Monthly Archives: July 2016

Three Reasons People Fail the NFLPA Exam

07 Thursday Jul 2016

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This morning, I got an email from a gentleman who’s registered to take the NFLPA exam later this month in Washington, D.C. He told me that at this point, he hadn’t “cracked the book” in preparation for the exam. His question — should he defer to 2017?

It’s a good question. Lack of proper preparation time is one reason plenty of people fail the test. I guess that’s true of any test, really, but especially the NFLPA exam. It’s even more true this year, after the test was made exceptionally harder than in previous years. With the pass rate for last year’s exam below 40 percent, it’s driven plenty of people to our practice exam, the only one on the Web. The 42 questions there are the only ones you’ll find that resemble what would-be contract advisors will see in our nation’s capital in two weeks.

When you register for the NFLPA exam, the players association sends out a copy of the CBA and source documents that make things a little easier. However, studying the entire CBA to pass the exam is a little like studying Encyclopedia Brittanica to pass your American history exam. I mean, the answers are in there, but so is a lot of stuff you don’t need. That’s why you need plenty of time to prepare. It’s also why many people take advantage of the study guide we offer. It’s not free, but reasonably priced, and gives many test-takers the tools they need to succeed. Especially if they don’t find out until a couple weeks before the test date that they’ve been approved. Which happens all the time. Literally.

Here are a couple other reasons people fail the exam.

  • Lack of humility: If there’s ever been a job that attracts people with big egos, it’s the agent world. I guess the legal profession already has plenty of people with  outsized opinions of themselves, but when you stack on the (potential) status that comes from being part of the NFL, the arrogance zooms into the stratosphere. Of course, a lot of that goes away the second the seminar starts and the pure volume of information starts flowing. It can be very humbling. I’ve heard stories of people begging the more prepared guy next to them to help when they realized what they faced.
  • Poor time management: The PA made last year’s test harder not necessarily by making the material harder, but by making the questions longer and more nuanced. The people who took it last year told me there were very few fill-in-the-blank or true/false questions. Instead, there were word problems that required nuance and comprehension. Many people go into the test figuring, ‘it’s open book, so how hard can it be?’ That’s a terrible approach. Last year, dozens of people wound up spending too much time on one answer, then found themselves scrambling to finish when the proctor called time’s up.

Are All Supplemental Draft Prospects Character Risks?

05 Tuesday Jul 2016

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These days, if you’re looking for a pro football fix, you’re pretty much left with the NFL’s Supplemental Draft, which is slated for later this month. Of course, comparing the supplemental draft with the NFL draft is like comparing a toy car with a Ferrari.

Finding supplemental draft success stories isn’t easy. It’s been quite a while since the ‘supp draft’ was turning out players like Miami’s Bernie Kosar and Steve Walsh, Ohio State’s Cris Carter, Alabama’s Bobby Humphrey and Syracuse’s Rob Moore in the late 80s. Since then, there have been solid players here and there but no consistency. In fact, the only one that really stands out in the past decade is Baylor’s Josh Gordon, who, ahem, turned out to have character issues.

It made me wonder if all such players that wind up on the post-draft scrap heap have obvious character warts, since so few ever get drafted and fewer still make a real impact. I reached out to six scouts this morning with just that question. Answers mostly confirmed my thesis, though some were mixed.

  • One scout said that in the “75-90 % range” of cases, it’s either character or an NCAA-related issue such as a player who was waiting on an eligibility ruling that came in late.
  • Another scout said most supp draft prospects are “not necessarily bad people,” though he allowed that sometimes such players are bad apples.
  • One strongly disagreed, calling my thesis way too broad. “I’ve never seen a study but personally I don’t believe that would be a very factual statement,” he said, and indicated that he feels most players in the supp draft are victims of circumstances beyond their control.
  • Another agreed with me, confirming that it’s “usually the case” that the player in question has off-field problems that are significant.
  • The final one I corresponded with said he wouldn’t say 90 percent had character issues, but said probably half did. “Lots of warts with supplemental drafting,” he admitted.

