Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

A little bit multiple week into the NFL free company interval, Lamar Jackson stays one of many greatest names available on the market.

He’s nonetheless supposedly representing himself with out the companies of an agent, however the waters grew to become a bit muddy on Thursday.  

That is as a result of in an odd and weird memo launched to all 32 groups, the NFL warned of an individual named Ken Francis who has been contacting entrance workplaces about coming into negotiations with Jackson. 

Here’s a copy of the memo that each one groups obtained a short while in the past: pic.twitter.com/54vA6Qzb2G

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 23, 2023

“The NFLPA has knowledgeable us that an individual by the title of Ken Francis, who’s not an NFLPA licensed agent, could also be contacting Golf equipment and trying to influence Membership personnel to enter into negotiations with or regarding Lamar Jackson,” the memo learn. 

It was initially unclear whether or not Ken Francis was in touch with Jackson, and even knew him in any respect.

There have been rumors on Wednesday of an “unauthorized consultant” informing groups that Jackson was prepared to go away the Ravens for the precise worth. Professional Soccer Speak’s Mike Florio mentioned the discussions have been held “in an effort to spark negotiations geared toward a doable supply sheet.” 

MORE: ‘Unauthorized consultant’ tells groups Lamar Jackson might be prepared to maneuver on from Ravens

The league warned that any offers struck with Francis wouldn’t be permitted, and subsequently would not be official.

“Golf equipment are reminded that, below Article 48 of the NFL Collective Bargaining Settlement, an Supply Sheet, which can lead to an NFL Participant Contract, might solely be negotiated with the participant, if he’s appearing on his personal behalf,” the memo continued. “Violation of this rule might lead to disapproval of any Supply Sheet or ensuing Participant Contract entered into by Mr. Jackson and the brand new Membership.”

The memo additionally made it clear that Jackson is not presently represented by an agent, so the one individual that may negotiate any offers with different groups is him. 

Because the plot thickened, it turned out Jackson did know the person named within the memo. The state of affairs was made much more complicated when Lamar Jackson responded to Tom Pelissero on Twitter, who reported Francis was “a Florida man who most lately was pitching a house health invention.”

Cease Mendacity that man by no means tried to barter for me 🤣🤣 https://t.co/DIMXtxOAnR

— Lamar Jackson (@Lj_era8) March 23, 2023

So, who’s Ken Francis? The Sporting Information dives in: 

Who’s Ken Francis? 

The small print on Francis are a bit of sparse in the intervening time.

From his LinkedIn profile, Francis attended Daytona State College in Florida. 

However because it seems, he is additionally Lamar Jackson’s enterprise associate. Whether or not the timing is coincidental or not, inside an hour of the memo being leaked, Jackson tweeted a promotional video for The Complete Gymnasium, which Jackson was featured in.

My enterprise associate Ken and I can be Dropping the @TheEntireGym this Summer season 🚀🚀🚀❤️ #STAYTUNED #TRUZZ pic.twitter.com/7ZkkUKa5qk

— Lamar Jackson (@Lj_era8) March 23, 2023

It’s protected to imagine at this level that ‘my enterprise associate Ken’ is Ken Francis.

Francis is the proprietor of The Complete Gymnasium, which claims to have developed ‘a revolutionary health product that’s compact and moveable. With its modern designed for consolation and sturdiness, The Complete Gymnasium is straightforward to make use of and handy for storage wherever.’

However when reached by ESPN, Francis mentioned, “I do not communicate for Lamar.”

The layers to this onion will definitely proceed to peel again, however for now, Lamar Jackson continues to signify himself, Ken Francis is his enterprise associate and the NFL is suspicious of all of it.

Saint Omni vs. Ken Francis

The most recent information involving the mysterious Ken Francis had many individuals drawing the parallels between Lamar Jackson’s now revealed ‘enterprise associate’ and Saint Omni, who was on the heart of the Roquon Smith drama.

Roquan Smith requested a commerce away from the Bears on Aug. 9, 2022. Only a week later, he grew to become the topic of additional controversy.

On Monday, August 15, the Smith saga took an odd flip, as ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio reported that somebody representing Smith was “calling different groups with a purpose to gauge potential commerce curiosity.”

Equally to the Ken Francis story, the NFL notified in a memo to its 32 groups that Saint Omni was the individual contacting them about Smith and defined that he was not licensed by the NFLPA to do this.

Saint Omni was listed because the director of soccer at LifeLine Monetary Group in a 2021 Complicated article about Laremy Tunsil. The article had a publish date of Nov. 4, 2021 and said that Omni had “helped Tunsil throughout his extension negotiations.”

That traces up with what his Fb web page mentioned about him. Omni listed himself as a “enterprise marketing consultant and supervisor for prime profile NFL Athletes and celebrities” on his private web page, in keeping with USA Right now.

Nevertheless, Omni’s web page had not been up to date for 2 years on the time USA Right now accessed it; it has since been deleted.

LifeLine Monetary Group describes itself as “wealth administration for athletes, entertainers and world influencers” on its LinkedIn web page. Surprisingly, LifeLine Monetary Group’s web site leads solely to a emblem of the corporate superimposed over a photograph of a person writing one thing with a baby on both facet of him.

There is no such thing as a public document of Omni amongst LifeLine’s listed workers on LinkedIn.

So, whereas Omni could also be mysterious, he seems to be part of the NFL world — although it stays unclear whether or not he’s a licensed agent or an advisor of some type.

Jacob Camenker and Peter Socotch contributed to this story

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By Admin

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