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Duke claims they own his name. Mensah could change his name to the "The Quarterback formerly Known as Mensah" and play for Miami. Think of the marketing and hype.
You cannot legally own his name. Duke is a bunch of mouth breathing losers in this.
I’ve looked at the contract (you are correct that it’s attached to the complaint) and agree with your summary. Whoever reviewed this for Mensah didn’t do him any favors. At all.
There is no liquidated damages provision, but as you mention there is an provision
Agreeing injunctive relief is appropriate in the event of a breach. Notwithstanding that, I believe you still need to prove the requirements are met.
The agreement does say it is subordinate to NCAA rules, so I’m not sure how it could purport to prevent him from entering the portal or transferring. The NCAA rules expressly allow that.
If the judge did deny the TRO as you say, the right play is to have him enroll at UM now before the preliminary injunction can be decided. Then the request for the injunction is moot and it’s purely a damages arbitration, which is what it should be anyhow.
Also, it’s an NIL agreement only and Duke is the other party. I thought schools can’t directly enter into NIL agreements with athletes. Am I wrong about that?
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I still think "The Quarterback Formerly Known as Mensah" has a nice ring to it.
He was #10 right? He could also go with Mensah Diez. No relation to manny Diaz
Don’t even need to go that far. Just legally drop the “h” off the end of his last name and there you go. It’s genius.
lol. Duke fans want him forced back
Can you imagine?
“We literally sued our own QB to force him to come back and play for us one more season.”
How would that even work? He’s out there on the field trying to run a two minute offense to engineer a game-winning drive…and he suddenly thinks, “Hey wait, these clowns screaming and cheering up there in the stands sued me!”
I actually think this is exactly why Duke is doing all this.
Make it such a headache to leave that he just gives up and stays for one more year. It's pathetic, but not surprising for one of the ringleaders of the tobacco road mafia that has done nothing but **** over it's football schools for decades.
Straight outta Key and Peele--they were true visionaries!
The question is really just how much the damages will be.
I think clearly it's maxing out at $4M which is the presumed Amount that he was set to make.
However I think it's entirely reasonable to have an argument for lesser damages amount. Like ultimately I just think it makes absolutely no sense that you can have a non-employement agreement and not receive ANY money for the 2nd year (the 1st yrs $4M was Paid, and the NIL value from Mensah was delivered to Duke), yet OWE $4M to break that contract.... So for playing 1 year at Duke due to the damages, he'll have essentially made $0.
Like literally Duke will have paid Mensah $4M for 1 year of play, then not paid him anything for this following year, and gets a $4M "damages". So NET they'll have paid $0 and gotten a year of NIL rights... Kinda makes zero ******* sense when you look at it that way. No player should EVER sign a multi-year NIL deal if that's the case.
I just can't see any court ruling that tbh. Wouldn't that be unjust enrichment for Duke...
I'd bet this end with a $1-$3M settlement. Most likely closer to $2M in damages.
He’s playing in orange & green next year I’m not even paying this bs no mind
Can’t you? Did John Cena and Randy Orton sign over the rights to their names when they signed with WWE? At least for the duration of their contracts?
Here’s a question.
if Mensah had declared for the NFL draft, would Duko have sued him for leaving one year before his two year deal had expired?
That’s exactly it. And they may not even want him back at this point. It might be just about setting an example.
He's playing for Miami next year. Duke can make flips as much as they want to, but it's their own undoing.
Colleges refuse to accept that student athletes can't be treated legally as employees if they don't want it. This is the same situation here - if Mensah were an employee, this would be totally different. NIL agreements are not binding contracts that force you to stay at a school.
All sports lawers that I follow on Twitter immediately said that Duke has little to no chances winning this because of that little aspect. The judge who rejected the TRO without a written statement was a Duke booster, who proceeded to remove himself from the case afterwards. So even their own folks refuse to participate in this BS.
The legal situation does not allow schools to force student athletes to stay based on a NIL agreement. Heitner is on the case and schools hate him because he practices law the way it is and not the make believe that schools believe it is.
Relax, people. All is well
Colleges refuse to accept that student athletes can't be treated legally as employees if they don't want it. This is the same situation here - if Mensah were an employee, this would be totally different. NIL agreements are not binding contracts that force you to stay at a school.
All sports lawers that I follow on Twitter immediately said that Duke has little to no chances winning this because of that little aspect. The judge who rejected the TRO without a written statement was a Duke booster, who proceeded to remove himself from the case afterwards. So even their own folks refuse to participate in this BS.
The legal situation does not allow schools to force student athletes to stay based on a NIL agreement. Heitner is on the case and schools hate him because he practices law the way it is and not the make believe that schools believe it is.
Relax, people. All is well
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