I guess the reason most teams pass on supplemental draft prospects is more because they don’t make the grade on the field than off the field. As always, however, character goes into each evaluation, and might tip the balance. How much is hard to determine.

 

Five Questions with NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala

01 Friday Jul 2016

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We try to offer plenty of tips, observations and other useful info for people aspiring to work in the business of football in this space, and we usually focus on folks who want to be scouts, agents, financial professionals or marketers. On the other hand, there’s the media track, and we haven’t done a lot with that. Today, however, that ends.

Technically, my inroad into the business came from the media, as I started off as a simple news writer for small papers before jumping to the Houston Chronicle, then to my own service, ITL. At any rate, our purpose is to give you ideas on how to break into the football world, so today, we talk to Aditi Kinkhabwala, who’s a national correspondent for the NFL Network.

Aditi started out with the San Antonio Express-News before moving on to the Bergen (N.J.) Record and the Wall Street Journal before landing with the network. Along the way, we traveled in similar circles and she became a friend. From here, I’ll turn it over to my super-intern, Mark Skol, who conducted this interview, and Aditi.

What is it like for you, day to day?: “On any given day, I can be sent to any team’s facilities. If it is during the week, then I’m covering, ‘what is the news of today or what is a story I feel is worthwhile to share with our readers?’ On game day, it’s different. On game day, I am on the field before the game and directing our viewers to what things to look for, what notable things happened during the week, and what can impact the game we are about to see. I do that right up until kickoff. I cover the game and after the game I secure a one-on-one interview and then I go into the locker room and talk to as many players as I can to get anything we may need as the week goes on. It’s a little bit different than when I was just a writer. You can’t edit yourself as much. When you’re writing, it’s different. For NFL.com, I don’t write as much as when I was a newspaper writer because there is more time spent on air, but I write a lot of columns or features.”

How did you get the job at NFL Network?: “It is almost serendipity. I was covering the New York Giants in their last Super Bowl run during the 2011 season. They were about to play the NFC Championship game in San Francisco. The NFL Network wanted a local ‘expert’ on air for a few minutes to discuss the Giants and this matchup. I went on air for I don’t even think four minutes. They asked me some questions and I guess the way that I answered caught the attention of the head of our newsroom David Eaton. David called me and said, ‘Have you ever thought about being on television?’ Thus began a couple-months-long process. We agreed to meet at the Super Bowl; we met for an hour and a half and began this process. I was very lucky because I loved my job at the Wall Street Journal. I loved my job and I wasn’t necessarily looking to leave and I wasn’t looking to leave newspapers. It was a great opportunity and here I am four years later.”

When did you think, ‘I have a cool job?:’ “I thought that all long. I wouldn’t have done what I do if I didn’t feel that way. I was always going to go to law school since I was 7 years old. My first aspiration was to pitch for the New York Yankees, (and) when I knew that wasn’t going to happen, I wanted to be a lawyer. I was an American Studies major at Cornell, and the sports writing in San Antonio was only supposed to be one year, maybe two years tops, and then I was supposed to go to law school. But somewhere, in the first two weeks working in Texas, I just thought, ‘this is awesome.’ It was because I was being paid to talk to people. It was my job to talk to people and find out their stories. I love to hear about other people and I was getting paid to do it. The craft of writing also appealed to me, the art of storytelling. I don’t know that one job has been cooler than a previous one. I’m not star-struck. Anytime I get to tell a story that is really meaningful, I think it’s really cool.”

What are some of the downs of the business?: “The travel can sometimes get very daunting when you are delayed for long periods of time and you are away from home. I have a young son. He just turned 11 months old. When my pregnancy was proceeding, it became a little bit difficult with the travel and the heat of the summer. Things like that are challenging but it doesn’t have anything to do with the nature of the job.”

What advice do you have for an aspiring journalist?: “Never be afraid to ask questions. Don’t ever think you know the story before you go in to find the story because if you have an open mind, you will often be surprised. Talk to people how you would want to be talked to. Know how you would want to be approached. Don’t be afraid of anyone. Treat people with respect and you will get respect in return.”