Cameron Crowe and Jerry Maguire
Cameron Crowe produced and directed the drama sports film Jerry Maguire. Leigh Steinberg inspired the film, which was released in December 1996. Jerry Maguire (starring), Dorothy Boyd (Jerry's lover), Rod Tidwell (Jerry's client), Bob Sugar (Jerry's protégé and agent), Marcee Tidwell (Rod's wife), and Ray Boyd, Dorothy's son, are the main characters in the film.
Jerry's New Mission Statement
Jerry understands that he was not behaving ethically after working for Bob Sugar's firm, Sports Management International and that he needed to improve. This prompts Jerry to write a new mission statement where he intends to put people first in his sports agency and because of this new mission statement, Jerry gets fired by Bob Sugar. Jerry leaves the company and poses a challenge to other employees to leave with him and start a better company where they would succeed even more but only Dorothy leaves with Jerry because she was inspired by the mission statement put forth by Jerry.
Rod Tidwell's Contract
Rod Tidwell tests resolve of Jerry by having a long conversation with Jerry over the phone on how his contract would be secured. The time that Jerry leaves the agency, he had two clients, Rod and Franck Cushman who had also decided to stick with Jerry. As Jerry was waiting to sign the NFL draft for Cushman, Sugar manages to convince Cushman a night before and he signs the contract with SMI. According to Cushman’s father, they signed the contract with SMI because Jerry was attending to Tidwell who is an African-American instead of his son who is a white player.
Jerry's Relationship and Breakthrough
Jerry later on falls in love with Dorothy and they enter into marriage which does not last as it deteriorates and they finally separate. Later on Jerry secures a contract of $11.2 for Roy with Cardinals and this becomes the breakthrough for Tidwell and Jerry’s mission statement is accomplished.
Contract Analysis
Questions
1. The contract at issue is between sports people agency management. It is an implied contract because there is nothing written but the actions of the parties shows that the agreement exists. The parties to the contract are Jerry and Sports International Management (SIM) where Jerry was given a responsibility to manage sports people on behalf of Sports International Management. The subject matter in the contract is sportsmen management.
2. The offer of the contract was not disclosed in the movie because there are no details about the terms in the contract.
3. Yes the parties had contractual capacity because they were all mentally sane and were all adults. There is nowhere in the film where we are told that one of the parties had shortcomings or some legal incapacity to form a binding agreement.
4. There was no bargained for exchange in the contract. This is because Jerry and Sports International Management never made any promises to one another on what each party was supposed to do for the contract to remain.
5. Yes, there is a reason to believe the contract is illegal in accordance with the public policy. In this case, it was a voidable contract where one party could terminate it without breaching the contract. There were no terms of contract employment written between Sports International Management and Jerry.
6. No, it is not a must for the contract to be written in order for it to be enforceable. An oral contract is also enforceable because it is legally equal to a written contract as long as it is binding to both parties and contains the terms of the agreement.
Work Cited
Jerry Mcguire. drama: Cameron Crowe, 1996. DVD.
