I didnt see this posted around the time of the decision. Its the background information from one of the UNC lawsuits. Apologies on the formatting, but I'm copying and pasting and too lazy to go in and clean it up. Its the court decision from:
CHAMPION PRO CONSULTING GROUP, INC., and CARL E. CAREY, JR., Ph.D., Plaintiffs, v. IMPACT SPORTS FOOTBALL, LLC, MITCHELL FRANKEL, TONY FLEMING, ROBERT QUINN, CHRISTINA WHITE, and MARVIN AUSTIN, Defendants.
This lawsuit arises from the representation of and contract negotiation for Robert Quinn ("Quinn"), the fourteenth overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. The following allegations are taken from the Amended Complaint (Doc. 17).
At all relevant times, Plaintiff Carl E. Carey Jr., Ph.D. ("Plaintiff Carey"), was a certified National Football League Players Association ("NFLPA") contract advisor. (First Am. Compl. (Doc. 17) ¶ 12.) He became a certified agent in 2005 for the sole purpose of trying to enhance young athletes' lives and careers through proper and ethical representation and guidance. (Id. ¶ 13.) Plaintiff Champion Pro Consulting Group, Inc. ("Plaintiff Champion") is a management consulting company that specializes in the representation of professional football players. (Id. ¶ 14.) Plaintiff Carey served as president of Plaintiff Champion. (Id. ¶ 3.)
Defendant Impact Sports Football, LLC ("Defendant Impact") is a Florida limited liability company with its principal place of business in Boca Raton, Florida. (Id. ¶ 4.) Defendant Impact employed Defendant Tony Fleming ("Defendant Fleming") [*3] as a player-agent representative. (Id. ¶ 6.) Defendant Mitchell Frankel ("Defendant Frankel") was also a registered player-agent representative as well as an active officer and registered agent for Defendant Impact with direct and supervisory authority over Defendant Fleming. (Id. ¶ 5.) Defendant Christina White ("Defendant White"), Quinn's business manager, and Defendant Marvin Austin ("Defendant Austin") acted in concert with the other Defendants. (Id. ¶¶ 8-9.) Defendant Austin received monetary compensation for recruiting potential clients for Defendants Impact, Frankel, and Fleming. (Id. ¶ 84.)
A mutual friend introduced Plaintiff Carey to Quinn in November 2010. (Id. ¶ 19) Soon after, Quinn called Plaintiff Carey, and they had an introductory conversation. (Id. ¶ 21.) That conversation was the only contact between Plaintiff Carey and Quinn until December 4, 2010. (Id.) Plaintiff Carey also had a conversation with Quinn's father in November regarding Quinn. (Id. ¶ 22.)
On or about December 4, 2010, Plaintiff Carey met with Quinn and several members of his family in North Carolina. (Id. ¶ 23.) At that meeting, Quinn and his father signed a Standard Representation Agreement ("SRA") [*4] with Plaintiff Carey. (Id.) The NFLPA requires the use of an SRA to memorialize the agreement between a player and player-agent representative for services to be provided in exchange for a commission on a player's contract. (Id. ¶ 24.) Based on this SRA, Carey was to receive a three percent commission on the value of Quinn's future contract. (Id. ¶ 25.)
Plaintiff Carey and Quinn also agreed to a separate contract for personal expenses. (Id. ¶ 26.) Under that contract, Plaintiff Carey would provide Quinn with money for personal expenses on the condition that Quinn repay the money if he terminated Carey within two years of the agreement. (Id.) If Quinn terminated the contract, the money he owed would revert to a loan. (Id.)
Throughout the following months Plaintiffs expended substantial time, effort, and money presenting Quinn in the best possible light, prepared him both physically and mentally for the NFL Draft, and performed various other personal services. (See id. ¶¶ 27-28, 30-31, 33-35, 37-38, 42.) In large part because of these efforts, Quinn was selected fourteenth overall in the 2011 NFL Draft. (Id. ¶ 43.) Plaintiff Carey also facilitated and arranged agreements for Quinn with [*5] Nike and trading card companies. (Id. ¶¶ 47-48.) He continued to perform personal services for Quinn, as well as his friends and family, after Quinn moved to St. Louis. (See id. ¶¶ 64-66.)
Because team owners and the NFLPA could not agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, NFL players were locked out from March 11 to July 25, 2011. (Id. ¶ 49.) As a result of the lockout, the NFLPA decertified as a union. (Id. ¶ 50.) During this period the NFLPA did not serve as a governing body over player representatives. (Id.)
When in effect, the NFLPA's rules prohibited agents from contacting or communicating with a player under contract with another agent. (Id. ¶ 51.) On or about March 11, 2011, the NFLPA sent out a memorandum stating that it was "discontinuing its agent regulation system" as a result of its decertification. (Id. ¶ 53.) Without the NFLPA's agent regulation rules in place, a number of agents began to contact and communicate with players under existing contracts with other agents. (Id. ¶ 52.)
