Overlawyered normally doesn’t delve into sports. But that was before Ralph Nader began to argue that the Philadelphia Eagles’ decision to suspend star wide receiver Terrell Owens (for, inter alia, publicly criticizing the team and quarterback, shouting at coaches, a physical altercation with a teammate, and then failing to apologize). Nader contends this is consumer fraud because season-ticket holders had an expectation that Owens would play for the team, which barely lost the Super Bowl last year, and was an early favorite this year.

(But what about all those New York Times subscribers who expected to read Judy Miller?) The suggestion rises to self-parody, though it exhibits the absurdity of modern consumer fraud law in that it isn’t crazier than suits that actually succeed.

Overlawyered continues if Nader is going to try and make football decisions litigable…

Can a fan sue the Washington special teams coach for costing the team the game against Tampa Bay because it reduced the chance the team would go to the Super Bowl and the resale value of his season tickets?

Nader is in a race with Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Pat Robertson to see which former presidential candidate can make a bigger ass of himself. Right now, smart money is on Robertson, but Nader is closing quickly and never, ever count out Jackson or Sharpton when it comes to doing something stupid in the clutch.

Additional reading: Al Sharpton–a victim of racial profiling at 110 mph and Preachers Who Cry”Wolf” and Students who Scream “I’m More Morally Outraged Than Thou”

If we are done here I’m going to go throw up.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2005 at 10:08 pm by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.