Author Archives: itlneil

2024 NFL Agent Basics Zooms: Week 1 Highlights

19 Thursday Sep 2024

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This week, we began teaching about 30 newly certified NFL contract advisors the fundamentals of player representation. Our focus was on giving them everything they’ll need for their first year of working with players.

Our topics this week were money on Tuesday and recruiting on Wednesday. We were joined by Christ Turnage of UA Sports on Tuesday and Aston Wilson of Agency1 Athlete Management on Wednesday. Next week, we’ll focus on training and combine prep on Tuesday and building your scouting network on Wednesday.

Here are a few highlights from this week’s sessions.

  • Wednesday night, I knew we would be discussing how to make contact with prospects, so I reached out to several new and newish agents for ideas on what to say that evening. Obviously, social media is key, but just bombing them with DMs probably won’t work. “When you see something happens big for them, you have to leave a congratulatory note . . . birthday, baby shower, engagement (fiancé), family member events . . . You have to acknowledge those things to build rapport,” suggested one agent. “I also have used a (WhitePages.com) subscription before to pull numbers and email addresses,” said another contract advisor. The key is to use social media to let the player know you’re rooting for him. “The kid we’re (recruiting now) was a kid who followed us on Instagram,” offered one agent. “I never messaged him. He had a good game . . . and I messaged him, ‘big win.’ He responded right away and I knew we had something.” One more piece of advice: “Make sure you are strategic with your target. UDFA/potential Day 3 guy and you may get a response.”
  • I hoped that the cost of representing a player would have declined (or at least stayed the same) since I wrote this post in 2015. What I found, unfortunately, is that it has risen to the $12,000-$14,000 range. Of course, you can sign players without any investment, but you get what you pay for.
  • Having legitimate contract advisors with years of experience has been a tremendous part of the program. For example, Chris had great advice on how to save money on rental cars. Aston had great advice on how to get a player into an all-star game (and make sure the player understands who got him there). Their contributions are part of the reason that, though we promised hour-long sessions, we went 90 minutes on Tuesday and a full two hours on Wednesday.
  • You’ve got to be able to walk away. That’s one of the main takeaways from Tuesday.  “I had a defensive end that I was recruiting,” Chris said. “I think he was gonna be a high PFA at the time. He said, ‘hey, this first-year agent is offering me a $10,000 signing bonus. If you can match, I’m gonna go with you. I said, ‘I’m not gonna match that, based on where you’re projected. I’m not doing that. He went with the first-year agent and he didn’t get drafted and he got cut off the 90 and he never played again. So that (agent) dropped 10 grand on him to get him, but it wasn’t worth it.”
  • Chris on holding the line at billing the full three percent on every contract: “My background is in banking, and they always told us not to compete on price. . . if you train your (potential) client that you’re going to compete on price, guess what: they’re gonna leave you on price as well. So you have to provide value outside of price.”
  • The temptation, as a new agent, is to sign someone from FBS (or even Division II or III) as your first client, but Wednesday, Aston said he doesn’t recommend it. “If you’re signing a player who’s not at an FBS school, he’s gotta be the best player you’ve ever seen play football,” Aston said. “Don’t think, ‘oh, I’ve got this diamond in the rough at James Madison.’ Don’t do that, because the odds aren’t in your favor.”
  • By the way, the feedback from our sessions so far has been fantastic. “Mannn these sessions have been priceless,” said one participant. “A lot of the questions I had or was unsure about have been getting answered or put to bed.” Said another: “Neil, great session last night. Really informative.”  

If you’re reading this and you’d like to join us, even if you’re not certified yet (but especially if you are), we’d love to have you. Cost is $350 (no tax), and you’ll get each of the two videos from this week as well as a chance to join us for both sessions next week. For even more information on our New Agent Basics course (and ITL), sign up for our weekly newsletter. 