Under the expired collective bargaining agreement, the NFLPA's arbitration procedure provided the exclusive method for resolving disputes among contract advisors regarding alleged inference [*6] with the contractual relationship of an advisor and a player. (Id. ¶ 55.) However, mandatory arbitration did not apply to actions arising during the NFLPA's decertification. (Id. ¶¶ 56-57.)
Between December 4, 2010 and May 2011, Quinn and Plaintiff Carey communicated on a daily basis, frequently through text messages. (Id. ¶¶ 44-45.) However, these communications started to decrease in May 2011. (Id. ¶ 45.)
Plaintiff Carey met Defendant White for the first time at a party in South Carolina on or about April 28, 2011. (Id. ¶ 40.) Defendant Austin introduced Quinn to Defendant White. (Id. ¶ 41.)
In June 2011 Plaintiff Carey started receiving text messages from Quinn demanding more marketing contracts. (Id. ¶ 58.) Quinn and Defendant White requested an emergency meeting with Plaintiff Carey in Chapel Hill to address Quinn's demands. (Id. ¶ 59.) Other members of Quinn's family also attended the meeting. (Id. ¶ 60.) At the meeting, Defendant White was introduced as Quinn's business manager and girlfriend. (Id. ¶ 61.) Quinn asked Plaintiff Carey to cut his commission from three percent of Quinn's professional contract to one and one-half percent. (Id. ¶ 63.) The Amended Complaint alleges that [*7] at the time Defendants Fleming and White knew each other and had an agreed upon plan and scheme to terminate the relationship between Plaintiff Carey and Quinn. (Id. ¶ 62.)
On or about July 20, 2011, a trainer from the St. Louis Rams called Plaintiff Carey regarding Quinn. (Id. ¶ 67.) When Plaintiff Carey informed Quinn of this call, Quinn terminated Plaintiff Carey as Quinn's player-agent representative. (Id. ¶ 68.) While terminating Plaintiff Carey, Quinn told him that Defendants Impact, Frankel, and Fleming had offered to pay Quinn $50,000 in addition to any amount Quinn owed Plaintiff Carey if he terminated his SRA with Plaintiff Carey and hired those Defendants. (Id. ¶ 73.)
According to the Amended Complaint, Defendants were "operating under a plan and scheme to terminate Carey immediately upon the beginning of any contact with the St. Louis Rams related to contract negotiations." (Id. ¶ 70.) Under this plan and scheme, Quinn was to remain under contract with Plaintiffs for as long as possible to extract as much money and as many services from Plaintiffs as possible before hiring Defendants as his agents. (Id. ¶¶ 71-72.)
Plaintiff Carey had prior experience with Defendants Frankel [*8] and Fleming from their attempts to sign student-athletes he had tutored. (Id. ¶ 75.) According to the Amended Complaint, Plaintiff Carey had witnessed unethical, illegal, and immoral business tactics and had expressed his concerns to student-athletes that Defendants Frankel and Fleming recruited. (Id.) Because he had expressed his concerns and recommended that student-athletes not sign with Defendants Frankel and Fleming, they targeted Plaintiff Carey for retaliation. (Id.)
Defendant Fleming had informed Quinn and Defendant Austin of his plans to form a sports agency and management company that would cater to athletes interested in the partying lifestyle and told them that they would be his primary clients. (Id. ¶ 76.)
On July 20, 2011, Quinn told Plaintiff Carey that he would make payments on their personal expense agreement. (Id. ¶ 77.) A few days later, Quinn agreed to be represented by Defendants Impact, Frankel, and Fleming. (Id. ¶ 78.) The SRA was terminable upon five days' notice. Defendant Fleming discussed contract terms with the St. Louis Rams within five days of Plaintiff Carey receiving Quinn's fax terminating their SRA. (Id. ¶ 79.)
On July 30, 2011, Quinn signed a four-year [*9] contract worth a maximum of $9,400,000, including a $5,300,000 signing bonus. (Id. ¶ 80.) Based on the provisions of the 2011 NFL collective bargaining agreement governing rookie contracts, little to no negotiation would have been required. (Id. ¶ 81.)
Before 2011, players rarely terminated representatives after the draft but before negotiating with an NFL team. (Id. ¶ 82.) While the NFLPA was decertified, however, several former UNC football players, including Quinn and Defendant Austin, did so. (Id. ¶ 83.)
Defendants told Quinn that Carey was not properly representing him. (Id. ¶ 85.) Specifically, they told Quinn that Carey "should have been getting endorsement deals for Quinn"; that "Impact, Fleming, and Frankel could market Quinn better than Carey"; and that "Carey was at fault for Quinn not being selected higher in the 2011 NFL Draft." (Id.) As a result of these communications, Quinn terminated Plaintiff Carey as his player-agent representative and hired Defendants Impact, Frankel, and Fleming. (Id. ¶ 86.) Defendants knew that Plaintiff Carey and Quinn were bound by an SRA. (Id. ¶ 87.)
