When I first read reports about Jay-Z and Victor Cruz aligning it was no surprise to me or anyone else. In fact I read that some sports agents were laughing at the venture perhaps with memory’s of Master P’s failure. Well it turns out that Jay-Z’s merger is with the almighty CAA (Creative Arts Agency one of the biggest sports agency’s in the world) and possibly improper communication between he and Cruz has other sports agents not so amused anymore. Read more after the jump.
Multiple agents have complained that using Jay-Z to “recruit” Cruz violates NFL Players Association rules.
The NFLPA has indeed looked into the matter, Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reported Friday. He wrote that the NFLPA has talked to CAA about the situation, but that it is unlikely to be viewed as a violation because of Jay-Z and Cruz’s longstanding friendship.
Forbes also wrote about the issue. The article notes that CAA confirmed that Jay-Z brought Cruz aboard to the agency. That would seemingly violate the NFLPA’s rule enacted in June 2012 that agencies are subject to sanctions if they (1) use, (2) associate with, (3) employ or (4) enter into a business relationship with any non-NFLPA certified individual in the recruitment of prospective player-clients.
We emailed the NFLPA for comment, but we’re still waiting for a response. It’s hard to imagine the NFLPA making a big issue of it because CAA (not to mention Jay-Z) is so powerful.
It’s also hard to imagine many reporters digging into the issue because so many rely on cozy relationships with high-powered agents for information. It doesn’t get any more high powered than CAA. These types of stories usually go away because people in high places want them to go away.
Well tough luck for anyone that’s mad. Agents bend all sorts of rules to get what they want for once someone bent a rule that didn’t favor them.
