The Joel Bieber Firm

Bill Gramatica was a kicker from Argentina who signed with the Arizona Cardinals as their field goal kicker. Unlike any other kicker in the NFL, including even his brother Martin, who did his own crazy kicking celebration; Bill would celebrate each successful kick like an absolute leaping wild man. It was almost as though he had never seen a football game before.

In 2001, he lined up for a kick in the first half, against the New York Giants. When it went successfully through the uprights, it gave his team the first score of the game. You would have thought that Bill G had just won the game. He jumped up in the air in a spastic celebration and came crashing to earth on his knee.

His successful kick and celebration caused him to tear his knee ligament. The injury placed him on the injured list for the rest of the year and then he was cut by the team. To this day, he is placed on every “wow that’s dumb” injury.

The football coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars decided to motivate his players to keep at it. So, he brought wood and an ax for a team activity to “keep chopping wood” or to remind them to just keep at it. One of the players got so excited that he swung and missed and chopped at his own leg. Because he was the kicker, it put him out for the rest of the season. Most couldn’t decide whether to blame it on the coach or the kicker.

If you google silly sports injuries or “most embarrassing injuries”, you will find such injuries as a soccer player who got injured when he dropped a bottle of salad dressing on his foot. Another broke his arm when reaching for the remote. One baseball player fell asleep under the tanning bed and was unable to play because of his “sunburn”.

In the movie “Forrest Gump”, Gump admittedly went through life with a slow mind. His mother taught him to work hard, despite his difficulty. So, he would always repeat her saying of “Stupid is as stupid does”.

Sometimes, I think that certain businesses think that we’re all a bunch of Forrest Gumps walking around. The way they advertise is baffling. For instance, I keep seeing the same car ad that tells me that you can basically “name your own price”. Then, in real small print, there are all kinds of exceptions. Basically, it lets them turn down any price you name, after they’ve gotten you to their lot. I had to rewind and stop to see that small print nonsense.

In Federal law, there’s protection for us that is called The Lanham Act. It protects us against false advertising.

The Department of Transportation just fined Spirit Airlines for false advertising. They were advertising $9 one-way fares. To find out if were are any additional fees, they required a potential consumer to click through at least 2 web pages to find out the other fees and charges that were added on the fare. Plus they didn’t list the additional charges in their print advertisements.

I get it that we are supposed to read the fine print. It just shouldn’t be like an Easter Egg hunt to find the real cost of things.

Recent transportation reports indicate that airlines added about 10.2 billion to their bottom lines by adding on fare and baggage charges. Starting January 24, 2012, air carriers will be required to include all government taxes and fees in their advertised fare totals. Maybe we can escape the hiding of the tax, tags or made up dealer freight and set-up. Boarding early or the special tiny luggage bin fee will probably be in sight. They don’t charge that now, do they?

The charges bother me; And, the marketing bothers me. As Forrest Gump said, “That’s about all I have to say about that”.

For pic o’ day, the above makes me feel like we could all use a bit of protection against fraud pricing.

Please click the Facebook “Share” button below this post to let others know you enjoyed reading it. Thanks!