Category Archives: Agents

An Early-Exit Process Primer

02 Friday Dec 2016

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This week, there was a firestorm over something I wrote (and Darren Heitner tweeted)   regarding Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers, as well as my tweet Monday confirming that Texas’ D’Onta Foreman would enter the ’17 draft. The tone of the tweets coming back was, ‘oh no, these players have spoken to agents, now they’re gonna lose their eligibility!!’

I thought this warranted a blog post. There’s a huge disconnect between what fans understand about the agent process and what’s actually true. There’s an even bigger disconnect (Grand Canyon-esque) about what fans understand about the early-entry process and what’s true.

I’ve preached ad nauseam about the agent selection process and it’s perceived ‘illegality’ (here’s a tweet and here’s a two-minute podcast on the subject), so today let’s talk about players leaving early for the draft.

Here’s how the average fan perceives of the process for early entry.

  1. Promising player arrives at university focused on graduating in four years and pursuing degree of his choice. Also plays football on weekends.
  2. Conniving agent lures star player into thinking about money, convinces him to desert his teammates and enter NFL draft before every ounce of his eligibility is exhausted.
  3. Player declares early; coaches, administrators and teammates scream and shed tears of rejection and betrayal.

Admittedly, that’s a oversimplification, but the whole situation is rather complex. Here’s a much more realistic take on it.

  1. Player is recognized as talented early in his football playing days and begins to dream of NFL stardom. Coaches, teammates and family members encourage and empower this dream as it takes shape over a decade.
  2. Often, player realizes NFL playing career could lift himself and his family out of poverty or negative financial situation, and again, family encourages this. Often, family members ask how long until he’s in the league.
  3. At times, player will father a child out of wedlock. This heightens the financial pressure.
  4. Coaches, media, opposing teams, his own performance, etc., confirm player’s impression that he’s an elite talent and ready for the NFL. Player also realizes the mortality of his playing career.
  5. Often, his coaching structure and/or key players around him graduate and he realizes his chances of repeating his success are lessened going forward.
  6. Usually, the player has discussed his mindset entering his third year out of high school with coaches and family, and teams support and understand his thought process (often, I have scouts tell them that schools encourage them to evaluate certain juniors that have made it known they’re leaving).

Somewhere during this process, agents enter the picture. But this isn’t an evil thing, and not even necessarily a bad thing. At any rate, hopefully, the young man has a responsible and loving support system around him that can help in the vetting process, and hopefully he plays for a progressive school that educates him and doesn’t try to shutter him from the outside world. Also, hopefully the parents are educated and attentive enough to be helpful (which is one reason we started our Two-Minute Drill series). By all accounts, Peppers and Foreman have that.

At no point does simply talking to agents invalidate a player’s eligibility. It’s important to understand this.

It’s also important to look at these young men not as strictly Saturday’s warriors. We all want to live our dreams, and everyone at their schools — especially their coaches and teammates — understands that.

Paradigm Shift

25 Friday Nov 2016

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About a week ago, I was having a conversation with a longtime friend who’s an up-and-coming contract advisor. Conversation turned to the new default 1.5-percent agent fee, and I asked if any prospects or their advisors were playing hardball so far, demanding that he drop his fee from three percent.

“Not so far,” he said. “Everyone’s paying three percent.”

That has since been echoed by other agents I’ve spoken to. I hope that continues. NFL agents, already billing at the lowest percentage of all the major sports, don’t need to get further whittled down by players who know they have all the leverage.

However, as I always tell my clients, having November discussions is easy. It’s the December discussions where agents and their prospective clients talk terms. Players are seeking the best training and pre-draft packages they can get, while agents are counting dollars and trying to decide where to spend them.

Of course, nothing happens in a vacuum in the football world, and the practical reduction in agent fees means fewer contract advisors will take the plunge and pay for a prospect’s training fees. They’ll be even less likely to send a late-round prospect to Florida, California, or some other sunny clime, as has traditionally happened. Naturally, this isn’t going to stop players from thinking that the right training will transform them from late-rounders into solid prospects, and in some cases, they may even be right. Therefore, I see the combine prep business moving in a different direction this January and February.

The challenge for agents isn’t paying for training, per se. It’s paying $6,000-$7,000 for training, food and supplements, plus another $5,000-$6,000 just for accommodations. Often, the player’s lodging costs more than his training. With more and more good trainers providing solid regimens, the mission is to find a combine prep facility near enough that a prospect can sleep in his own bed. The biggest job will be finding those facilities, evaluating the different facets of each program (when does it start? what kind of facility? who conducts training?) and, of course, weighing the costs of each.

With this new paradigm, we’re assembling a marketplace where agents and players can do their Black Friday shopping (and beyond) for combine prep. It’s our 2017 ITL Combine Prep Grid, a place where everyone in the business can sort out all the options in one place. Though we’ve only got four entries so far, they’re all solid, there are plenty of outside-the-box options, and there are many, many more on the way. We’re just getting started.

