The curious effort of Yahoo! Sports to throw mud at agent Drew Rosenhaus finally has resulted in a ball of wet dirt that may stick.
Jason Cole and Rand Getlin of Yahoo! Sports report that the NFLPA is investigating Rosenhaus regarding his ties to Jeff Rubin, a former financial advisor whose role in a failed casino resulted in millions in losses for NFL players. The union has exclusive jurisdiction over contract representatives, and trouble could arise if the NFLPA believes that Rosenhaus in any way breached his fiduciary duty to the men he represents by not steering them away from Rubin, or by directly steering them to him.
It’s the latest -- but clearly most potent and noteworthy -- article from Cole and Getlin regarding Rosenhaus.
In this specific situation, former Rosenhaus client Terrell Owens claims that Rosenhaus recommended Rubin in 2005. Former Rosenhaus employee Danny Martoe, who by all appearances has been instigating much of the current controversy as part of his own beef with Rosenhaus regarding wages, has suppled information in an arbitration filing against Rosenhaus that suggests Rosenhaus was aware of possible funds mismanagement by Rubin.
“Let me say this on the record, I had no reason to believe that Jeff Rubin was doing anything illegal or irresponsible or unethical,” Rosenhaus told Yahoo! Sports. “We never had any inkling that he was ever dishonest. We never had a player come to us until this casino fell apart.”
The challenge with issues of this nature is to distinguish actual wrongdoing from allegations instigated by those who operate in an inherently cutthroat industry. The fact that the NFLPA is investigating the situation makes it above the routine background noise of agent-on-agent crime. Thus, it will be important to monitor the NFLPA’s efforts, and to await its conclusions.
Indeed, there’s already chatter in some circles that this may not end well for Rosenhaus. And if he has violated fiduciary duties to clients, it shouldn’t end well for Rosenhaus.
Still, until that happens, anyone who opts to crank out a Pamphilonesque diatribe on the topic risks becoming a pawn in a high-stakes chess match involving an agent who has been very successful and the many others who would love nothing more than to see him fail.