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Translating agent speak

22 Monday Dec 2014

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These days, when I’m having one conversation after another with agents, combine trainers, parents, media members, some scouts, coaches and others around the game, I hear a lot of things. A lot of it is code, so I thought I’d pass along some of it here, partly because it amuses me, and partly because, if you’re going to be in the business, you need to know what it means.

Today’s lesson is on the statement: ‘We haven’t even spoken to that kid.’

A big part of what our Rep Rumblings reports is credible information on who’s signing with whom, who’s recruiting whom, who’s firing whom, who’s hiring whom, and other such buzz. Not all of it is proven, black-and-white, cut-and-dried stuff. That means I have to trust the sources that have shown themselves to be reliable after 10-plus years of doing this. Sometimes I’m wrong, I’ll admit, but most of the time, I’m right.

This time of year, especially, we are constantly rolling out info about players who are near signing with certain agents. Sometimes the info is hazy, and we can only report the progress of the vetting process, but sometimes we name the agency. That almost always earns us a phone call from the agency. Sometimes, they freely admit that they are talking to the kid, but deny that they are the favorite. Sometimes they admit they are the favorite, but they’re upset (based on our relationship) that we reported it. But sometimes, they categorically deny that they’ve even spoken to the kid. In fact, that’s exactly what they say: “We haven’t even spoken to the kid.”

In these instances, I’ve learned, it’s important to parse words. Last week, I posted sensitive info about an agency that I was told had the inside track on a mid-round talent in the ’15 draft. Sometime later that day, I got the inevitable call, with an agent (who’s become one of my better friends and is with one of the more honorable firms in the business) claiming there had been no communications with the player in question. I expressed my regret for information he claimed was misguided. I was to learn later, however, that no actual verbal communication did not mean no interest. To his credit, later the same agent expressed that he and his agency had tried to get in through the player’s coach, but had not actually spoken to the young man. What he had originally said was untrue is still untrue, and I had been wrong, but it was also true that I hadn’t been completely off-base.

Here’s another, better example. Probably four or five years ago, I got a tip from a reliable source that a major firm would sign a big-time player in draft that was still more than a year away. My source had been reliable and he was adamant, so I ran with the info. I got no response from the agency right away. However, a year later, shortly after the draft, one of the firm’s agents contacted me. “We never even talked to that kid until a couple of months ago,” he said. Well, maybe not, but obviously, someone had been talking to him. You don’t sign a highly touted player with a casual phone call a couple months before the draft.

You almost need a Rosetta Stone to interpret some of the things you hear in this business. More translations to come.

War Story Friday: Flight to Nowhere

19 Friday Dec 2014

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These days at ITL, we’re re trafficking a lot of information about the postseason all-star games that are a key to getting ‘discovered’ by NFL scouts. I get a lot of calls about agents and/or players getting ‘screwed’ by all-star games that claim a player is not good enough to play in a game, or that they’re full at the player’s position. Well, sometimes it’s the player (or his agent) that does the screwing.

Here’s a good illustration. When I ran the 2008 Hula Bowl, we were the No. 3 game, but we had challenges (as I’ve recounted in the past) related to getting players to commit. These challenges were related to our place on the schedule (players arrived during bowl season) as well as the fact that getting to Hawaii is no easy task. That’s why I was really excited when we got a commitment from a Big Ten linebacker who figured to go in the fifth or sixth round.

As I recall, I had been in regular contact with the school’s head coach, working with him in an attempt to get 3-4 of his players into the game. I already knew the drill; he would encourage a couple of his late-rounders to participate in the Hula Bowl if I would take 1-2 of his ‘program’ guys, i.e., players who had no realistic shot of even going to an NFL camp, but who had been loyal soldiers for the coach.

Unfortunately, the coach was having the same conversations with his own agent, and had worked out a similar deal with him. This agent was an old-school guy, and never one to be an ITL client. Therefore, I had no relationship with him, and he had no interest in my lobbying or evangelizing for my game. It was clear he was going to try to get the linebacker into a ‘real’ game, and the Hula Bowl did not qualify.

