One of the most intriguing and connected figures in pro football in recent decades has died.
Via Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, former NFL executive and marketing agent Mike Ornstein died Thursday at his home in L.A.
Ornstein previously served as the NFL’s V.P. of marketing. He represented running back Reggie Bush in 2006, lining up multiple marketing deals as he entered the league as the second overall pick in the draft.
With tentacles throughout every layer and level of the league, Ornstein was a well-known mover and shaker. Sparked by his representation of Bush, Ornstein became closely tied to the Saints. As Duncan notes, he remained close with Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis and coach Dennis Allen.
In 2010, he was sentenced to eight months in prison for conspiring to scalp Super Bowl tickets and for selling fake game-worn jerseys.
While serving his term, Ornstein reportedly sent emails to Saints P.R. (with many others copied on it) promising $5,000 to Saints players who delivered hard hits to former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. The emails came to light during the league’s investigation of the Saints’ bounty scandal.
From Judy Battitsta’s May 3, 2012 article in the New York Times, Ornstein was “no ordinary outsider” but “much closer to an insider: a ubiquitous, gregarious and sometimes foul-mouthed figure well known in [NFL] circles, who is credited by friends and detractors with having an uncanny knack for gaining access and generating lucrative deals for his associates.”
His influence came from who he knew — and what he knew. For years, it was believed in league circles that Ornstein had the power to bring down a wide variety of powerful figures.