Some how I knew this was coming.
NEW YORK - A New York Jets season-ticket holder filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick for “deceiving customers.”
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England’s 38-14 season-opening win Sept. 9.
“They violated the integrity of the game,” Mayer’s attorney, Bruce Afran, told The Associated Press. “This is a way of punishing Belichick and the Patriots.”
Mayer is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.
Belichick was fined $500,000 by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and the team was fined $250,000 for violating a league rule that prohibits clubs from using a video camera on the sidelines for any purpose — including recording signals relayed to opposing players on the field. New England also must forfeit a first-round draft pick next year if it makes the playoffs or a second- and third-rounder if it doesn’t.
“They were deceiving customers,” said the 48-year-old Mayer. “You can’t deceive customers.”
But how were Jets fans Patriot customers? The Jets are who the fans bought the tickets from. If Mayer’s clients sued the Jets, the team may not want to sell them tickets any more.
I wonder if I could sue Theodore Bikel then. Some years ago, my wife and I saw the stage musical version of Fiddler on the Roof at the local playhouse. Because of a musicians strike, the only music that night was supplied by piano. Bikel had fun with the Tevye dream sequence line in the show. “There were even musicians.” I didn’t pay one hundred dollars for my wife and I to see ‘Piano on the Roof’!
Mayer and Afran, who consider themselves public interest lawyers, have been thorns in the side of New Jersey politicians for years, filing lawsuits and demanding investigations to advance their grievances. They are well known in the state but generally have had little success in their causes.
Both have lost bids for elected offices, and Mayer once served as a presidential campaign adviser to Ralph Nader.
Now we know these lawyers are crackpots. Anyone who can advise Ralph Nader to run for President is certifiable.