I’m thinking about going to bartending school…everyone likes bartenders, don’t they? I like all of mine…ooh, but then I can’t spend all day fartin’ around on my computer. Shit, any other ideas? Frickin’ superhero-ing is just too enervating…oh, martini time…gotta go.

In WFV’s case, there are published articles where major boosters have stated that if DickRod leaves they are no longer going to support WFV. So this might be easier to prove than in most cases.

I think WFV is probably going to argue that they will lose up to $4 million in lower sales of licensed goods and through other revenue streams. Perhaps they could even argue that the success of their football team has led to increases in charitable donations to the school, etc. Their main difficulty is going to be in proving that such predictions are accurate, since courts tend to hate speculative estimates of damages. The other hard part is proving that there’s a $4 million drop-off in the difference between Rodriguez and Stewart.

Perhaps the funniest thing is that buyout clauses and all other liquidated damages clauses were created to shorten litigation by providing an estimate of future damages to either party. In this case, it looks like the buyout clause will do little to shorten the length or the cost of the litigation.

Alas, I am like Daredevil, a lawyer by day.

I’m not sure that the lawsuit has to be formally ~filed~ for the destruction of documents to be a problem. If legal proceedings are threatened, or obviously are going to happen, it’s ill-advised to start shredding. Of course, this is all speculation in the present case.

(By the way, being a lawyer sucks. Being a Masked Avenger is WAY cooler, and offers more opportunities for instant gratification.)

(1) Rodriguez’s substantive defense to the enforcement of the buyout clause is that WVU breached the contract first — and logically then he shouldn’t have to pay the buyout penalty for removing himself from that situation. WVU responds that Rodriguez is the one who served in bad faith in order to counter that view; if he acted in bad faith, ultimately abandoning the program (having never intended to stay), then he should pay the penalty, they argue.

(1)(a) No lawsuit ever brings a single claim when it reaches it’s final form. Everything but the kitchen sink is the rule most lawyers follow — not that it’s necessarily the right decision, of course. So if they want to push Rodriguez to settle, and pay, they move to enforce the buyout, AND charge him with material breach of contract and ask for damages for that too; the game is to inflate potential damages in order to get a “reduced” settlement for what they wanted in the first place. Yay, law.

(2) Then there’s the “legal issue” and then there’s the ~narrative~ the lawyers put before the court (read, “jury”). And lawyers really, really care about the narrative.

(2) Finally, public pressure is very relevant to settlement, regardless of the precise legal issue. ~Especially~ where the parties are public universities and football coaches and others interested in ticket sales, AP rankings, etc.

To the larger point – what RR and WVU are technically fighting about is whether the liquidated damages clause – the $4,000,000 figure – is a reasonable approximation of WVU’s damages. WVU already has another coach and it will have some difficulty proving that the ___ of days it took to find one cost it $4,000,000. WVU may reasonably believe that RR is 4 million better than Stewart, but it will have to be able to prove that.

I would be shocked if this case didn’t settle and fairly soon after signing day is over. At that point, neither side would have much to gain from posturing and cooler heads could prevail (assuming WVU will ever cool down).

As an aside, I have to relay a quote from Chris Balas, a Michigan rivals admin. He wondered whether the anonymous source in the WVU Athletic Department who was talking about the paper shredding destruction should be referred to as “Deep Goat.” (Perhaps just us older guys will find humor in that).

Don’t know any email address for hamburgers. Sorry

Regarding the RR situation, what else do we have to do until kickoff? I say we start seveal vicious yet baseless rumors.

Speaking of starting vicious and baseless rumors, Doug, have you seen Carl Rove lately?