By the Numbers: Position Scarcity in the 2024 Draft Class (and others)

13 Friday Sep 2024

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This week, I finally got a chance to finish up the 2024 Draft By the Numbers grid. It always provides an interesting look at different draft classes. As a reminder, we take a look at every position (QB, RB, WR, TE, OC, OG, OT, PK, PT, CB, DE, DT, ILB, OLB, FS, SS and CB) based on eight categories, from signing with an agent to making a 53 or practice squad.

Here are a few thoughts:

  • It was a great year to sign a center. This year, a fourth of them were drafted and more than 60 percent made it to a 90-man roster. Last year, the same number of centers were signed by agents (44) but only a third of them (36 percent) made it to camp and eight were drafted. Last year was a lot closer to normal numbers. Generally speaking, if you’re an agent, stay away from centers.
  • On the other hand, signing a tackle is as close to a guaranteed player on a camp roster as you’ll find. This year, two-thirds of all tackles who signed with agents made it to a 90-man roster, while a third (!!!) were drafted. If you factor in tryout players, almost 90 percent made it at least as far as rookie mini-camp. That’s unbelievable. 
  • Incidentally, only twice in the last 10 years have half of offensive tackles signed by agents not made it to a 90-man roster. Think about that. Getting a player into camp is the biggest challenge an independent agent faces, yet he’s got a 50-50 chance on every client if he just signs tackles.
  • One more point to make about tackles: 32.5 percent of all the tackles signed for the 2024 draft class were drafted. Only three positions had half as many drafted, percentage-wise: cornerbacks (19.2 percent), defensive tackles (17.2 percent) and defensive ends (16.6 percent). 
  • Defensive ends and defensive tackles are a pretty good bet, as well. Generally speaking, both are drafted or signed as UDFAs at about a 40-45 percent rate. 
  • At the other end of the spectrum, among regular position players, both free safeties (9.6 percent) and outside linebackers (8.9 percent) got drafted at less than a 10 percent rate. Those were the lowest rates, not counting fullbacks. Last year, the lowest rate was at strong safety (10.3) and inside linebacker (8.8 percent). Generally speaking, linebackers and safeties are the least-drafted positions.  
  • Wide receivers (253) and cornerbacks (182) were the most popular positions with agents this year, and that’s not unusual. In the last 10 years, wide receiver has been the most popular client every year (the high-water mark was 313 in 2016). Likewise, cornerback has been second-most popular all 10 years.
  • Come draft time, wide receivers are normally drafted at a 10 percent rate and cornerbacks at a 15 percent rate. 

I know if you’re a scout, or even a seasoned agent, these numbers probably don’t matter. However, if you’re a new or newish agent, it pays to get a look at the analytics before you start recruiting. Make sure to review the numbers yourself over the last decade before you start deciding who you’re going to target for 2025. 

2024 NFL Agent Exam: An Open Letter to the Class

05 Thursday Sep 2024

Posted by in Agent Exam, Agents, Getting started

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If the results of this summer’s NFL Agent Exam aren’t provided to test-takers this week (specifically, tomorrow), it won’t be long until they are (agent fees are due Oct. 1). With that in mind, the business is changing faster than ever, and I wanted to give my advice with the hope that it is beneficial to the newest agent class.

Here goes.

