One of the stranger pieces of litigation around the NFL involves Fanatics suing Arizona Cardinals’ receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. over a dispute over a contract. And now, Harrison’s Pro Football Hall of Fame father, Marvin Harrison Sr., has been added to that lawsuit, with both of the Harrisons now accused of fraud.
What’s going on here? Well, that lawsuit includes discussion of claims Pat McAfee made on his show on ESPN in May that Harrison Jr. didn’t sign a deal with Fanatics. That was contrary to the company’s statement that Harrison Jr. signed a binding terms sheet with them in 2023., which would lock him up with them through 2026 in exchange for more than $1 million (with further bonuses available based on rewards).
Harrison Jr. has cited complaints about Fanatics for why he hasn’t signed the NFLPA Group Licensing deal (which includes jerseys through Fanatics, which is why his jerseys are not yet available to the public). And last week, in a court filing, Harrison Jr. claimed that he didn’t sign that sheet, his father did. Darren Rovell of CLLCT has more on that strategy :
“It is not an agreement between Fanatics and me,” Harrison said in an affidavit. “I was never requested to, nor did I ever, sign any document that personally obligated me to do anything concerning the ‘Binding Term Sheet.”
So who signed it?
Harrison Sr. represented to the court in his affidavit he signed it as an authorized representative of the company, The Official Harrison Collection LLC, but that the deal didn’t require his son, the sole representative of the company, to be legally bound.
…Fanatics attorneys argue the contract was already validated by Harrison Jr., as he signed autographs under it and was paid more than $110,000 in total in payments that came in August and October 2023.
That affidavit was part of a motion to dismiss Fanatics’ claims. The judge denied that motion, and the Harrisons’ motion for more time for discovery, instead giving Fanatics two weeks to file an an amended complaint. They’ve now done that, and have named both Harrisons as defendants and alleged fraud:
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk is not optimistic about the Harrisons’ chances here :
Fanatics accuses Harrison Sr. of signing the document in a way that was calculated to create the impression that Harrison Jr. had signed it.
And Fanatics makes no bones about the company’s current contention. They accuse the Harrisons of committing fraud by knowingly inducing Fanatics to commit to an agreement that Harrison Jr. never intended to fully honor.
Thus, by making the “there’s no contract because Harrison Sr. not Harrison Jr. signed it,” Harrison Jr. and Harrison Sr. have provoked Fanatics to sue Harrison Sr. And to sue both of them for fraud.
It’s a massive unforced error by the Harrisons. For starters, the signature shell game wasn’t going to be a silver bullet, mainly since Harrison Jr. performed the contract that his father had signed for a year. Now, Fanatics has unlocked the ability to sue both Harrisons, and to extend the case beyond the more limited breach-of-contract damages to the broader scope of recovery available in a tort case.
We’ll see how this turns out for both sides. But it’s certainly fascinating to see the elder Harrison added to this lawsuit, as well as the fraud accusations. And this is a dispute with several media implications, from the McAfee report to the group licensing for jerseys. (For the record, group licensing also impacts video games like the Madden franchise, but Harrison seemingly cut a separate deal there; however, the images of him in the game have been roasted .) And now, it has a Hall of Famer on the receiving end as well.
[ Pro Football Talk ]
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