There are still a handful of titans in the combine prep business, and they won’t stop being titans. But now there’s a chance for a number of smaller training houses to work with players and make a little money while cutting costs (and risks) significantly for contract advisors. If I’m right about this new trend, it could be a rare win-win-win for trainers, agents and prospects.

Dissecting Darius: Thoughts on the Intersection of Entertainment and NFL Representation

08 Tuesday Nov 2016

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About a year ago, I was having a conversation with Jay Courie, an NFL agent and partner at one of the bigger law firms in the Southeast, McAngus, Goudelock & Courie. Along the way, he mentioned that he needed someone to partner with, someone who had youth and energy but also someone who had enjoyed success and knew the agent business. I get this kind of request at times.

So I thought about it, and when I bumped into him at the Senior Bowl, I told him I had just the guy. When I finally got Jay together with Kyle Strongin of 1 Degree Management, Jay had already met him and knew him. I could see in his eye that my choice had reaffirmed what Jay was already thinking.

That’s why it wasn’t a big surprise to me when I heard Monday that Jay had brought Kyle in as Vice President of MGC Sports, with country music star Darius Rucker a part of the deal, as well. While I’m not, in any way, taking credit for putting this merger together, I can definitely say I know both Jay and Kyle well, they’ve both been ITL clients for a long time, and I knew Jay was leaning toward a merger of some sorts. The only mild surprise was that Kyle, whom I’ve tried to recommend to inquiring agencies for some time now, was willing to move. He’d always told me in the past that he was happily independent.

While adding a big star to a sports agency is decidedly not a new idea, here are a few thoughts on this move.

  • In 2016, the Kardashian century, celebrity matters. Having a big name on your team is an edge in recruiting, especially in a business that is as poorly understood as football representation, and especially when the people you’re recruiting are young men with big egos.
  • Courie has made significant inroads at Clemson, and has major ties with the school. But if I know him at all, I know he likes to win. I don’t think he’s happy getting the second-line kids at Clemson. He wants the DeShaun Watsons of the world.
  • On the other hand, Rucker, a black country star, is a perfect fit for MGC Sports, which consistently recruits white offensive linemen as well as the speedy black skills position players that have taken Clemson to the next level.
  • Outside of Clemson, MGC really hasn’t been relevant. In fact, I wonder if Jay even consistently recruits non-Tigers. But that’s where Kyle, who finished a close second to super-power CAA on Laremy Tunsil last year, comes in. Jay is an accomplished lawyer, likable and professional, but Kyle, who spent time with the 49ers scouting department as well as in the Ole Miss and University of Tennessee recruiting offices, gives the firm a credible NFL background. Kyle has significant relationships in scouting, and having those insights gives you a tremendous edge when you’re trying to sort out the stars from the overhyped pretenders. Meanwhile, Jay has a legal practice to run, and now he doesn’t have to split his time as mercilessly.
  • The next 60 days will be very telling for MGC. Clemson has a number of top players that will be part of the ’17 draft, and the firm has now gone from a solid contender that operates beneath the radar to a firm that others will be recruiting against. The Carolinas are very contentious, with several solid firms, big and small, battling for talent.
  • In an industry where the NFLPA makes things harder virtually every day, sorting out costs and distilling a profit won’t be easy. But if MGC can land a Watson, a Williams or another comparable talent, it might be the jolt needed to propel it into ‘big agency’ status.

In the end, this is just one more indication that the sports agency business is becoming an arms race, with margins and business decisions perhaps running second to the chase for bigger and flashier names. Increasingly, to stay relevant, bigger firms are going to have to decide if they’re ready to partner up with big personalities, and in so doing, figure out how to make it all work on the profit/loss sheet.

 

NFL Supply and Demand

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

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When it comes to the NFL draft, most coverage focuses on the potential superstars slated for selection in the first couple rounds. But taking a broader view of things, which positions seem to be most in demand? Which players, by position, are NFL teams most focused on?

We’ll break it into three groups, based on the percentage of players that sign with agents and how many actually make it into NFL camps (as draftees, UDFAs or tryout players). For more details — total number of players drafted, signed as UDFAs, made it to tryout camps, percentages of each, all by positions — click here.

Most in demand: If you’re an offensive lineman, your chances of wearing an NFL helmet, at least for a day, are pretty good. Centers were the second-most in-demand position, as 71.7 percent of them made it to camp as a draftee, undrafted free agent or camp tryout. When it comes to tackles, 63.6 percent made it to camp, while 64.9 percent of tight ends made it. Defensive ends (62.4 percent) were also popular. Who was most popular? Quarterbacks, which made it to camps at a 72.2 percent rate.

Somewhere in the middle: For positions like running back (52 percent), fullback (52 percent), wide receiver (52 percent), guard (58 percent), kicker (55), cornerback (54), defensive tackle (58) and inside linebacker (50), your odds are somewhere around 50-50.