  • If you pass the exam, give yourself credit for that. The agent test got immeasurably harder in 2015, and it’s a true challenge now, no matter what anyone says. You should also give yourself credit for being among the few who actually pursued certification rather than those in the “one of these days” group.
  • Do not, under any circumstances, quit your day job. You will need those funds, plus the sanity of an anonymous, stable, ordered profession, to keep you on course while you build out your agency practice.
  • Proceed as if you don’t want to get hired by a big firm, because unless (a) you have a direct familial relationship with a player rated Day 1/Day 2 in a coming draft class, or you (b) have a six-figures investor willing to finance a firm, you are probably not going to get hired. There are just too many others in line ahead of you, and the line’s not getting shorter. 
  • It’s natural to want to swing for the fences, but you’ll need to be realistic about expectations. As I discussed this week at Inside the League, the number of firms that really have a crack at the difference-makers in each draft class is shrinking. For the most part, the top 100 players in the draft are already spoken for months, sometimes years, before the draft due to NIL representaton.
  • Name, image and likeness have changed the game in other ways, too. For one, we’re seeing more first-year contract advisors who are adept at the business, as evidenced by the number of new agents who had clients in the Senior Bowl and the fact that we saw so many rookie contract advisors with players drafted or signed to 90-man rosters. That used to be unheard of, but many agents today pass the exam with a number of relationships with players already locked in. 
  • Meanwhile, the expectations of those players are higher than ever. I realize you may be coming into the industry without a lot of money, hoping to beat the odds by finding a humble but highly talented diamond in the rough somewhere in the country. However, that’s a true rarity these days as the better players — even the Day 3 types — have been recruited all their lives not just by top college programs but also agencies eager to build a relationship before these players become recognizable names. 
  • For the most part, every agent class is made up three types of people. The first is youngish people, usually with limited resources, who have wanted to be agents all their lives. The second is more established people, usually attorneys, who are middle-aged, bored and looking for a new challenge and some excitement. The third is the growing body of NIL agents seeking to turn their marketing clients into NFL clients. 
  • The temptation is going to be to think that you can succeed in the business by spending minimal dollars. Given the forces at work in today’s game, I guess that depends on how you define success. If you simply aim to sign a player, that won’t be a problem. However, signing a player with a reasonable chance of making it to a 90-man roster is considerably harder. You’ll simply have to spend money, and generally tens of thousands of dollars, to get from NFLPA-certified contract advisor to actual representing an NFL player. I recognize that this is the very least popular thing I’m writing, and the least-believed thing I tell people. It’s still true. 
  • The NFLPA is not your friend. In all honesty, more often than not, it will be your adversary. It’s called the NFL Players Association, not the NFL Agents Association, for a reason. In the NFLPA’s defense, truly providing a policing body that can enforce the rules would be a near-Herculean task anyway. If you reach out to the NFLPA and someone returns your call or email within a week, count that as a big victory.
  • On the other hand, we’re moving ever-closer to a seismic shift in the business related to how players get paid, how the business is regulated, and when and how players go to the pros. No one really knows when this will take place or how it will manifest, but the dollars are just too great and soon a major entity will try to provide some guardrails, some way of regulating things. That’s a good and bad thing, but either way, it’s a major variable that’s out there, somewhere on the horizon. 

There are a few free or low-cost things you can do to become a student of the business. 

Good luck! I look forward to working with you, and I wish you great success in football.

 

My Next Book and Why I’m Excited About It

30 Friday Aug 2024

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It’s been 22 years this weekend since I launched Inside the League. I didn’t really know for sure where ITL would end up, or if I’d ever make a penny, but I really had only one goal: I wanted to know why teams picked (and didn’t pick) the players they chose. The NFL Draft just had so much intrigue then.

More than two decades later, I still know nothing. However, I’ve gotten at least some insights on it over the past four years as I’ve written my next book, which (I hope) comes out around Draft Day 2025. It’s tentatively called “Crazy Eight,” and though that’s a working title, I think it’s fitting. It’s about eight players selected in the 2016 draft — Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Dak Prescott, Laremy Tunsil, Jakeem Grant, Michael Thomas, Derrick Henry and Tyreek Hill — and their draft stories, but told from the perspective of the scouts and executives who drafted them. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Bob McGinn, a beat writer for the Packers for four decades, but he’s very good at telling the back stories on the draft. That’s what I do in Crazy Eight.

I chose these eight because, No. 1, they’ve all been successful players. Every single one of them has been to at least one Pro Bowl and most have even been All-Pro. But I also chose them because, except in the cases of Goff and Wentz, they were all drafted later than they should have, given what they’ve accomplished in the league. It’s a testament to all of them that they are all (except Thomas, for now), still part of the league almost a decade after being drafted. That’s a real achievement, I don’t care where you were drafted or what kind of impact you had as a player.