Still, I didn’t know that when I was trying to schedule the player’s travel the week before the school’s bowl game. Like many colleges, the town where he had gone to school was quite remote, and we’d have to fly him out of Chicago. Though the head coach had been quite enthusiastic about him playing, I didn’t get the same vibe.

“I gotta fly out of my college town,” he insisted, and wouldn’t budge.

I tried and tried to convince him to fly out of a bigger airport, but he wouldn’t. So I went back to my scouting contacts to get a better handle on his pro prospects; each was adamant that he was a late draftee. So I eventually relented and booked him out of a tiny airport local to his college town. The price of the ticket exceeded $1,000, which was probably 3-4 percent of our entire travel budget.

That’s why I was furious when his agent called about a week later, just days before the player was scheduled to arrive, and told us he wouldn’t be coming. He didn’t have a reason why, but it didn’t matter, because no reason would have been good enough. Now I had to replace the player, finding a flight just days before our players were set to arrive, and spend money on top of the $1,000 I’d already spent. But here’s the kicker: there was no way I could get the money back or the ticket back once his name was on it.

In other words, not only had I been royally gamed by this young man, but I’d just handed him a $1,000 travel voucher. And there was nothing I could do about it.

He wound up skipping the all-star process altogether, and missed out on an attempt to solidify his standing in the ’08 draft. Perhaps as a result, he fell completely out of the draft, and had a brief cup of coffee in the league before his pro gridiron career ended.

I hate to take any pleasure in a player’s misfortune, but I have to admit it was hard not to smile when the last pick was announced that spring and his hadn’t been called. Meanwhile, I’ve never spoken to his agent since.

 

Meet the Prospect: UNM OC/OG Lamar Bratton

18 Thursday Dec 2014

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I know, I know. We didn’t publish a war story on Wednesday. I’m gonna try to roll one out on Friday. For today, we’re trying something new.

Periodically over the next few weeks, I’m going to use this space to spotlight players I know that aren’t getting a lot of looks from agents but who should. I’m going to be frank about their ‘bruises’ but I’m also going to tout their positives. My goal is to attract attention from agents — if you’re interested, email me at nstratton@insidetheleague.com and I’ll make the introduction — but also to express that there are talented players out there that don’t get attention, for whatever reason. Today, we’re introducing New Mexico OL Lamar Bratton.

First, the negatives.

  • The obvious drawback is his listed height of 6-0; that usually means a player is more like 5-10 1/2, though maybe I’m wrong. In the NFL, bigger is almost always better.
  • It’s also not a positive that the Lobos have struggled the last few years; scouts just seem to downgrade players from teams that lack success (thought I don’t know why).
  • Finally, players in the Southwest often get overlooked or downgraded simply because they’re harder to get to. It’s way easier to scout Florida or Louisiana or Dallas where there are dozens of schools within an easy drive.

For all these reasons, it may take a little more pushing to get a player like Lamar real attention and a good shot at a late-round selection or PFA invitation. Now for the positives.

  • Though I haven’t seen Lamar on film or talked to any scouts about him, it would be hard to argue that he can’t play. Since redshirting his true freshman year (as virtually all college offensive linemen do), he’s started every game the Lobos have played since, all 37 of them. He was Honorable Mention All-MWC his junior year (as a guard) and First-Team All-MWC (at center) as a senior. He’s a team captain, and he’s had to keep the team together through multiple transitions (and been recognized for his leadership). This is the kind of player who may not look good on the draft board, but who some team could easily fall in love with.
  • I can tell Lamar is going to be the kind of kid an agent falls in love with, too. Half the battle to be successful in this business is making it to the top and still enjoying what you do. High-maintenance, ungrateful clients are soul-killers, even if they’re making you money. Unless I’m dead wrong about Lamar, that’s not at all who he is. He’s gonna be the kind of guy you want to adopt.
  • Lamar has seen all kinds of offenses, from the spread/no-huddle to a grind-it-out, ball-control offense preferred by head coach Bob Davie. He also has played extensively at two positions, guard and center.

