon and Eamon Lynch, as well as Golfweek and its parent company, Gannett. Lynch serves as a host on Golf Channel’s “Golf Today,” but is also a Golfweek columnist.

The lawsuit alleged conspiracy, defamation, injurious falsehood and tortious interference and that the defenders had acted “in concert as joint tortfeasors.”

But U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan, who dismissed the suit last November, did so again on Wednesday as part of a 78-page ruling.

“Many of the statements are not about Reed. Some statements are about LIV Golf, of which Reed is a member, but not specifically about Reed. Others are matters of opinion or permissible rhetorical hyperbole. Still others are statements of fact, the truth of which are not challenged,” Corrigan wrote.

Larry Klayman, Reed’s attorney, earlier stated, “The PGA Tour’s and its ‘partner’ the NBC’s Golf Channel’s mission is to destroy a top LIV Golf Tour player, his family, as well as all of the LIV Golf players, to further their agenda and alleged collaborative efforts to destroy the new LIV Golf Tour. As alleged in the Complaint, these calculated malicious attacks have created hate, aided and abetted a hostile workplace environment, and have caused substantial financial and emotional damage and harm to Mr. Reed and his family.”

Yet Corrigan wrote:

“Reed does not meet the required pleading of actual malice to hold the press liable for defamation. While Reed may be frustrated at the negative media coverage he receives (some of which seems over the top), under Florida law and the First Amendment, Reed fails to bring actionable defamation claims and his cases therefore must be dismissed.”

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Report: Tony Finau facing lawsuits alleging he owes two men millions of his PGA Tour earnings

One investor says “we deserve to be compensated” for assisting Finau early in his golf career.

Tony Finau has won six times on the PGA Tour and has been a member of two U.S. Ryder Cup and two Presidents Cup teams.

He has made $37.3 million in on-course earnings, good for 27th all-time, since joining the PGA Tour in 2015. His overall net worth is estimated to be closer to $50 million thanks to endorsements.

Finau, however, is facing allegations from two separate people claiming he owes them millions of those earnings.

A report by the Deseret News, a news outlet based in Utah, where Finau grew up, details accusations by two men, Molonai Hola, described as a former business associate and family friend, and David Hunter, a Utah businessman.

Hola filed suit in 2020, while Hunter did so in 2021. Both men say they financially backed Finau – and his younger brother Gipper – which helped them get their pro careers started.

The Deseret News report states:

Both Hola and Hunter, who are not working together, say they want repayment for loans and other work and services they say they provided to the family from 2006 to 2009, totaling about $1.1 million. They also seek, separately, up to 20 percent each of Tony Finau’s career earnings, which could be in the tens of millions.

Tony Finau’s representatives, when asked for comment, would not respond to specific allegations.

“People ask why we think we’re entitled to his earnings. We ask back, ‘Who risks $500,000 on a 17-year-old kid who hadn’t done a thing yet in pro golf? We deserve to be compensated for that,” Hunter told the Deseret News.

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Reggie Bush to file defamation lawsuit against NCAA, continue fight for his Heisman Trophy

Former Saints RB Reggie Bush to file defamation lawsuit against NCAA, continuing to fight for his Heisman Trophy and records at USC:

Good on Reggie bush. The former New Orleans Saints running back and legendary USC Trojans star announced that he intends to file a defamation lawsuit against the NCAA, following 2021 claims that he participated in a prohibited “pay for play” scheme while a student-athlete at USC.

Bush is represented through the law firm McCathern, LLC, which released a statement on his behalf: “The lawsuit is based on the NCAA maliciously attacking his character through a completely false and highly offensive statement that was widely reported in the media and substantially and irreparably damaged his reputation.”

The NCAA issued a statement two summers ago which denied Bush’s appeal to have his Heisman Trophy returned to him despite changes to the organization’s NIL policy. Bush took offense at the phrasing from that statement, which included, “Although college athletes can now receive benefits from their names, images and likenesses through activities like endorsements and appearances, NCAA rules still do not permit pay-for-play type arrangements.”

Back in 2010, Bush was forcibly disassociated with USC and had the Heisman Trophy he won in 2005 revoked after an NCAA investigation revealed that his family had accepted improper recruiting benefits during his time with the Trojans. When that ten-year disassociation ended in 2020, both Bush, USC, and the Heisman Trust expressed a willingness to move forward and have him recognized for his accomplishments on the field. But the NCAA still refuses to play ball.

The McCathern statement continued: “The NCAA’s statement is completely false and highly offensive. The NCAA knew Mr. Bush was never even accused of, involved in, much less sanctioned for any ‘pay-for-play arrangement,’ which never occurred.”