How is this book different from my last book? Well, Scout Speak was more-or-less a love letter to the professional player evaluator. If you read it, I hope you learned a little more about how NFL scouts do their jobs and how an NFL scouting department works. For my next book, I hope you’ll learn more about what matters when it comes to evaluating players, how teams differ in their priorities, and maybe even the blind spots for NFL teams and even the limits on what they can even know. There’s a temptation to think that NFL teams know all and see all, but scouts are people, too, and they have to clear multiple obstacles to get the real truth about players. Sometimes, even when they get that information, it’s hard to know what to do about it. Again, scouts are human.

Anyway, the way the book is set up is, the first seven chapters are about the players themselves (Goff and Wentz, who went 1-2 that year, share a chapter). I try to go pretty deep on their backstories and the things that scouts knew, but maybe the general public didn’t know. If you know me, you know I don’t rip people or criticize them for doing their jobs in good faith, and this book is the same way. Hopefully you don’t find that boring. My goal, as always, is to tell stories and inform without embracing the crass trashing of people, even when they come up short, for entertainment purposes.

The last part of the book is dedicated to scouts’ stories about the way a handful of teams approached the draft. This is basically the “war stories” part of the book, and probably what I enjoy most about talking to scouts. There are so many facets to why a team takes the players it takes, and that’s what we dig into. So far, Tom Ciskowski (Cowboys), Don Gregory (Panthers), Matt Lindsey (Eagles), Tom McConnaughey (Chargers), Trey Scott (Raiders), Josh Washburn (Redskins), Steven Price (Vikings) and Chris Prescott (Bears) have shared their draft-day experiences from 2016 with me. I’ve also reached out to other friends to give their recollections, and in some cases, they differ from what I’d heard previously. At any rate, I’m still crafting their responses into narratives. Some of the stories I’ve heard so far have been fascinating, and I look forward to sharing them with you. These are all my friends, and they’ve told me a lot with the understanding that their recollections will be shared in the most positive light. Obviously, I will honor that. They’ve still got some fascinating stories to tell.

Anyway, I hope to have the manuscript done by the end of September, and then I’ll get to work on the audio file, the cover, having it proofread, and all the other vagaries of publishing a book. I look forward to sharing it with people who love scouting and the draft as much as I do. 

Is the College Game Ready for the $1M GM?

23 Friday Aug 2024

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This week, Alabama’s Courtney Morgan made news with his most recent contract as General Manager of one of college football’s blue blood programs. It prompted some chatter on social media and within college football circles. A big part of that chatter had to do not with Morgan’s new money, but with the title and role itself. Do college football programs really need GMs?

It’s one of the questions I asked longtime NFL executive Eric Stokes, who joined us on the Scouting the League Podcast this week. He, like me, struggles to see how such an over-arching, all-encompassing title is necessary in the college game, given the differences with the pro game.

“I think it’s a completely different animal,” Eric said when comparing the jobs at the college and pro level. “The role of the General Manager at the NFL level is far more complex than the role of the GM at the collegiate level. It doesn’t even compare in terms of the day-to-day operations and the nuances you have to deal with as an NFL GM, because you’re in charge of the entire football operation. You’re dealing with everybody: the trainers, doctors, obviously you have to work with the coaching staff, the college scouting staff, your pro staff. In this day and age you’re working with analytics, you’re working with sports psychologists, obviously you are working very closely with your media department every day.

“There’s just so many different aspects of being a GM at the NFL level. It’s far more complex than at the college (level). Now, I do guess working off that platform at the college level in terms of recruiting and how it works in terms of NIL, the transfer portal, I could see why some of those structures are in place and how they may be implemented, but again, you’re just not dealing with the complexity, also with the salary cap. NIL, you don’t have bonuses, you don’t have accelerators, you don’t have a lot of the things that you’re working with at the pro level. I think they’re two different animals.”

I’d agree with Eric, though in fairness, there’s no general job description for the college GM. Because the college game is so much more coach-driven, with far fewer official “scouts” on staff at the lower level, there’s probably less of a need for someone running the whole football operation. You could argue that even in the SEC, that’s a common sentiment. Only half the schools in arguably the best football conference — Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt — actually have general managers, and their job descriptions don’t line up. 

