Derek Jeter is reportedly being sued for $30 million by an underwear company he used to endorse after the clothing manufacturer claims Jeter was concerned the brand would become “too gay.”
According to a lawsuit obtained by TMZ Sports, Jeter did not want the Frigo underwear line marketing to gay people.
“[Jeter] demanded that [Frigo] not market to the gay community and states that he did not want the Frigo brand to be ‘too gay,'” the documents allege.
Frigo claims Jeter had agreed to serve as director of the company and do major publicity events, but he backed out and cited the marketing strategy as one of the reasons why. Not surprisingly, Jeter has denied the allegations and labeled them “categorically false.”
This is just the latest detail in what is shaping up to be a lengthy legal battle between Jeter and Frigo. Roughly a month ago, TMZ reported that Jeter was being sued by Frigo in part because he backed out of his deal after the company signed 50 Cent to be a brand ambassador. The lawsuit claims Jeter felt signing 50 Cent would make the brand “too urban.”
Attorney Joseph Tacopina told TMZ that Jeter “blatantly breached” his agreement with Frigo.
“As demonstrated in the Verified Counterclaims of RevolutionWear filed yesterday, Derek Jeter defrauded RevolutionWear, blatantly breached the fiduciary duties he owed to it and utterly failed to perform his contract with the company,” Tacopina said. “According to RevolutionWear, Jeter’s misconduct caused the company to incur losses of at least $30 million, which the company is seeking as damages in this suit, along with punitive damages for his fraudulent conduct. We look forward to cross-examining Jeter and his representatives under oath to expose his alleged frauds to the public. We also have numerous witnesses who are waiting for their chance to testify about his alleged frauds and misconduct.”
Jeter is no stranger to bizarre accusations (we all know the gift basket story), but it’s never good when your name gets tossed into the homophobia discussion.