We’ll see if this goes anywhere for Bush. He still has a lot of fans in New Orleans, and it would be great to see his trophy, records, and reputation restored. But as we’ve seen with the NCAA throughout its history of mismanagement, they won’t practice good leadership and take action until someone shows them how.

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NFL takes aim at New Orleans apparel business in trademark dispute

The NFL’s small army of attorneys are trying again to win a trademark dispute they lost a decade ago, taking aim at a New Orleans apparel business:

This is getting ridiculous. Nola.com’s Stephanie Riegel reports that the NFL has issued a cease-and-desist order to the New Orleans-based apparel brand DNO, claiming that its long-running “Defend New Orleans” logo infringes on a trademark owned by the league. Popular with New Orleans Saints fans, the logo features a spiked skull wearing a fleur-de-lis, often portrayed in black and gold. DNO founder Jac Currie began selling apparel with the signature logo in 2003.

It’s a battle the NFL has lost before. In 2010, the league issued similar letters to local T-shirt vendors in the New Orleans area, only to get drawn and quartered in a conference call with former Louisiana attorney general Buddy Caldwell.

“They’ve conceded and they’ve said they have no intention of claiming the fleur-de-lis, which would be ridiculous, or the ‘Who Dat,’ which would be equally ridiculous,” Caldwell said at the time.

But now the NFL is once again trying to carve itself an even larger piece of the pie. The $150 billion corporation retains a small army of attorneys with too little work to do, but billable hours stay winning, so about once every 10 years they try a stunt like this. We’ll see if they’re successful this time, but DNO is preparing to defend itself.

Currie’s attorney Scott Sternberg argues, as Caldwell did in 2010, that the NFL has no claim to the logo given its historical significance to the city. He wrote: “The fleur-de-lis has been synonymous with New Orleans since its founding in 1718. It has been featured on the city’s official flag since 1918. The area was named for Phillippe II the Duke of Orleans, whose family coat of arms used the fleur-de-lis.”

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Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend is dropping her $30 million lawsuit, per report

A hearing in the case was scheduled for August, but it has since been canceled.

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Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend, Erica Herman, is dropping her $30 million lawsuit against Woods’ estate, according to court documents obtained by the New York Post.

Erica Herman’s lawyer filed for dismissal of the lawsuit on June 29, pending Herman’s appeal of a judge’s decision that she must abide by a 2017 nondisclosure agreement she allegedly signed with Woods.

“The Plaintiff, Erica Herman, by and through her undersigned counsel, hereby dismisses without prejudice her Complaint, filed on October 26, 2022, pending resolution of the appeal in Herman v. Woods and determination of whether her claims are subject to arbitration,” the filing said, according to Post.

A hearing in the case was scheduled for August, but it has since been canceled.

Herman alleged in that public lawsuit that she had an oral tenancy agreement to stay at the residence for about five more years. She claimed more than $30 million in damages after she said she was locked out of the home in violation of the agreement.

In Herman’s appeal to release her from the NDA, Herman’s attorney disputes the validity of the NDA, which required her to keep her private life with Woods confidential. The disputed NDA also required her to resolve any disputes between the two former lovers in private arbitration proceedings instead of public court.

But Herman said she doesn’t remember signing it and even cited new federal laws that invalidate NDAs and forced arbitration agreements in cases of sexual harassment or assault.

By appealing the case, she will likely argue the judge was wrong and that it was never established with evidence the NDA is valid. Woods’ attorney has denied the sexual harassment allegation, which stemmed from her time as an employee at Woods’ restaurant in Florida.

In court records, Herman stated Woods pursued a sexual relationship with her when she was his employee, then forced her to sign an NDA about it – or be fired from her job if she did not.,

USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer contributed reporting to this article.

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Alvin Kamara reaches confidential settlement in civil suit, submits written apology

Representing the victim in a civil suit, attorney Tony Buzbee shared a written apology from Alvin Kamara and news of a settlement. Now we wait for an NFL suspension:

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Houston-based attorney Tony Buzbee shared an announcement on social media that he reached a confidential settlement in a Louisiana civil lawsuit against New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, having represented the victim in a beating at a Las Vegas nightclub in Feb. 2022. As part of their agreement, Kamara submitted a written apology to the victim, Darnell Greene.

The details of this out-of-court settlement remain unclear, but that should wrap things up as far as the law is concerned. Kamara agreed to a plea deal in Nevada court on a misdemeanor charge, avoiding more serious felony charges but paying out more than $100,000 in medical bills. Now that the criminal and civil suits are concluded and the legal process has wrapped up, the NFL will likely take action in handing down a suspension.

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