As the Giants and quarterback Eli Manning continue to downplay a lawsuit alleging fraudulent game-used memorabilia sales, evidence of potential smoking guns continues to emerge.
Beyond a walks-talks-quacks-like-a-duck email message that the Giants and Manning have yet to rebut with a corresponding degree of clarity, a new article from Will Hobson of the Washington Post leads with a hand-in-cookie-jar example of a game-used item that necessarily wasn’t used in the game the team and Manning claim it was used in.
Eric Inselberg, the man who is suing the Giants over the alleged fraud, claims that a 2004 game-used Eli Manning helmet with a letter of authenticity from the company that has a contract to sell Manning’s game-worn items is missing one key feature that all Giants helmets had in 2004: A sticker in the rear bearing the number 79 and the initials “R.B.,” in honor of the late Roosevelt Brown.
The Giants and Manning issued to Hobson a general denial through a spokesperson for the law firm defending the case: “We dispute all the accusations related to the team and its employees.”
General denials are easy to issue. At some point, the Giants and Manning will have to provide a clear and specific response to the claim that Manning’s 2004 game-used helmet wasn’t game-used in 2004 (or ever) because it lacks the Roosevelt Brown sticker.