Mike Ornstein NFL Obituary, Cause of Death: One of the most intriguing and linked personalities in professional football in recent decades has passed away. According to Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, long-time NFL executive and marketing agent Mike Ornstein died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. Ornstein formerly served as the NFL’s Vice President of Marketing. He represented running back Reggie Bush in 2006, arranging various marketing partnerships when he entered the NFL as the second overall draft pick.
With tentacles in every tier and level of the league, Ornstein was a well-known mover and shaker. Ornstein developed a tight relationship with the Saints as a result of his representation of Bush. Duncan recalls that he remained close to Saints general manager Mickey Loomis and coach Dennis Allen.
In 2010, he was sentenced to eight months in prison for conspiring to sell counterfeit Super Bowl tickets and game-worn jerseys. While completing his sentence, Ornstein allegedly wrote emails to Saints PR (with many others copied) guaranteeing $5,000 to Saints players who performed strong hits on former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. The emails surfaced during the league’s investigation into the Saints bounty issue.
According to Judy Battitsta’s May 3, 2012 New York Times article, Ornstein was “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 stemmed from who he knew and what he knew. For years, league officials believed that Ornstein possessed the ability to bring down a wide range of strong figures.
