[Gotham Dark Knight]

Former players say safety net jeopardized by investment scamBy HARRY R. WEBER, AP Business Writer
June 30, 2006



ATLANTA (AP) -- Steve Atwater told his four kids their recent trip to Cancun may be the last one for a while. Blaine Bishop has tossed and turned at night, worried his retirement safety net could be in jeopardy.

The two former NFL defensive backs insisted Friday that the league and its players' union are to blame for the $20 million they and five other current and former players lost in an alleged investment scam.

The seven players have sued the league and its union to recover the money, claiming the union endorsed the services of an investment firm even though its manager had liens against him.

"They are a huge billion-dollar company," Atwater, a former Pro Bowl safety for the Denver Broncos, said of the NFL at a news conference. "We hope that they would at least come to the table and talk to us."
Bishop said he is past being mad at the scheme authorities say hedge fund manager Kirk Wright cooked up to steal the players' money. Now, he just wants his money back so he can take better care of his wife and 5-year-old son.

Is he NFL repsonsible or are the players to do their own due diligence?

[Lefty Noob]

Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other. The players have no excuse throwing their money into an investment they didn't bother to research themselves, and it bit them in the butt. On the other hand, perhaps they assumed the NFL had done the legwork before endorsing them (which is a valid assumption to make; who endorses something without investigating it?). Its a case I could see going either way, really.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other. The players have no excuse throwing their money into an investment they didn't bother to research themselves, and it bit them in the butt. On the other hand, perhaps they assumed the NFL had done the legwork before endorsing them (which is a valid assumption to make; who endorses something without investigating it?). Its a case I could see going either way, really.

...So if my company endorses a 401K fund that goes belly up due to fraud I can sue them as well?

[Lefty Noob]

The seven players have sued the league and its union to recover the money, claiming the union endorsed the services of an investment firm even though its manager had liens against him.

This just caught my attention... why are they suing the league if it was the NFLPA who endorsed it? Sue the union, not the company.

...So if my company endorses a 401K fund that goes belly up due to fraud I can sue them as well?

Hey, why not? You can sue fast food places because you're too stupid to realize that their coffee is hot, you can sue because eating 3 Big Macs a day turned you into a fat arse, you can sue because a gun manufacturer because their product happened to fall into the hands of a criminal, why not sue a company for bad investment advice? It's the American way!

(Sad but true, isn't it?)