Drew Brees files multimillion-dollar lawsuit... defendant now firing back
New Orleans Saints star quarterback Drew Brees is seeking at least $9 million in damages from a jeweler who he claims has been ripping him off for years.
Brees said in a lawsuit filed Monday that he has spent about $15 million on watches, earrings and rings at the CJ Charles jewelry shop in San Diego, California, where the quarterback started his pro career and played for five seasons.
According to TMZ Sports, Brees says he was told by Vahid Moradi — who runs the jewelry store — that the expensive items were going to go up in value.
But when the quarterback recently had the goods appraised independently, he discovered that his entire collection is worth $9 million less than he paid for it.
The biggest culprit is reportedly a 4.09 carat blue diamond ring. Brees bought the ring in 2015 for $8.18 million, but says it’s really worth just $3.75 million.
Moradi’s lawyer, Eric M. George, fired back at Brees’ claims, saying in a statement the quarterback is to blame for his own poor investments.
“Drew Brees aggressively purchased multimillion-dollar pieces of jewelry. Years later, claiming to suffer ‘cash flow problems,’ he tried to bully my client into undoing the transactions,” George said.
George added that Brees’ “belief that he was wronged” because the jewelry did not go up in value demonstrates “a lack of integrity and contradict(s) basic principles of both economics and the law.”
“He should restrict his game-playing to the football field, and refrain from bullying honest, hard-working businessmen like my client,” George stated.
Though there aren’t a whole lot more details about the lawsuit, it is rather difficult to believe that Brees is having “cash flow problems.”
Last month, the quarterback came to terms with the Saints on a 2-year, $50 million contract that includes $27 million in guaranteed money, according to ESPN.
And in 2012, he signed a 5-year, $100 million deal, which he played the entirety of before re-upping for another $24 million.
The point is, it’s hard to see how Brees could be hurting for cash after making tens of millions of dollars in his career.
If he is, though, it certainly didn’t seem to affect the 39-year-old quarterback’s on-field performance last season.
In 2017, Brees completed a career-high 72 percent of his passes for 4,334 yards, with 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Perhaps most importantly, Brees led the Saints back to the playoffs after they missed the postseason for three straight years.
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