Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal reported earlier today that Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman has parted ways with CAA. Since then, Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco has “reported” via Twitter that Merriman fired CAA and signed with David Dunn.
Ochocinco’s decision to mention Merriman’s move makes little sense, given that Merriman and Ochocinco routinely squabble on Twitter, and in light of the fact that Ochocinco is represented by neither CAA nor Dunn. Making the situation even more strange is the fact that Merriman “retweeted” Ochocinco’s report.
In SportsBusiness Daily‘s “Closing Bell,” Mullen points out that five days must pass between the firing of an NFL agent and the hiring of a new one. Though Mullen doesn’t specifically state that the five-day rule possibly was violated in this case, she reports that the firing of CAA by Merriman occurred over the weekend.
If true, this means that the transaction violated the five-day rule. But we can’t imagine Dunn, who has a history of having the NFLPA chasing him around, committing what would be a blatant violation of the five-day rule.