After working with hundreds of this year’s aspiring agents over a period of several months, I’ve got a few thoughts. Let me start with the actual content of the exam.

We got a lot of feedback on this year’s exam from the participants, and there were some pretty offbeat questions. For example, one dealt with how an agent should respond when a player faces discipline because he punched his coach in the face on the sideline of a game, knocking him out cold. There was also a question about how often an ex-player could obtain a brain/body scan on the NFLPA’s dime once he’s retired. Several questions dealt with benefits and how players could obtain them once they left the league.

While these are, technically, the kinds of things agents need to know, most people told us they expected more testing on the bread-and-butter issues contract advisors have to face. It’s possible, even likely, that the NFLPA is trying to be elusive in what it tests on as a way of keeping the number of new agents manageable. Right now, there are 994 agents, which is 200-300 more than pre-Covid. We’ll see those numbers sink drastically once the three-year rule catches up to the surging number of new agents who came aboard after 2020, when there was no exam. However, the NFLPA is probably trying to do its part to cull the herd preemptively. 

We’ll make a few adjustments to try to give our clients an edge, as we always have. Next year’s program will look different. We’ll continue getting feedback to make sure we’re providing the service we need to provide.

Here are a few more notes.

  • If you’re eager to get started on player representation and the work of identifying your next client, but can’t until you know you’ve passed the exam, read this piece I wrote a couple years ago. It gives you a few things to work on so you can hit the ground running.
  • We’re still polishing our “agent school” that will be offered in the fourth quarter of the year, once results are out. We’ll have a formal rundown of our Zoom schedule, as well as pricing, in this space in the coming weeks.
  • By the way, you can expect your results in around four weeks. The NFLPA likes to give test-takers about a month to round up the funds for dues and liability insurance, and that deadline is Oct. 1, so sit tight. You’ve got about a month to wait.
  • We’ll have more in today’s Friday Wrap. As always, it’s free, and must reading for people in the industry. Register for it here.