Right now, Lamar has asked me to help him find representation, and I’m just trying to put good people with a good young man. I know that players in the Southwest often get very few feelers from agents due to their remote location. To me, he’s worth strong consideration to a good agent who hasn’t already signed another center/guard.

If you’re an ITL client, and you’re interested, let me know. If you’re not an ITL client, go here first, then gimme a holler.

Frayed nerves

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

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This time of year is absolutely crazy for the people I work with. Here’s one illustration.

I have one client who’s literally been an ITL client since before he was an agent, sometime in the mid-’00s. We’ve come to be pretty good friends, and he’s one of my biggest supporters, regularly encouraging me and pitching me on ideas (many of them good ones) regarding my services. It’s been pretty rewarding to see his rise through the business, as he had his first top-100 pick last year, and feel like I’ve played some small role in it. I know we’re friends, one of my closer friends in the business, and will be for a long time.

All that said, twice in the last 4-5 years, this friend has lashed out at me in latter December, accusing me of helping ‘the enemy.’ He’s as competitive as they come, and it hurts him when he loses, and defeat causes him to ask ‘why?’ In his zeal to answer that question, he’s looked at me. Both times, the players he expressed frustration about were players I barely knew existed. One of them, I literally couldn’t even pronounce his name. Yet my friend was positive I had given someone else (maybe even the player himself) some kind of sensitive information that influenced the young man away from my friend.

I have to admit that I usually don’t react well, and get pretty dismissive out of my own frustration. Of course, it’s not true. I would be a fool to take sides in a business as wild and crazy as sports representation. I depend on all my clients to see me as neutral; if they don’t, ITL is dead in the water.

In a similar vein, I’ve had agents swear up and down that they’ll be signing a player as soon as his season is over, only to find out days later (sometimes even hours later) that they were wrong. That makes you crazy, too.

The point is, if you’re focused on being in this business, whether it’s player evaluation/scouting or player representation, prepare for your sanity to be tested. From about Dec. 1 until you get your client signed to an NFL deal the following summer, your life will be crazy and unsettled. But even at that, there’s no high like having success in football.

 

Desperation

15 Monday Dec 2014

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Today, I reached out to a player whose season is over, and who’s been receiving our newsletter for draft-eligible players since November. He’s in the conversation for a camp invite, I think, and I figured he might have received an invitation to a lower-tier all-star game and/or signed with an agent, as his season’s been over for weeks. I got this response from him:

“I do not have an agent. I would assume my chances are just about gone. I will do my pro day and give it a shot. There will be plenty of scouts out there for a few other players on my team. Thanks for all the informative emails. I appreciate it. “

I immediately responded and encouraged him. He was feeling that his chances are done, that no agent interest equals no chances of playing in the NFL. That’s just not true.

If you’re reading this blog and you’re in this young man’s shoes — three-year starter at an FBS (D1) school, with plenty of conference accolades along the way — no way should you be as discouraged as he is. All is not lost. In the meantime, if you’re serious about giving the NFL a shot, there are a couple things you can do.

1. If you’re done with your season, take a break and get healed up and ready to train hard.

2. Get your film together. There’s a good chance that you’ll need it at some point, whether that be to show an agent or a scout or someone else of influence. You don’t want to be scrambling for film 24 hours before you need it.

3. Identify a place — and this could be your school — where you can work on your speed and drills. To some degree, pure strength is something you can build. Speed and explosiveness are something you can’t ‘teach,’ and they are the two things that will matter most at your pro day, your next big test in the NFL draft process.

4. Do a little research on agents local to you. At some point, you might need to reach out to them if they aren’t reaching out to you. When you do, you need to have answers to some questions (like film and training).

5. Don’t be afraid, don’t be nervous, don’t be scared. It’s not at all uncommon for players who make it into NFL camps to not sign with agents until well into January, maybe a month away. I don’t encourage you to put things off, or to take a care-free approach, but I also don’t want you to be discouraged.

