Rumors: Adam deal potentially illegal?

[DaBruinz]

A poster on ESPN brought this up from the profootballtalk.com rumormill and I think it is very interesting.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/
http://forums.espn.go.com/espn/thread?forumID=408&threadID=3374195&lastPostID=21197338

It seems that Uberstine contacted the Colts LAST WEEK regarding Vinatieri. However, when Adam was in Green Bay this weekend, he was represented by Neil Cornich's agency.

It was only Monday night that it was announced that Adam had fired the Cornich agency and that he'd hired Uberstine. Unfortunately, the NFL has a rule that a player must wait either 3 or 5 days (I've read both) before being able to hire a new agent.

On Friday, when Vinatieri was visiting the Packers, he was represented by another agent from Neil Cornrich's firm, since Cornrich currently is serving a two-year suspension. But the source tells us that Polian has said publicly that he was contacted last week by Uberstine regarding the possibility of bringing Vinatieri to the Colts.

If true, it's a potential problem for Uberstine, given NFLPA rules mandating that five days pass after the termination of one agent and the hiring of another.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm

 

[T-ShirtDynasty]

Oh please get messy, I would get such pathetic joy out of a sloppy mess for the Dolts.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I don't think it's a problem because as I heard it explained it's not a waiting period to hire or even negotiate but a waiting period to be certified so that he gets credit for the deal and is recognized as the agent in it. That may be the reason the PC and signing has been delayed until Thursday. There has been some indication that Adam canned Cornisch's lackey (who should be suspended along with Neil) over the weekend after he realized he did not even have a contract proposal prepared for GB. Then in talking to some of his friends like Willie and Troy, he made the decision to go with their agent.

In a case like this I would also imagine any grievance would likely be at the behest of the former agent. And in this case I don't think he has a leg to stand on. And his boss might not want to see a deeper conflict of interest can of worms opened.

 

[CheerforTom]

Clearly the only way to resolve this would be to cancel the Colts' season. And make Manning be a lineman the year after that.

 

[workhorse]

Oh please get messy, I would get such pathetic joy out of a sloppy mess for the Dolts.

Actually, I think the mess would be for the agent, not the Colts or AV.

 

[DarrylS]

For this faux pas, we should be awarded the Colts #1 and #2 for the next 2 years...

 

[mtbykr]

Well

Fear not, as we speak Polian is in the process of making a rules change to allow it! Things like this should not stand in the way of Dolts success!

 

[workhorse]

For this faux pas, we should be awarded the Colts #1 and #2 for the next 2 years...

Actually I think that they will require that all Pats players be represented by two different agent groups from now on. That way any future players that they don't want to sign can hop ship without any problems.

 

[T-ShirtDynasty]

Actually, I think the mess would be for the agent, not the Colts or AV.

A man can dream, can't he?

 

[workhorse]

A man can dream, can't he?

Heh, true.

 

[Mark Morse]

I think the Colts should lose a draft choice for making a deal with an agent that was not the official representative of a free agent player. Further, the League should suspend the agent for illegal practices.

Unfortunately Adam Vinatieri comes out of this with a new contarct but has his integrity tarnished.

Curious that Vinatieri doesn't want to talk about the negotiations - because they were illegal!!!


The Patriots will get nothing from this.

 

[workhorse]

I think the Colts should lose a draft choice for making a deal with an agent that was not the official representative of a free agent player. Further, the League should suspend the agent for illegal practices.

Unfortunately Adam Vinatieri comes out of this with a new contarct but has his integrity tarnished.

Curious that Vinatieri doesn't want to talk about the negotiations - because they were illegal!!!


The Patriots will get nothing from this.

I'm sure you want to penalize the Colts, but that's just because they are the Colts. Has anyone noticed that they haven't officially anounced that there is a deal in place? I'm sure that is so they are in the clear with the agent change time period.

 

[JR4]

Since the NFL can apparently suspend agents it must have some authority
over agent conduct.
This activity seems very wrong.
If it is allowed then consider the following.

Player has officially Agent A but contacts Agents B and C and lets it be know
that if they get a better deal the player will dump the current agent go with
the agent that gets the better deal.

This is wrong and not ethical. This is essentially what can be argued here.
How much fault is on the team is not known. But if collusion can be proven
between the new agent and the Colts this could be a mess.

 

[workhorse]

Since the NFL can apparently suspend agents it must have some authority
over agent conduct.
This activity seems very wrong.
If it is allowed then consider the following.

