Julian Edelman built a legendary career on the football field by catching passes in the clutch. Now, the retired New England Patriots wide receiver is taking that same tenacity into a courtroom, suing a former business partner he claims walked away with the profits of a company they spent more than a decade building together.
In a lawsuit filed on April 17, 2026, in the Suffolk County Superior Court of Massachusetts (Docket No. 2684CV01145, Business Litigation Session, DCM Track B, Special Track/BLS), Edelman is suing Assaf Swissa, the founder of the digital advertising agency Superdigital LLC. The complaint alleges that Swissa engaged in the “calculated exploitation” of Edelman, leveraging his “name, access, and public stature” to grow the business, only to sell it for nearly $50 million in August 2025 and cut Edelman out of the proceeds entirely.
The story goes back to 2013. Edelman was at a crossroads in his career. He had just come off a season where he broke his foot, the Patriots had signed a player to fill his position, and he was entering free agency on a one-year deal worth just over a million dollars with no guaranteed money. The complaint notes that “Edelman’s performance during his 2013 season was critical for the future of his career.” Swissa, for his part, was in a similarly precarious spot. Still reeling and, by the complaint’s own description, at “rock bottom” after being terminated from a startup he purportedly co-founded. He founded Superdigital in July of that year, a Boston-based digital advertising agency that started with only a handful of employees, including Swissa and his girlfriend at the time.
The two men had met at a salon owned by Swissa’s father, Pini Swissa, where Edelman and other Patriots players regularly got their hair cut. Swissa used that connection to pitch Edelman on Superdigital’s social media management services. Edelman signed on as the company’s first client, but the lawsuit argues he quickly became far more than that.
According to the complaint, Swissa “called upon Edelman to introduce him to key clients, promote Superdigital’s services publicly, provide strategic input and attend pitches, and allow Swissa to use his name to prop up Swissa’s own credibility.” They collaborated on content for Edelman’s personal brand, producing “JE11” merchandise, a cooking show called Smoothietime, and a spoof of the television show Cops titled PATS: Cleaning the Streets. The work helped establish Superdigital as a legitimate creative agency at a time when it was still finding its footing.
As Edelman’s on-field profile grew, so did Swissa’s reliance on him. The complaint states that Edelman’s contributions “were critical to Superdigital’s growth from a small social media management company of just three-to-four employees into a leading and award-winning advertising agency with a swath of corporate clientele.” When Swissa wanted to expand beyond social media into broader corporate work, he turned to Edelman again. At Swissa’s request, Edelman introduced Superdigital to Microsoft, Guy Fieri, and Papa Gino’s, accounts the complaint describes as keeping “the company’s lights on when it was struggling financially” and serving as “the driving force behind its eventual multi-million-dollar sale value.”
Throughout all of it, the complaint alleges, Swissa kept Edelman close with repeated assurances of partnership. “In pitches with investors or potential clients, Swissa referred to Edelman as his ‘partner’ to gain credibility; Swissa represented to Edelman that he was a ‘partner’ with respect to Superdigital (and that compensation was forthcoming) so that Edelman would continue agreeing to promote the company.” The lawsuit says Edelman believed it. “Because he knew he was a partner, Edelman happily used his fame and connections” to support the business, even when his own agent and others counseled him against it, according to the complaint.
Then in August 2025, Swissa sold Superdigital for nearly $50 million. The complaint’s account of what followed is blunt: “Swissa sold Superdigital for nearly $50 million and gave Edelman exactly nothing. Indeed, in the lead up to the sale, Swissa shut out Edelman completely and concealed details of the sale for months.” It was only when the deal closed that Edelman says he “realized the reality of Swissa’s unlawful plan.”
Edelman is now pursuing four claims: unjust enrichment, a declaratory judgment establishing his status as a partner in Superdigital, breach of fiduciary duty, and promissory estoppel. He is asking the court to make him whole for his role in building the business.
The case is still in its earliest stages, with no judge assigned and no next event yet on the docket. But given the size of the sale, the seriousness of the allegations, and the public profile of the plaintiff, it is unlikely to stay quiet. Expect filings, responses, and plenty of legal back-and-forth in the coming weeks and months.