If you still don’t know what to do and need some direction, contact us. Maybe we can help. But above all else, don’t get discouraged.

War Story Thursday: Trust

11 Thursday Dec 2014

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Last Thursday for our weekly war story, I talked about a difficult situation I’d encountered in my days running the Hula Bowl that was handled with class and respect by an agent I’ve had a long-running relationship with. Today, the other side of the coin.

In those days, though the Hula Bowl was the No. 3 game, it was a hard sell to established agents and top players. Though the game was being played in America’s paradise, East Coast-based players faced a 7-10 hour flight to get to Honolulu on a commercial airline flying in an economy class seat. We were also the first game in the cycle, meaning players would have to miss the first week of combine prep and/or they’d be playing a bowl game almost right up to departure time for Hawaii. There were also concerns about how many scouts would make it to the game and other considerations that are a normal part of the process. Bottom line, I had to be in ‘sell’ mode 24-7, always recruiting, always trying to keep invitees and their agents happy.

Sometime late in December, I got a call from an agent who had signed one of our better receivers and one of our few invitees from the SEC. Obviously, a touchdown-scorer from the nation’s most glamorous conference was a key part of our roster, and would help draw scouts, so I was pretty angry when he called to tell us the young man was withdrawing. But my anger doubled when the agent casually reassured me with this: ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ve got you another guy.’

Well, I was younger then, and maybe I would handle things better today, but that really made me blow my top. I tried to control my anger on the phone with the guy, but I’m sure I was tempted to throw something as soon as we were done. Why? Because not only was he pulling one of our ‘A’ players, but he wanted me to do him a favor by substituting in a ‘B’ player. I felt, and still feel, that getting an agent’s player into a postseason all-star game does the agent and his client a tremendous service (though most agents feel they’re the ones doing the favor). So when he dismissed me, then expected me to happily take his lesser client, well, that was tough to take.

The football business is a rather small one, so you see the same faces every year. At the time, I didn’t know this agent especially well, but I’ve continued to move in the same circles as he does, and I’ve since found other reasons to believe my trust in him would be misplaced. It is what it is.

If you’re aspiring to work in this business, let me just say that you’ll come across many people who are self-serving and disrespectful. That’s life, but maybe people like that are more common in the gridiron game. Never repay disrespect with your own rancor, but also trust your gut and your instincts. Those who burn you once are probably going to be inclined to try to burn you twice. Avoid that if you can.

 

Work the Plan

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Yesterday, I guess I had too much time on my hands, so I reviewed my Twitter feed and found one of those endless lists that journalists put out this time of year because they’re easy, it’s the Christmas season, and they can churn them out in no time. This one recognized the top 100 or 20 or 50 or whatever people in the football business. No surprise, my name wasn’t among them.

For a minute, this frustrated me. I never measure myself by others’ success, because usually you’re comparing apples and oranges. Inside the League doesn’t fit neatly into any category. We’re not really media; though that’s the easiest label to put on us. We’re not scouting or recruiting, though lots of people put us in that group. We’re not a sports gossip site, though that’s another way we’ve been described. We’re more of a business-to-business consulting service, which is how I describe us. It’s hard to judge our success based on the number of Twitter followers we have, because our relationships are a lot more vertical than they are horizontal. I see us as less a mountain and more as an iceberg.

So here’s the point: don’t make the same mistake I did, even for a minute, by comparing your success to others’ success. All the time, you can see people in the football world getting credit for ‘winning’ when they really aren’t. You see this in the agent business when a lesser agency signs a top prospect, well over its station. Usually, it’s because the agent has paid a boatload in training, signing bonus and/or training, and more often than not, the player fires him well before he has a chance to make his money back. You’ll see another example of this on the last weekend in April when the media ‘grades’ the draft classes of all 32 teams. Those grades are at least three years early, and based on nothing more than the hype the same media has been creating for months.

Work your plan. Talk to everyone you know about the path you want to take, then take it. Figure out what your budget is, what your goals are, and what your time frame is, and stick to it. Don’t stray when you see someone else enjoying fruits that you think you deserve. And if your intention is to be part of the next wave of football professionals and you need a little guidance, we’d love to help.

