Tarell Brown fired his agent for a really good reason.

[Rain Man]

I bet the agent was really looking forward to hearing his receptionist say, "Tarell Brown on Line 2".

Seriously, it seems like this is really good lawsuit material. Isn't it the agent's job to know this stuff?


http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100...49ers-workouts

Tarell Brown left $2 million on the table this offseason. This hardly was part of the plan.

The San Francisco 49ers cornerback was due to earn $2.925 million in 2013, the final year of his contract. To collect $2 million of that salary, he was obligated to attend offseason workouts with the team. Unaware that his attendance was contractually mandatory, Brown worked out on his own in Texas.

He didn't realize he had cost himself dearly until Thursday, when he saw reports on Twitter. He immediately fired his agent, Brian Overstreet.

"No one wants to leave money on the table," Brown said Thursday, via The Associated Press. "If I would have known the clauses in my contract -- that's what agents get paid to do, to orchestrate the contract and to let you know what you can and can't do as far as workouts and OTAs and things of that sort. That's what he got paid to do. He didn't do that, so in my opinion, you have to be let go. We all are held accountable for our actions. This is part of the business."

After finishing what we imagine was a tremendously pleasant conversation with Mr. Overstreet, Brown reached out to the 49ers. Unfortunately for the 28-year-old, "there wasn't too much I really could say."

"It had nothing to do with not being in shape, not wanting to work out, no contract problems, it just had to do with me wanting to go back home and train," Brown said. "It's something I've been doing for the past few years."


Brown said he plans to sit down with 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh in an effort to work out a compromise of some kind.

"Hope for the best," Brown said. "Pray for me."

Let's throw in a prayer for the agent, too. What a mess.

[ptlyon]

So now he gives a shit about OTA's?

Got it.

[GloryDayz]

Bad day at the office for all...

[BigCatDaddy]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Sued for what?

I don't know about sued, but I bet he lost a nice chunk of that $2 million himself. What's going commission for agents?

Edit: A quick search says about 4% on avg so that's 80K from the agent. Not as much as I thought.

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Sued for what?

He paid for a service from the agent and the agent failed to adequately provide that service resulting in $2 mil damage.

[GloryDayz]

I wish we had such a clause in the Royals owner's deal for home games... I'd love it if that ****er had to show his face at games!

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by KC native

I hope his agent has a good E&O policy because he is going to be sued.

This. He sure as hell ought to be sued.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by vailpass

This. He sure as hell ought to be sued.

That was my initial reaction, but now I wonder if the contracts that agents sign with players includes some sort of "you are ultimately responsible" clause. If not, I'll bet they will now.

Not that it matters for that agent. I suspect that he'll never get work again.

[ptlyon]

That's the problem. Nobody is responsible for their own actions anymore.

[CoMoChief]

Originally Posted by KC native

I hope his agent has a good E&O policy because he is going to be sued.

Exactly what for though?

The agent just says to the courts "of course I told him XYZ...."

[jettio]

You never really know what the course of communication was when the contract was negotitated and signed or when Brown made the decision to stay at home and not attend the off season workouts.

Did he even call or write the agent Overstreet and tell him that he wanted an answer on that decision before he made it?

I doubt there is going to be any lawsuit because there probably are some letters or e-mails from when the contract was signed specifically explaining the bonuses and Brown probably did not even call or write the agent to ask about his decision not to attend workouts.

From Googling his name, looks like Overstreet has a lot of name players and maybe they are satisfied with his representation.

If Brown did not know that 2/3 of his salary depended on 1 bonus, I would not assume that he never got that specific information in a separate writing from the signed contract. Of course, the signed player contract has too many pages, but more than likely he got that inforamtion in a one page summary or e-mail.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That was my initial reaction, but now I wonder if the contracts that agents sign with players includes some sort of "you are ultimately responsible" clause. If not, I'll bet they will now.

Not that it matters for that agent. I suspect that he'll never get work again.

Agreed for the most part, especially the last line. You pay an agent to watch your contract for you. That agent lost commission on$2 million because he didn't do his job.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Yeah this. It is his own responsibility and talk about 2 million dollars it would be in his own interest to take note what is in the contract and ask the rep questions or read the damn thing himself.

Not really. Most people wouldn't understand the language the lawyers use in these contracts. That's the point of an agent. To read the contract and interpret it to the player.

If I'm paying someone a certain % of my money to orchestrate contracts and negotiate on my behalf, they better tell me things like this.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

I think you have to take responsibility for yourself.

That's not exactly fine print in terms of the contract wording.

Yes the agent should be fired IMO, but I don't feel sorry for the guy as it's his own responsibility to know the basic framework of his contract.

For you and I? Sure.

But if you hire someone to do nothing but monitor your food and make sure there are no peanuts in it, then you get used to knowing that said food montitorer is monitoring your food and as yet you have not gone into shock from eating a peanut.

Then somebody slips in a peanut, he misses it, you go into shock. Why? Because you hired this man for precisely this reason and in the course of your working relationship together, you have ceded that control to him. If he never existed, you'd have seen the peanut, but dammit you weren't looking for it because that's what you pay this idiot for.

That's the role of agents - to literally do all of this. They're business managers, contract handlers and guys that stay on top of their client. Tarell Brown hired this agent and likely paid him 5-10% of his hard earned salary to make damn sure that contract terms, schedules, etc... aren't his problem.

I don't see how it's still incumbent upon Brown to do his agent's work.

View Tarell Brown as a business. View him as the sole owner and product developer. Now view his agent as the CEO and CFO. That's his agents role here - to administer the business. Brown's role is simply to create the product. If the agent forgets to pay taxes and balance the books while Brown is out building the next money-making product for the company, Browns only failure is that he trusted the wrong guy.

To blame Brown for not catching contract terms is silly - he hired this man and paid him a six-figure income precisely so he wouldn't have to worry about that sort of thing.

Now if you're the 49ers, however, you know you have Brown as a pending FA and perhaps you may want to use this as a jumping off point for a potential contract extension. "Sure, Tarell; we'll honor your bonus, but as part of this extension that's a hair under market and structured in a team friendly manner".

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by -King-

Not really. Most people wouldn't understand the language the lawyers use in these contracts. That's the point of an agent. To read the contract and interpret it to the player.

If I'm paying someone a certain % of my money to orchestrate contracts and negotiate on my behalf, they better tell me things like this.

OTOH, the agent lost money too so I bet it was explained, but he wasn't listening, only seeing dollar signs.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by -King-

Not really. Most people wouldn't understand the language the lawyers use in these contracts. That's the point of an agent. To read the contract and interpret it to the player.

If I'm paying someone a certain % of my money to orchestrate contracts and negotiate on my behalf, they better tell me things like this.

All that should be done before he signs on the dotted line. From my understanding how negotiations work is the agent goes back and forth from player to front office and informs both sides what kind of deal needs to get done. He should be telling in detail what is in the contract and the player damn well should be asking questions. No real excuse for the player to not have known about a little detail that he should show up for team practice for 2mil$$. Can blame the agent but it's still his responsibility before he signs the paper what is in it.