Former Philadelphia Eagles stand-out wide receiver and current Washington Redskins speedster DeSean Jackson filed papers contesting an arbitration decision that ordered him to pay $516,000 to his former agent Drew Rosenhaus. According to Deadspin.com, Jackson alleges that he was bribed by the agent to sign with $50,000 delivered in a Louis Vuitton bag, a $90,000 check, and a $200,000 interest free loan.
The accusation by Jackson comes in the wake of an NFL Players Association arbitration ruling in April that Jackson owed Rosenhaus the money in loans and fees. According to Philly.com, Rosenhaus sought over $700,000 from Jackson.
The Parade magazine All-American high school phenom and Cal Berkeley first-team All-American claims that Rosenhaus enticed him by convincing him that Rosenhaus had friends in the Eagles organization back in 2009. Further, he claimed that he could negotiate a better contract than his existing agent could. After agreeing to the contract–signing it with Rosenhaus in a car pulled over on the side of a road just after midnight–Jackson fired his old agent the following day.
Jackson alleges that he threatened to fire Rosenhaus because he did not deliver the better contract and that he was responsible for Jackson accruing $300,000 in penalties for delaying his signing with the Eagles. Moreover, according to Jackson, Rosenhaus made a second payment of $143,088 to the wide receiver’s family in order to remain his agent.
Yahoo.com reports that NFLPA regulations on agents forbid them from “providing or offering money or any other thing of value to any player or prospective player to induce or encourage that player to utilize his/her services.” Jackson hopes that a court will rule that the payouts were not loans because he would not be required to pay back any money that he received from Rosenhaus. If the money is ruled to be loans he will be obligated to pay it back.
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