The Melting Ice Cube

08 Monday Dec 2014

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Last night, I had someone register for Inside the League, but who stopped short of completing the pay page and subscribing. I call these people ‘tire-kickers.’ They aren’t sure if they want to risk $29.95 to find out if ITL can help them. Fair enough. That’s one reason I started Succeed in Football.

By his name, I think he was a member of the 2014 draft class, though I’m not sure it’s the same person. We get once-highly touted players from previous draft classes that ‘tire-kick’ all the time, wondering if we can find them another shot at glory. People often confuse Inside the League with an agency, and when they find out we aren’t an agency, they ask us to give them referrals to an agency. This is one of the saddest parts of the football business, because there’s nothing we can do to help.

I’ve heard players from former draft classes described as melting ice cubes, and it’s a pretty apt description. If a player goes undrafted, that’s bad, but he still might sign an undrafted free agent deal. If he goes undrafted and unsigned, that’s bad, too, but maybe he can at least hang on if he gets a CFL deal, or at least an AFL deal. However, if he gets to June with no deal and no offers, the summer sun really starts to get hot.

I don’t want to turn this into another cliched ‘stay in school’ story, and no one needs to tell you that getting your degree is the most important thing you can do during your college days. Instead, I discuss this as a reminder that this is a business, and decisions are made for coldly logical reasons.

Here’s another illustration. I got an email from a new agent today, and he mentioned that he was overwhelmed this year with working two jobs. I presume he meant working his ‘day job’ and pressing ahead with his sports representation dream. Good for him. I’m glad he wasn’t foolish enough to put all his eggs in the ‘agent’ basket.

Very often, I’ve spoken to people who think being an agent can be an instant career choice for them, an escape from a boring life as a corporate lawyer or a mid-level banker or even a bartender. But it’s really important to understand that this pursuit — almost any pursuit, really — will take time, and because it takes time, it will take money to keep your head above water in the interim.

I remember when I first launched ITL, I considered leaving my ‘day job’ as a low-level copy editor at a major southern newspaper. I thought of my desire for security as an act of cowardice or a failure to truly believe in myself. I’m so glad today that I didn’t cast security to the wind. It took me a lot of tries to figure what would work for ITL and what wouldn’t, how to work smarter and not always just work harder.

If you’re pursuing a place in the world of football, make sure you realize two things. One, a little early success doesn’t guarantee you anything, and you can run out of resources (and time) quickly if you’re not careful. Two, it doesn’t make you a coward if you hedge your bets professionally. After all, it’s not that you don’t believe you’ll be successful; it just means you’re willing to accept that you might not be instantly successful.

Giving the People What They Want

05 Friday Dec 2014

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We focus mostly on the business of football in this space, but I don’t do enough to encourage aspiring grid professionals to find a corner of the industry to make their own. So today, I’m discussing a couple of things that happened Thursday that puzzle me.

These observations might help budding entrepreneurs. Or if you’ve got answers, and you understand what I clearly don’t, please let me know. Here we go.

