Fanatics has filed a lawsuit against one of the top rookies in the 2024 NFL Draft, claiming breach of contract. The company says Arizona Cardinals first round pick Marvin Harrison Jr. has refused to acknowledge a binding term sheet he signed while he was still a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
In a 17-page complaint filed Saturday in New York State Supreme Court, Fanatics claims it entered into a “limited a limited promotion and licensing agreement” with Harrison Jr., in 2023. That deal was non-exclusive and was to run until just before the 2024 NFL Draft.
However, the company had high hopes for Harrison, who was finishing up his sophomore year at Ohio State and quickly began discussing a longer-term partnership with his father. “The parties heavily negotiated terms for a potential agreement for weeks,” according to Fanatics attorneys.
They say a deal was struck on May 16, 2023. Harrison autographs began arriving in 2023 Bowman University branded packs later that year. ESPN has reported the deal was worth more than $1 million and would have kept Harrison autographs exclusive to Fanatics for the first part of his NFL career.
Fanatics says it made payments to Harrison Jr. over the next few months, including in both August and October 2023.
“Less than a year into his Agreement, however, Harrison Jr. has recently and publicly asserted that his binding Agreement with Fanatics does not exist, and he has refused to fulfill any of his obligations thereunder,” Fanatics stated in the lawsuit.
Harrison Jr. does not have an agent. Throughout the process, Fanatics says Harrison’s father, Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison Sr., has been representing his son, although the suit indicates Fanatics has also been in touch with an attorney representing the Harrisons.
Fanatics says the Harrison camp has been using other companies as leverage, asking Fanatics to “meet or exceed the compensation offers he has allegedly received” to leave Fanatics.
“When Fanatics asked to see these offers to verify them, Harrison Jr. refused,” attorneys for Fanatics claimed.
“No athlete—other than Harrison Jr.—has ever repudiated their deal with Fanatics,” the company stated. “And no athlete has ever risked hurting the fans to try to leverage more money from Fanatics—other than Harrison Jr. Thus, prior to this lawsuit, and despite years of contracting with hundreds of top athletes, Fanatics has never had to resort to the courts to enforce its rights against an athlete.”
Harrison Jr. has yet to sign the Group Licensing Agreement that would give Panini America the rights to make his trading cards and the Fanatics dispute is said to be the holdup. According to NBC NFL reporter Mike Florio, Harrison Jr. was invited but did not attend the NFLPA Rookie Premiere event in Los Angeles that was held over the past several days.
In addition to breach of contract, Fanatics claims anticipatory repudiation, tortious interference, and declaratory judgment. They’re asking a judge to confirm the deal with Harrison is binding. Fanatics seeks “actual damages, consequential damages, punitive damages, and any such other relief available under the causes of action in an amount to be determined at trial but estimated to be millions of dollars.”
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