Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger — US Presswire
New York Giants‘ free agent WR Victor Cruz remains unsigned, but another signing involving Cruz has some folks upset. As many of us know, Cruz has decided to make rapper Jay-Z his agent this past month. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has partnered with the CAA agency to start a sports agency, with Jay-Z intending on becoming a certified agent.
At the beginning of the MLB season, it was announced that Jay-Z was signing New York Yankees‘ 2B Robinson Cano. With all of this being said, Jay-Z is not a certified agent as mentioned before, so there are some who are calling for an investigation into his courtship. Ben Dogra is listed as Cruz’s certified agent with CAA, and Dogra confirmed that it was Jay-Z who helped recruit Cruz to CAA.
New rules from the NFLPA state that unlicensed individuals are not able to court football players to select agencies. The rules state that a licensed agent or agency cannot employ or enter into a business relationship with non-certified individuals, which holds true in the rapper’s case.
By the letter of the law, Jay-Z, an unlicensed agent, helped CAA, a licensed agency, get Cruz as a client away from his previous agency, and that is illegal. However, Jay-Z apparently has a friendship with Cruz (as he appears to try to have with every popular athlete nowadays), so they can claim that he was merely giving Cruz advice on trying to be represented by the best in the sport.
So far it doesn’t seem an investigation will happen. This has some agents furious, as they feel the NFLPA is being selective with their own rule. We’ll see how this plays out. The NFLPA probably doesn’t want to risk having a strained relationship with the biggest agency in the sport. It appears evident Jay-Z was doing this with business certainly on his mind. However, that rule should not be in existence.
