TUCSON (CN) — University of Arizona head football coach Richard Rodriguez owes Creative Artists Agency $230,000 and will owe another $127,000 under terms of their verbal agreement, the coach’s former agent claimed in court Tuesday.
In its lawsuit in Pima County Superior Court, Creative Artists says it represented Rodriguez in negotiations for multiple contracts at UA and a contract as a CBS sports analyst. The agency filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in August.
Creative Artists says Rodriguez terminated their agreement in 2015 and stopped paying the agency then, though under the agreement he was to pay the agency throughout any contract it negotiated for him.
“It is industry standard, and commonly understood, that a client (i.e. Rodriguez) agrees to pay fees on his or her earnings already received, or to be received in the future, for the duration of any employment that began, was agreed to, or that was substantially negotiated, while the agent (i.e. CAA) performs services for the client,” CAA says in the complaint.
It says Rodriguez agreed to pay CAA 10 percent of his earnings during any contract it negotiated, including three amended agreements with University of Arizona and one with CBS.
Rodriguez paid the agency the 10 percent under the two contracts from 2011 until 2015, but stopped payments after ending his relationship with CAA in 2015, the agency says.
It says Rodriguez owes $230,000 to date, but future earnings under agreements the agency negotiated will bring the total to $357,000.
Rodriguez has been head coach at Arizona since 2012. Before that he coached three years at University of Michigan and seven at University of West Virginia, where he was a defensive back from 1981-84.
The University of Arizona, which is a defendant in the state lawsuit, referred questions to Rodriguez’s attorney, Bennett Speyer, of Toledo, Ohio, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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