The ever-shifting sentencing date for former NFL employee and marketing agent Mike Ornstein has shifted yet again.
Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal reports that Ornstein will learn his fate on Friday, November 17. It’s the fourth different date on which the sentencing has been set.
Meanwhile, Mullen points out some interesting comments from Ornstein, which he supplied last month to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports. Said Ornstein at the time, “It looks like I will be getting probation.”
Given that this is his second conviction and that he faces up to 25 years in prison, probation would definitely be a surprise. Even if he has reason to believe that probation is what he’ll be receiving, Ornstein probably shouldn’t tempt fate by talking openly about it.
As to the bigger question -- whether Ornstein will be naming names in order to secure lenient treatment -- an unnamed source told Cole that Ornstein likely won’t point a finger at others who participated in the admitted conspiracy to scalp Super Bowl tickets and to sell game-worn jerseys that had never been worn in any game.
“If he gave up anybody, he’d never be able to work in the league again and he knows it,” the source told Cole.
Baloney. Ornstein doesn’t “work in the league.” He represents players in their marketing deals with companies other than the NFL. Is Cole’s source suggesting that, if Ornstein cooperates with a federal investigation aimed at finding out which league and/or team employees signed certifications that they would not re-sell Super Bowl tickets for profit and then sold the Super Bowl tickets for profit, the league office and/or one or more teams will lean on the likes of Reebok or Nike or Subway or Pepsi to not do business with any of Ornstein’s clients?
Frankly, it sounds to us as if some of the folks who are justifiably nervous about being nabbed for breaking the same laws Ornstein broke are pulling the old “bring Clemenza’s brother to the hearing” routine.
Our guess? If Orny hopes to get probation, he’d better start singing. Otherwise, it could be very hard to continue to run a marketing agency while behind bars.
