The pre-three-day weekend news dump strikes again.
On a handful of days every year, bad news safely can be slipped through the nation’s collective five hole. The Friday before Memorial Day weekend is one of them.
And so Friday’s late-afternoon disclosure that a settlement has been reached the lawsuit filed by a pair of massage therapists against the Jets and quarterback Brett Favre was timed perfectly, from the perspective of the Jets and Favre.
While lawyer David Jaroslawicz has said only that the lawsuit was “resolved and discontinued,” it’s very common in any case where money changes hands for the party (or parties) writing the check insist on confidentiality. Many settlement documents state that the only thing that can be said about the case is that it has been resolved.
And so the comments from the lawyer and the circumstances of the disclosure of the settlement invite speculation regarding what the plaintiffs received. Often, the speculated amount is way too high. Regardless, anyone who settles a case -- for any amount of money -- and insists on a confidentiality provision risks creating the perception that far more money changed hands that the settlement otherwise would indicate.
Still, the timing quite possibly was specifically engineered to ensure that fewer people will notice that the case was settled, and that those who do will be less likely to consider what it all potentially means.