As we close in on the end of the first year of Succeed in Football (thanks for reading), we’re about two months from the NFLPA exam for the people hoping to join the ranks of NFL contract advisors this year. With that in mind, we’re turning from talk of the scouting business to the representation business this week.

We’ll try to lend a hand to all those folks heading to Washington, D.C., this summer in a couple of places. One of those is this blog, where this week we’ll pass along a tip a day on how to break in and truly be successful in a tough profession. The other is in the email arena, where today we launched our annual newsletter for prospective 2015 NFLPA contract advisors. It’s free, of course, and if you’re interested in getting it, click here.

Our blog, you already know about, of course. Our email series, however, will go in a slightly different direction. We’ll focus solely on the agent business. We’ll interview several ITL clients who experienced success this year with their first draftee (I think we had six clients, all independent agents with no affiliation to big firms, who had players drafted, and that’s something worth saluting). We’ll also talk to several agents who had players signed as undrafted free agents, and if you think that’s easy, well, you’re wrong. Getting a player on a UDFA deal is important every year because, as young agents know, you only get three years to get a player on a contract with an NFL team. If you don’t, the NFLPA dumps you and you have to go back through the whole expensive process again, including paying the initiation fees and passing the test again.

So that’s it. I just wanted to introduce the week. Class starts tomorrow (LOL). I hope you’ll stick around. We’ll have plenty of good stuff, lessons, insights, etc., if making deals and signing players is something you hope to do someday.