PFT: Giants memorabilia lawsuit moves toward trial

I thought it was supposed to interfere with football season - probably would've been a welcomed diversion.

could goodell punish the giants with a loss of draft picks?

He's sentimental.

for the Giants to be nailed for something so freaking stupid. Frankly, i don't know how much money is involved on fraudulent transactions or if there was shipping of false merchandise over state lines, but is there a chance this is criminal as well. That would be scary.

In comment 13830271 sundayatone said:

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could goodell punish the giants with a loss of draft picks?

Under what rule? There have been 19 draft pick punishments for NFL violations since 1980, including the Giants 10 spot drop last year for walkie talkie use.

All of those instances involved on-field infractions/cheating (spy gate ,deflate gate, walkie talkie use, pumping in crowd noise), tampering with players or contract/salary cap violations.

Unless I'm missing something none have been for civil issues related to memorabilia.

Am I missing something?

The deposition from Skiba as he is the middleman that knows for sure what the real situation was. Obviously, Eli who gives away millions away to Charity would not be guilty of selling phony tee shirts. But wouldn’t it be ironic if the league suspended him.

none of us does.

But I have no idea why people find it so hard to believe, just because he's charitable or seems like a good person that he wouldn't willingly dupe memorabilia dealers/consumers.

I can absolutely buy it, that due to the inconvenience of it Eli just saying to pass off any old equipment as Eli Manning game used and furthermore because IMO the primary consumers of memorabilia are probably middle aged men and most memorabilia dealers are slimy salespeople, many people probably don't care about it even if he did it.

Some may even feel like he's doing gods work. All involved probably felt like it was a long shot they'd ever get caught. I wouldn't be surprised if most teams do this.

But no idea why people would dismiss it as impossible.

I would have to think that if this was Cam Newton instead of Eli Manning
the media and fans would be taking a different view of this situation

In comment 13830334 giantfan2000 said:

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I would have to think that if this was Cam Newton instead of Eli Manning the media and fans would be taking a different view of this situation

Because of his skin color? Or because he's not a NY Giant? Or some other reason?

Love to hear this answer, I'm sure it will be brilliant.

at his benefit of the doubt. Eli hasn't.

If Manning did in fact take part in this -- what an asshole. You don't get credit for past good behavior, and it doesn't matter who the recipient is.

It's such a crappy move, and totally unnecessary. The whole thing stinks. I hope there's a logical explanation and the quarterback who's a millionaire 100s of time over thought this was a good call.

and it's an ugly read. Lots of it seems like easy to prove one way or the other - not just he-said/she-said stuff. Eli's also directly implicated in this.

Just hoping it gets resolved quickly, isn't a blemish on the franchise or Eli, and in no way interrupts our upcoming Super Bowl season.

In comment 13830351 christian said:

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If Manning did in fact take part in this -- what an asshole. You don't get credit for past good behavior, and it doesn't matter who the recipient is.

That's not always true either. Memorabilia hounds are creeps.

Nobody's shedding tears if that obnoxious jerk who goes after every milestone home run ball gets jilted. Guilty or not, he's still won awards for his philanthropic work and has a kids' hospital wing with his name on it.

who knows? You can't be certain of anything nowadays.

(sell the rights to his game-worn equipment, but afterwards not wanting to part with it was complicit in providing counterfeit goods), that's a scumbag move. If you want to keep your memorabilia that's fine, don't agree to sell it. If you've sold it be a man of your word. If you want to back out of the contract, be up front about it and repay the terms. But fake your way out? That's just low-life behavior.

I'm really hoping Eli didn't do the things alleged in the complaint.

He had every opportunity to not get involved in a sketchy arrangement.

If he wants to keep stuff so be it. No need to get tangled into this.

If it actually went down as is alluded to in the complaint. He's very, very lucky to not have been charged.

Imagine that going to trial. Imagine the very unlikely, but possibility of him serving time.

We're talking orders of magnitude more disruptive than anything OBJ has dreamed of pulling.

His back up game jersey saying it was his game worn jersey than he needs to just say so.... big fucking deal...

And if he says he had no hand in it, I have zero reason to not believe him, he has been the nothing but a pro’s pro since he stepped into the league.

The memorabilia company is either dumb or incompetent to not know the difference between a game jersey and game worn jersey (I’m sure every player has more than one jersey for game day just in case)...

Unless it was a whole other level of fraudulent, fabricating regular jerseys to make them appear game worn... that sounds almost criminal considering the value of these game worn jersey now a days.

Curious to see how this ends... Sort of suprised the Giants or Manning himself did not settle out of court by now just to make this go away already...

Eli were found guilty I have a feeling RG would want to come down heavy on both he and the team under conduct detrimental.

if Eli swindled someone (in the end, a fan) out of something. Play a practical joke, sure. But stealing? Why? He has more money than most politicians!

game used is so subjective. If Eli wore the jersey or helmet during a preseason game, but didn't play, is it still game used?

That's the grey area.

Now, if it's a Superbowl jersey that he had doctored to look like the one he wore in the actual Superbowl, that's another story.

Reminds me of a really underrated Francesca moment...


Link - ( New Window )

In comment 13830496 mrvax said:

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if Eli swindled someone (in the end, a fan) out of something. Play a practical joke, sure. But stealing? Why? He has more money than most politicians!

Partly hubris and partly the belief that it's a victimless crime. Eli gets to keep something of sentimental value and the buyer gets to own what he believes to be a game worn jersey or helmet. As long as the lie goes unexposed everyone is happy. But the best laid plans of mice and men....
p.s.--I wouldn't expect the Giants to lose a draft pick over it. More likely the Giants would be fined and Eli would be fined and suspended for two to four games (assuming there isn't a logical explanation).