For now, at least, it doesn’t appear that these teams are seeking someone to build the NFL model given that none of those teams’ GMs have extensive pro football experience. The only college GM that comes to mind with that level of NFL acumen is West Virginia’s Drew Fabianich. In fact, we haven’t seen the mass influx of NFL scouts and executives into the college ranks that many (including myself) expected. Not yet, at least. 

For example, Jake Rosenberg of The Athlete Group assisted in Oklahoma’s selection of Curtis Lofton as the school’s first-ever GM, and is currently working with another conference school as it searches for its first GM. He readily admits that the GM position is a bit of a work in progress and an anticipation of where college football is going.

“The profile or job description of college GM is in the early stages of transition,” he texted. “While it seems like it’ll be a while before the profile exactly matches that of NFL decision maker, the schools looking to function more optimally in this world are moving in that direction.

“That job can be more of a leadership and strategic position and less narrowly as an evaluator or recruiter. There is so much currently on the Head Coach’s plate that bringing in a strong and diverse skill set can appreciably have a broad benefit across the entire operation. And don’t forget the importance of mentorship and skill development to which a GM can/ should be at the heart of.“

Fair enough. I guess so much is in flux that it’s hard to pin down exactly where the GM position is going, as with so many other aspects of college football. How long until we see a million-dollars-per-year GM? Hard to say. I guess we won’t know for a while the true value of a college GM, and it will depend on how the job evolves. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how many more are hired and how high the dollars go.

 

The Scouting the League Podcast: Our Seven Best Episodes

16 Friday Aug 2024

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It’s only been since the week after Thanksgiving that Rodrik David, who was already running his own podcast, The Scouting Report, invited me to partner with him on it. Since then, we’ve rebranded it Scouting the League, and though it took a while to really establish a rhythm, I think we’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with what we want the podcast to be.

Based on the feedback I’ve gotten from friends in the scouting and agent communities, we’ve been able to establish a space where we dig into the finer points of player representation and evaluation on the NFL level. I’m certainly no expert on things, and I doubt Rodrik would call himself one, either, but we both bring enough to the table to, hopefully, make it a lively weekly show with interesting insights and opinions.

I feel like our shows have gotten better and better, and the guests we’ve been privileged to have always bring their ‘A’ games. At the same time, obviously, some shows are better than others. With that in mind, here are the seven best episodes of Scouting the League, in my humble opinion, along with links in which you can listen for yourself.

1.David Canter, President of Football, GSM Worldwide: David is colorful bordering on outrageous, and this episode is an hour-plus of pure adrenaline. From the story of the chance encounter that led to his start in the industry, to the decision to sell his firm, to his thoughts on several issues facing the industry, David spits fire the entire time. Fair warning — we aren’t at the point where we can bleep out language, and there’s some language in this edition. Aug. 7, 2024

2. Mike McCartney, Head of Football, Vayner Sports: Once again, we got real candor and all the behind-the-scenes intrigue — in a classy, high-road way — from Mike on the drafting of Washington’s Michael Penix after the team had already signed Mike’s client, Kirk Cousins, to start at QB. There’s much more to the hour, but Mike’s discussion of their shock at the pick, plus what happened afterwards, is a must-listen. July 10, 2024

3. Mark Gorscak, former National Scout, Steelers: Mark is a friend of nearly everyone in the scouting community because of his love for the game and for its people. Mark is a great story-teller and thinks about the industry 24-7, which is why his episode was not only insightful but entertaining, as well. This is a great episode if you’re an aspiring scout wanting to learn the fundamentals of the biz and how to get in. March 20, 2024

4. Tom McConnaughey, former National Scout, Chargers & Jaguars: Rodrik and I are still trying to hit our stride on digging into the players and the picks that each guest can discuss, and I think we did our best job yet in this edition. Tom was in the war room for some truly special players; in the last half-hour, we run through several top former Chargers and Tom gives his thoughts on their selection. It’s really, really good.

