Marvin Harrison Jr. Syndication: Arizona Republic

As Arizona Cardinals rookie star wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. prepares for his first season in the NFL, it sounds like he and his father will have to deal with a pretty horrible distraction.

Marvin Harrison Jr. was already facing a lawsuit from Fanatics as the company sued him for fraud, but on Sunday, attorney Paul Lesko shared on social media that Marvin Harrison Sr. has also been added to the lawsuit as a defendant.

It’s certainly a massive update, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explained the move a little bit.

“The move makes plenty of sense, given that Harrison Jr. has made the argument that Harrison Sr. and not Harrison Jr. signed the ‘Binding Term Sheet’ that ostensibly created a contract between Fanatics and Harrison Jr. The amended complaint includes another wrinkle — Fanatics accuses Harrison Sr. of signing the document in a way that was calculated to create the impression that Harrison Jr. had signed it,” Florio wrote.

“And Fanatics makes no bones about the company’s current contention. They accuse the Harrisons of committing fraud by knowingly inducing Fanatics to commit to an agreement that Harrison Jr. never intended to fully honor.”

It’s a pretty horrible problem for the two of them to be facing as he heads into an extremely important year in his NFL career. And as Florio explains, it was quite unnecessary and could have all been avoided.

“It’s a massive unforced error by the Harrisons. For starters, the signature shell game wasn’t going to be a silver bullet, mainly since Harrison Jr. performed the contract that his father had signed for a year. Now, Fanatics has unlocked the ability to sue both Harrisons, and to extend the case beyond the more limited breach-of-contract damages to the broader scope of recovery available in a tort case,” Florio wrote.

Needless to say, this is horrible news for Harrison and his father, and it’s led to a lot of reactions on social media.

We’ll have to see how this all plays out.

[Pro Football Talk]