The agent suspended by the NFLPA for his role in the Elvis Dumvervil fax machine faux pas has vowed through his lawyer that the appeal will be more successful than the aforementioned efforts to send a timely fax.
In a statement issued through his office, lawyer David Cornwell says that Marty Magid will prevail in his effort to overturn a six-month suspension.
“Marty will appeal. Marty will win,” Cornwell said. “The discipline will not stand. The NFLPA made general and unsupportable assertions of negligence against Marty and then ignored or created facts to support its disciplinary decision. Marty represented Elvis Dumervil’s interests effectively and consistent with the standards imposed on him by the NFLPA’s agent regulations. We are confident our arbitrator will agree.”
Cornwell also objected to the union’s decision to announce the discipline before Magid’s appeal rights were exhausted.
“The NFLPA’s imposition of discipline is ill-advised and its announcement of discipline before Marty exhausts his appeal rights is indefensible,” Cornwell said. “The NFLPA knows discipline is stayed pending the appeal and trying to circumvent the appeal process with a premature announcement of discipline is unconscionable.”
On that point, Cornwell makes a very good point. Player discipline proposed by the league is supposed to remain confidential until the available appeal process has ended; when that confidentiality is breached, the NFLPA understandably becomes upset.
In fairness to the agents it regulates, the union should keep proposed discipline of agents confidential until the discipline is upheld via the appeal process.