5. Tony Vilani, Owner, XPE Sports: Tony is one of the top 3-4 speed trainers in the combine prep space, but that’s not why this was such a great episode. He’s also convinced the NFL cooks the books on the official 40 times posted during NFL Combine broadcasts, and he’s very specific about why he thinks what he does. He doesn’t pull any punches in his session with us. April 3, 2024

6. Dru Grigson, former scouting executive, Cardinals: We asked Dru to join us because the Cardinals have been at the forefront in grading and rewarding their scouts for good work, and he gave us plenty of insight into their process. However, he also gave us great background on how the Cards have developed, assigned, and evaluated their own evaluators. July 17, 2024

7. T.J. McCreight, former scouting executive, multiple teams: Having worked for the Eagles, Colts, Ravens and Cardinals, T.J. has seen how a lot of successful teams do things, and he brought that know-how to the podcast. He addresses a lot of the issues associated with the changing game and how to react to them, from a scouting standpoint. July 31, 2024

This week’s Friday Wrap, which comes out tomorrow, will feature my podcast partner Rodrik’s five favorite episodes. Make sure to check it out. Haven’t registered for the Friday Wrap? You can do that here. 

Gauging the Progress of the NCAA’s Antitrust Litigation Settlement

09 Friday Aug 2024

Posted by in Agents, NIL, Transfer portal

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There isn’t a lot of chatter about it in college and pro football circles — at least none that I’ve picked up — but big parts are moving into place that will determine the future and structure of college football. Late last month, we got a story that was pretty telling about what direction things are going, and until now, I really haven’t had a chance to give it a close look.

This week, however, I did. The lawsuits involve antitrust actions against the NCAA (three of them, in fact, that were resolved collectively). Per the story, the resolution of these lawsuits “outline how past athletes will share the $2.78 billion in damages that the NCAA has agreed to pay, sets up a new system for revenue sharing and outlines new roster limits for a long list of college sports, among other items.” Obviously, $2.78 billion is a lot of money, but that only reflects the back pay previous athletes will receive. It’s just scratching the surface of what’s ahead.

Anyway, no one seems to want to acknowledge what’s ahead and how it will change player representation, so I thought I’d try to comb through the story and draw my own conclusions. Here are a few passages and my comments.

  • “Schools will be permitted for the first time to pay their athletes directly via name, image and likeness (NIL) deals under the terms of the settlement. Each school could provide up to 22% of the average revenue that power conference schools generate from media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships — a sum that is expected to be between $20 million and $22 million per school when the settlement goes into effect at the start of the 2025-26 academic year.” — OK, but this seems like another effort to keep players from getting paid as university employees, which seems completely inevitable. If it is inevitable (and I believe it is), it’s almost stupid to wade through and try to figure out how the terms of this lawsuit will change things, because someone else will sue again soon and tear this agreement down. As for the numbers, $22 million seems a little conservative given that I’ve heard that many schools’ budgets are already north of that number for football only. With the money pouring into football programs, it seems like this number could soar higher quickly. If this is the case, and nothing is done to slow portal movement, the dollars are going to make things even crazier.
  • “Athletes would still be able to make money from NIL deals with third parties, but the NCAA said the settlement will allow them to install a more ‘robust and effective enforcement and oversight program’ to make sure those third-party deals are ‘legitimate NIL activity.'” — I think this is good, but I wonder if there will be real teeth in these oversight programs. More and more, the bigger agencies are signing up the top draft prospects years before they are draft-eligible just so they’ll be at the front of the line when it comes to signing an NFL contract. Sure, the top five percent are getting big national deals, but those are few and far between. 
  • “The NCAA plans to create a database of NIL deals to try to objectively assess whether arrangements between an athlete and a third party qualify as a legitimate endorsement deal.” — Great! But will the results be public? If not, who will have access? Schools? Agents? There’s not an NFLPA-comparable body that can regulate all this, though I presume the NCAA thinks of itself as such a body.  
  • “The settlement allows for the court to appoint a ‘special master’ to rule on any disputes about new rules related to player compensation. . . The two sides have not yet determined who will serve as the new enforcement entity or who will oversee the arbitration process of any future disputes.” — I don’t think this can work through civil litigation processes, which means it will have to be collectively bargained . . . which requires a union. 
  • “It is highly unlikely that football players — who generate the majority of revenue for most schools — will receive 50% of the money that the football team generates. Some of those benefits have to be shared equitably due to Title IX regulations. The settlement does not provide detailed instructions on how to apply Title IX to these new benefits, leaving some potentially tricky decisions up to each individual school.” — This is why this doesn’t seem tenable. Football teams will eventually not want to share revenues. If this isn’t settled promptly, and just left to the schools, it’s going to accelerate football’s pull away from this agreement.
  • “As part of the settlement, the NCAA agreed to remove any limits on the number of scholarships a school can provide to athletes. Previously, NCAA rules dictated a certain number of scholarships per sport. If the settlement is approved, there will instead be a limit on how many total players each team can have on its roster and each individual school will decide how many of those players it wants to put on scholarship.” — This is probably the NCAA trying to throw the bigger schools a bone, but I doubt it works. 

