Former NFL wide receiver Lorne Sam is locked in a court battle with a wealthy English landowner after claiming he’s being forced out of his business because he is Black and from the United States.
The Daily Mail reported that Sam, who played for the Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos, left the sport and began running the Carington Arms in Leicestershire, England. Sam claims he was “treated differently” from previous tenants of the pub due to his African American background.
Sam is in a court feud with Alex Stroud, one of the controllers of the land trust that owns the Carington
Arms, after Sam said he was forced to close after a falling out with the owners due to the pub’s interior design. Stroud is leading an effort by the Trustees of the Ashby Folville Land Trust to evict Sam and his company, Carington Hospitality Ltd., as it claims he owes $14,000 in back rent. However, in a written defense submitted to Leicester County Court, Sam’s lawyer, Philip Noble, said that after Sam took over the 19th-century inn, Stroud and his wife, Lucy, visited the Carrington Arms and told him how the decor of the pub should be improved to their taste and the catering should be aligned to friends following shooting parties on the estate.“They asked Lorne Sam to carry out other improvements to the decor and finish in the property, despite no such improvements being necessary or required under the lease,” Noble told the Daily Mail. “They made it plain that they relied (on) the pub to host post-shooting parties… and asked Lorne Sam to organize the kitchen to cater for those demands.”
Sam isn’t the only ex-NFL player to get involved in the bar industry. Former Seattle Seahawks teammates Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman recently opened the Legion Sports Bar in Washington State. Former Los
Angeles Ram Michael Bockers opened a bar in Houston, and former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees recently opened a bar in Indiana.Noble also told the judge that the back rent was run up before Sam took over the company, and an agreement had been made with the trustees that a payment of $5,332 would clear the debt.
Russell Davies, solicitor for the trustees, denied that Sam or his company had been treated differently based on his race, adding that the Strouds are regular visitors to the inn and invested in the success of the Carington Arms.
According to Davies, Stroud organized and paid for recarpeting and the installation of new pipework and a radiator at the pub “despite being under no obligation to do so.”
Davies also said that “reasonable and proportionate” attempts were made to recover the back rent, but Sam’s company did not stick to the agreed-upon repayment schedule.
The case is expected to go to a full trial next year.
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