Player has officially Agent A but contacts Agents B and C and lets it be know
that if they get a better deal the player will dump the current agent go with
the agent that gets the better deal.

This is wrong and not ethical. This is essentially what can be argued here.
How much fault is on the team is not known. But if collusion can be proven
between the new agent and the Colts this could be a mess.

I've never seen an organization get penalized for an agent rules infracation.

 

[DaBruinz]

I'm sure you want to penalize the Colts, but that's just because they are the Colts. Has anyone noticed that they haven't officially anounced that there is a deal in place? I'm sure that is so they are in the clear with the agent change time period.

Workhorse -
It doesn't matter that they haven't signed the deal yet. What matters is the fact remains that Gary Uberstine's office is who called the Colts regarding Adam's availability last week. PRIOR to Adam even visiting Green Bay. And prior to Adam officially firing Cornich's office.

I think that Cornich's office would actually have legal right to go after both Uberstine's office AND Adam himself because of this. Also, there is a good chance that Uberstine's office could be suspended the way that Carl Poston was suspended.

This smacks of unethical business practices.

 

[workhorse]

Workhorse -
It doesn't matter that they haven't signed the deal yet. What matters is the fact remains that Gary Uberstine's office is who called the Colts regarding Adam's availability last week. PRIOR to Adam even visiting Green Bay. And prior to Adam officially firing Cornich's office.

I think that Cornich's office would actually have legal right to go after both Uberstine's office AND Adam himself because of this. Also, there is a good chance that Uberstine's office could be suspended the way that Carl Poston was suspended.

This smacks of unethical business practices.

You aren't stating anything I don't agree with. But it is all on the agent, not the Colts.

 

[DaBruinz]

You aren't stating anything I don't agree with. But it is all on the agent, not the Colts.

Actually, it is also on the Colts because they would have known that Uberstine wasn't Vinatieri's agent at the time Uberstine contacted them. They should have told Uberstine to contact them when he represented Vinatieri, not before.

Any deal that they negotiated in was done in bad faith since they purposely were circumventing the rules on when an agent could represent a player in those negotiations.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Since the NFL can apparently suspend agents it must have some authority
over agent conduct.
This activity seems very wrong.
If it is allowed then consider the following.

Player has officially Agent A but contacts Agents B and C and lets it be know
that if they get a better deal the player will dump the current agent go with
the agent that gets the better deal.

This is wrong and not ethical. This is essentially what can be argued here.
How much fault is on the team is not known. But if collusion can be proven
between the new agent and the Colts this could be a mess.

Actually it is the NFLPA (the player's union) that has the ability to suspend/ban agents. So don't look for them to mess with the highest ever kicker contract.

 

[JR4]

Actually, it is also on the Colts because they would have known that Uberstine wasn't Vinatieri's agent at the time Uberstine contacted them. They should have told Uberstine to contact them when he represented Vinatieri, not before.

Any deal that they negotiated in was done in bad faith since they purposely were circumventing the rules on when an agent could represent a player in those negotiations.

Of course the Colts would contend what do they gain from talking to
one agent vs another and that to them it made no difference.

But I think there could be a reason why Colts wanted Uberstine instead of
Cornich.
Suppose Colts knew with Cornich that any offer they made would have a
chance to be matched by the Patriots.
So Colts contact Uberstine and say will work with him but there can be no
allowing PATs to match their offer.
Uberstine agrees and then contacts Adam and lays it out.

It just seem strange that Uberstine would on his own go out and contact the
Colts when he wasn't even Adams agent not even knowing that Adam
would drop Cornich if he got the deal.
Something really smells here.

 

[workhorse]

Of course the Colts would contend what do they gain from talking to
one agent vs another and that to them it made no difference.

But I think there could be a reason why Colts wanted Uberstine instead of
Cornich.
Suppose Colts knew with Cornich that any offer they made would have a
chance to be matched by the Patriots.
So Colts contact Uberstine and say will work with him but there can be no
allowing PATs to match their offer.
Uberstine agrees and then contacts Adam and lays it out.

It just seem strange that Uberstine would on his own go out and contact the
Colts when he wasn't even Adams agent not even knowing that Adam
would drop Cornich if he got the deal.
Something really smells here.

There would be no advantage to an agent to not let another team try to match or better an offer. Agents work off of a percentage of a contract and it's in their best interest to get teams into a bidding war. So it would make no sense for him not to go to the Pats after the Colts made an offer.