  • Occasionally, my friend Darren Heitner of SportsAgentBlog.com will Tweet a brief item from one of my Rep Rumblings reports at Inside the League.  On Thursday, he Tweeted a note about Michigan WR Devin Funchess that I had on the site this week. That item is fairly typical of the type of thing we post on a daily basis this time of year, and when my cell beeped about the Tweet, I just kinda shrugged my shoulders. As I’m writing this, about 22 hours after he posted it, that one Tweet had been retweeted 66 times and Favorited 25 times. I’m at a loss on what gave that Tweet such impact. I mean, I get it: the kid’s a junior and projected as a first-rounder, but it can’t be a surprise that he’s considering leaving early from a program that’s had its struggles the last few years. Obviously, Michigan is one of the more storied programs in the nation, and plenty of Big Blue fans have had their knives out on Twitter in a misery-loves-company kind of way. But it still has me scratching my head. One way or another, this one item had an incredible amount of impact. What’s especially odd is that within the last hour, he tweeted a similar item about Mississippi St. LB Bernardrick McKinney, also a junior who could be a first-rounder if he comes out. Here’s an SEC player from a school that’s had a lot of success this season, and after the first 45 minutes, we have one RT and one favorite. To me, that’s odd.
  • I didn’t post Wednesday this week, so I pushed War Story Weds. to Thursday. My story yesterday involved the professional, fair-minded approach one of my long-time clients took in picking a prime ‘plum’ off the Hula Bowl ‘tree’ in 2007. Almost as soon as I posted it, I got a text from him and we messaged back and forth a bit. My immediate response to him was the shock I feel when a major agent that is already an ITL client contacts me about one of my blog posts here. These readers are already paying for an ITL membership to have the high-level football tools and information needed to perform in an ultra-competitive industry. I mean, if you’re reading this, my thoughts are that you’re someone who’s still learning about the business, which is why at times I discuss some pretty elementary topics. However, apparently, you’re joined in reading by some of the people who’ll be doing first-round contracts next summer. I guess the takeaway is that when you’re in a business as fast-moving and information-centric as sports representation, you better always be learning. If that means that at times you find yourself in a Football 101 classroom, so be it. I hope that’s a lesson the aspiring football professionals out there really take to heart. I know I agree, no matter the business.

War Story Thurs: Hula Frustration

04 Thursday Dec 2014

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Since I missed posting yesterday (sorry, it’s just a really, really busy time), and War Story Wednesday has become pretty popular, I decided to share a war story from my past today, even though it’s Thursday. Hopefully, today’s story illustrates not just the intense competition even off the field, but the way things can be handled when there’s controversy.

This one comes from my days running the 2008 Hula Bowl, which was then the No. 3 all-star contest. It turned out to be the last year the game was played, but at the time, it had a great name and substantial reputation. Still, it was just the No. 3 game. Then, as now, the Senior Bowl was No. 1 and the Shrine Game was No. 2. We were trying to change that, but couldn’t. For that reason, I knew going in that everyone that accepted an invite would leave immediately if they got a Senior Bowl or Shrine Game invite. But I couldn’t be bothered with that; I had a job to do and I did most of my own evaluation.

Back then, the practice of scheduling games by mid-major teams on Tuesdays and Wednesdays was still new, so unless you were looking for a game mid-week, you might not find it unless you happened to come across it while channel-surfing. That’s how I found a game featuring Eastern Michigan against another MAC opponent one night, and it’s how I ‘discovered’ DT Jason Jones. For whatever reason, Jones had not gone into his senior season as a highly touted prospect, and he was not on my radar screen. However, by the end of the game, he definitely was. From his interior line spot, he was disruptive the whole game, stacking up the run and getting consistent penetration on passing plays. He looked like the kind of kid with big ability but limited headlines that I could ‘sneak’ onto the Hula Bowl roster. And I did. As I recall, I reached out to him through Eastern Michigan’s pro liaison coach, and in short order we had his info sheet signed and returned.

Unfortunately, these agreements are not binding, so I had to sweat things out, wondering if he’d ever make it to Honolulu. Everything looked good until we got to December, at which point I got a call from Mike McCartney.

At the time, Mike was still a relatively new agent, but an up-and-comer, and he was with one of the bigger and more reputable firms in the business, Priority Sports in Chicago. We’ve always had a great relationship, and I admire the fact that his father, Bill, founded Promise Keepers, an international Christian organization devoted to making men better fathers and husbands. By the way, Bill McCartney also won a national championship as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes in 1990.

When Mike called in early December, I figured the news wouldn’t be good, and it wasn’t. He had signed Jones, and Jones would be accepting an invitation to the Senior Bowl. I would have been a fool to make the case that he should also play in the Hula Bowl, and I didn’t, but Mike was very gracious in the way he’d handled it, which I appreciated. Today, Mike and I still have a really good relationship.

Someday, maybe next Wednesday, I’ll discuss the way things are more often handled with another story.