NFL CFO Joe Siclare and VP/Legal & Business Affairs Jay Bauman were listed as potential witnesses in the lawsuit brought by Saints and Pelicans Owner Tom Benson against the two trustees overseeing his estate. The disclosure was made in court filings late Friday, which also listed NBA VP & Assistant General Counsel Joseph Maczko. Their inclusion is the most direct the NFL and NBA have been in Benson’s now 15-month-old effort to take his teams out of trust for his daughter and her children, and put them instead into trust for his wife, Gayle. Bauman, Siclare and Matzko were listed as witnesses by the two trustees – Robert Rosenthal and Mary Rowe – though not on Benson’s witness list. The notation for Siclare and Matzko noted another rep from their leagues might be suitable.
The other witnesses, which include Benson himself and two of his disowned heirs, Rita and Renee LeBlanc, also include team execs like Saints and Pelicans President Dennis Lauscha and trust and estate attorneys. Benson wants to swap out the interests in the teams with promissory notes, but the trustees have disputed the value he has placed on the franchises, believing they may be too low. Siclare, Bauman and Matzko presumably would be called on to testify about their knowledge of NFL and NBA team transactions, the details of which are often confidential.
