In The Press : Garonzik. vs. Woodall
SuperBowl Ring: No Sale
Woodall-item owner offers 3 eBay bidders a 'second chance'
The Patriot News
Thursday December 23, 2004
By Matt Miller
Of Our Carlisle Bureau
A Cumberland County man who secured former NFL linebacker Lee Woodall’s Super Bowl XXIX ring through a default judgment was resorting to a “second chance auction” yesterday to sell it.
Eric A. Garonzik placed Woodall’s ring on the eBay Internet auction site last week. That seven-day auction expired Tuesday night with a high bid of $61,900.
Garonzik’s wife, Stacy, said that bid fell $100 short of the reserve price – the sellers lowest acceptable price that had been set for the auction, so the ring didn’t sell.
She said her husband then contacted the three highest bidders for a “second-chance auction” that would allow them to secure the ring by paying on their bids. The first bidder to come up with the cash will get the ring, she said.
Each selected bidder offered more than $60,000, she said. The second auction was to expire around midnight last night.
Joseph Hitchings, Garonzik’s lawyer, said 84 bids were made by 17 people daring the seven-day eBay auction.
Woodall, 34, of Carlisle, earned the diamond-studded ring when the San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl in January 1995.
He sun-endered it in November as collateral for a $78,750 default judgment that Garonzik secured against him in Cumberland County Court.
Garonaik had sued Woodall, claiming he was not paid for months of work in developing an aborted fitness club franchise Woodall had hoped to launch. Woodall also reneged on a promise to allow him to buy an ownership interest in the clubs, Garonzik claimed.
Woodall didn’t respond to the suit, so the default judgment was entered, making him liable for what Garonzik claimed he was owed.
Hitchings said Woodall had 30 days to start paying on the judgment and retrieve the ring. Woodall did not do so, and the ring became Garonzik’s property, he said.
Woodall’s business and legal troubles have mounted since he retired from football in 2001 and returned to Carlisle. An auto detailing business and a restaurant he founded have closed. Numerous creditors have secured or are seeking judgments against him in Cumberland court.
Woodall has said he is taking steps to address the problems.
Comments posted on the sale site during the eBay auction included criticism aimed at Garonzik for selling Woodall’s ring.
Others who posted messages backed the attempt.
“Business is business, and if you’re owed, you’re owed,” one person wrote.
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