At the end of the day, most agents just want to know what they’ll have to deal with. A nationwide NIL contract database would be huge if contract advisors have access to it. I think most would like to know if there’s going to be some kind of certification process, as well, with most NFL agents I know welcoming that. It’s becoming less necessary, however, as more and more NIL agents pursue NFL certification. They’re a growing part of our exam prep course every year.

Anyway, I may have come across as negative during some of this, and I grant that it’s easy to deride people who are trying to do the virtually impossible, i.e., build a framework for the college game going forward. If the settlement is approved and this 10-year agreement is binding, it will bring some positives. However, it’s hard not to see the overwhelming power and potential of dollars the big football schools would be turning down to abide by this. I just feel like the major conferences will build their own league, and play by their own rules, sooner rather than later.

 

 

2024 NFL Agent Exam: A Few Leftovers

02 Friday Aug 2024

Posted by in Agent Exam, Agents, Getting started

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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.

2024 NFLPA Exam: Would You Do It Again?

26 Friday Jul 2024

Posted by in Agent Exam, Agents, Getting started

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Monday is a really big day for the 350 or so people taking the 2024 NFL Agent Exam. We’ve been working with a lot of people since January, and those are just first-time test-takers. For those people who’ve come up short previously, the journey has been much longer.

It got me thinking about what they would say in 2029, when they are five years into their agent career. Will they still think it was worth it? This is especially poignant for those contract advisors entering the business without the benefit of being part of a big firm. Their road is much tougher. Will they have any regrets?

To find out, I asked several members of the 2019 agent class who entered the business as independents. Are the hours, the blood/sweat/tears, the dollars invested, worth it? Maybe the surest indication of how sold-out for their careers they are is that I texted 12 agents at about midnight EST and got responses back from half of them within 10 minutes. It’s that kind of business. Sleep is certainly secondary.

At any rate, I expected them to say they had no regrets, and that’s pretty much what I got back. Here are some of their responses.

  • “Yes, I would. I feel like I am finally hitting my stride and have definitely learned more this time than during my previous certification period. I am glad I re-certified.”
  • “I’d absolutely do it again. Being in our shoes puts us in position to play a significant role in positively impacting the lives of the young men we come across, and ultimately their families. It’s a damn tough business. But there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the joy on our guys’ and their families’ faces when they get their opportunities. . . Some people go a lifetime and never find their niche or that thing that really motivates them. Football is it for me.”
  • “Yes, I would continue to be NFLPA certified. I have several coaches, and being NFLPA-certified allows me to not only represent athletes, but also gives me the ability to speak with my coaches about the rapid rule changes from a place of authority and knowledge. Football at every level has evolved with this new landscape in the post-pandemic era. Not everyone survived, and the world of recruitment for athletes is just different; the transfer portal is now significantly relevant. . . Yes, I would still become NFLPA-certified but I would look at the landscape with a more balanced perspective understanding that athletes have more autonomy now and the game has evolved both on the field and off the field.”
  • “Yes I would do it again. It was the career I’ve always wanted to pursue and my goal since I realized playing professionally wasn’t an option!”
  • “If I were asked if I’d do it again, I’d definitely say yes. The experience of navigating the complexities of the sports industry, negotiating contracts, and advocating for my clients during the pandemic has not only sharpened my skills but also made me more resilient and strategic. The challenges I faced and overcame have made me stronger and more effective in representing and supporting my clients.”
  • “I feel like God has led me into this, so yes, I’d do it again for sure. I’ll always follow His lead.”
  • “I’d say that, while it wasn’t how I expected the last 5 years to go, I’d definitely do it all over again.”
  • “Absolutely! I would for sure do it again and I did! I was first certified in 2008 for a number of years. Got certified for a specific player and then he was injured. In 2019, I got certified for a specific player and of course he did not sign with me by the time it was done. Lesson learned — certify for a player at your own risk. If you are doing it because you love football and helping people there is nothing like it! That’s what kept me in it.” 

You better be passionate to endure in this industry, as you can see from the responses, everyone I asked still has that fire. If you’re one of Monday’s test-takers, I hope you are similarly inspired to pass a really difficult exam. I encourage you to take advantage of exam preparation materials, and we can help with that. For more information on how, make sure you read our Friday Wrap newsletter. You can register for it here.

 

NFLPA Exam 2024: Were the Pre-Exam NFLPA Sessions Helpful?

18 Thursday Jul 2024

Posted by in Agent Exam, Agents, Getting started

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This month, we’ve been asking some of last year’s test-takers to give us their feedback on several aspects of the NFLPA exam. The first week of July, we asked for the best way to study. Last week, we asked about which topic they felt they should have gotten more focus in their preparation. This week, we asked if the three Zoom sessions held the week before the exam, i.e, the ones scheduled for next week, offered good preparation for the test.

Here are the responses we got.

Michael Harris, Top Five Sports: “The NFLPA zoom sessions were helpful in my opinion, as they clearly identified certain things that would be on the test and told us not to worry about certain things for test purposes. What I did not like was that there was a Q&A box to input your question, and there were a lot of duplicate questions that the moderators got frustrated with eventually. However, we were asked to not put questions in the chat box, so there was no way of seeing anyone else’s questions. Neither of my questions were answered, either, which was frustrating.”

LaVaughn Kelley, Divine Sports & Entertainment: “In my opinion, and I know how I study for exams, if I only had the pre-exam zoom sessions from the NFLPA, I’m not sure if I would’ve passed the exam the first time. All of the information was great and up-to-date, but I know my study habits and the resources that were provided over those two days would have not been enough for me. Now with ITL study resources, complemented by the pre-exam zoom sessions put on by the NFLPA, that gave me the confidence I needed to feel prepared to pass the exam.”

Ty Baisden, Culture Sports: “The pre-exam zoom sessions were helpful for me. I took all the help I could get.”

Kimberly Williams, Allstars: “I’d say the NFLPA pre-exam (program) was extremely helpful. It just was delivered too fast. There were several study groups that “self” studied the day after the seminar. (The ITL) course material helped greatly . . . with actually applying the information learned and with the practice test questions. I started late in the game with studying (like week of). So I was behind. But with having a husband who played, and especially with the benefit section, I was able to catch on to the concepts quickly and pass the first time, thank God!!”

Wyatt Mumfrey, Higher Calling Sports: “Definitely was session-dependent. Certain sessions felt like the speaker wasn’t sure what she was talking about and made mistakes, whereas other speakers were very helpful and felt like they knew the material forwards and backwards. Definitely pay attention to it all or at least take advantage of it being an open-book exam because they will test on any detail, regardless of how small it may feel.”

Tonight, we will hold our seventh Zoom session aimed at preparing test-takers for the exam. It’s a little different — it’s actually a live “quiz” designed to pressure-test you for getting the toughest problems on the exam right. Learn more here. Hope to see you tonight.