Least in demand: Though safeties are far more valuable than they used to in the days of the slot receiver and the hybrid LB/S, they’re still least in demand. Free safeties made it to camp at a rate of 45.3, while strong safeties at 44.3. Punters were similar bottom-feeders, as only 44.4 percent of those that signed with agents actually made it to camp.

 

 

A Few Thoughts About ’60 Minutes’ and NFL Financial Losses

24 Monday Oct 2016

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If you operate in football business circles, there’s an excellent chance you saw the ’60 Minutes’ report about several NFL players taken in by a bad investment in an Alabama casino. It was orchestrated by a financial advisor, Jeff Rubin, who was then based in Florida (he’s in Denver now). Here are a few thoughts.

  • This story has been on hold for at least two years. I have no doubt the NFL (and especially the NFLPA) have been battling CBS, which obviously has a big broadcast contract with the league, to withhold it altogether. I have no doubt that this tweet from Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole is true.
  • This report is the tip of the iceberg. The two ‘watchdogs’ interviewed in the report, Rand Getlin and Chase Carlson, are both friends of mine, and both were interviewed at length about far more than just the Rubin incident.
  • Here’s an excellent, comprehensive report Chase put together. It pretty much recounts all the financial advisors registered with the NFLPA who stole NFL players blind.
  • After reading Chase’s report, you might wonder why there are so many such incidents, but so few reports. You might also wonder why Rand (formerly with NFL Network, and a veteran of excellent work at Yahoo! Sports) and Chase aren’t affiliated with major media entities. My theory: it’s sexy to talk about this stuff for a while, but at the end of the day, the man on the street just shrugs his shoulders and says, ‘that’s their problem. If these millionaires can’t keep track of their money, screw ’em.’
  • I guess that’s OK, but at the end of the day, shouldn’t the NFLPA care? I mean, they’re charging thousands of dollars to register financial advisors. Even though the PA is careful to protect itself from litigation exposure by admitting that it has no idea if these guys are legitimate or not, the fact is that agents can only recommend advisors from this program. To me, that’s a de facto endorsement from the NFLPA, whether it’s technically true or not.
  • Dozens of the registered members of the NFLPA program are ITL clients, but I would say the lion’s share of our financial advisor clients that really work with NFL players are not in the program. I was texting with a member of the latter group last night, and I think this pretty much sums up his (and his group’s) thoughts: “The NFLPA feels as though any advisor that can afford a $1500 annual fee must be good.”
  • Here’s a simple fix that I think would work, and if I were the PA, I’d get out of the registration business and simply post this on the site. If you are an NFL player and you are approached by a financial advisor, step 1 is to plug his name into FINRA BrokerCheck. Step 2 is to check out his record there, and if he’s got a few issues, ask questions. If he’s clean, press on with confidence (mostly) that he’s a straight shooter. And if his name doesn’t show up there, presume that he’s not an official, registered, honest, educated financial advisor and consider avoiding this person.

 

An Agent Against the Tide

10 Monday Oct 2016

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About a month ago, you might have seen it reported that there would be 103 new contract advisors in the 2016 NFLPA agent class. Well, normally, that would be true. But this year, there will be 102.

You won’t find the name of one of the 103 people that passed on the NFLPA’s list of certified player representatives updated on Friday. That’s because this young man, who’s worked with agencies the last few years and has an intimate knowledge of the business, just didn’t see any point to it.

We exchanged a few emails last week, and here’s one he wrote. I asked for his permission to use it, because I thought it was really illustrative of the way many people in the business feel these days.

“Yeah I decided not to register. I’m worried about the future of the business due to the 1.5% default commission. It was extremely difficult to break-even on rookies with the 3% commission as is. Even though there were concerns about the maximum fee dropping to 2% when I registered, I’m not sure I would have even signed up for the test in January had I been aware of the 1.5% default fee. 

“Unfortunately, not everything worked out like I thought it would have, so I decided it wasn’t in my best interests to get certified. Football already had the lowest agent commission fee for any sport, and cutting it in half is insulting to the agents who have invested so much of their time and money into this business. Agents get a bad reputation, but most of them ones I have come across work their asses off for their clients every single day. I am happy that the certification fee is staying in my own pocket.
“Even though I’m not in the business, I hope for the best for the future of NFL agents.”

I don’t have a lot to add to this. I think I’ve made my feelings pretty obvious at this point. I just don’t think the Players Association fully understands the value of good counsel and advice, and the people who provide it, given the direction the union has gone with its new SRA.

I hope I’m wrong. In the meantime, we’ll wait to see how many agents chose not to pay their dues for the 2016-17 league year. Those results will be available in a few weeks.

Crunching Numbers: An Interview with its Authors (Pt. 2)

29 Thursday Sep 2016

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On Wednesday, we discussed the book Crunching Numbers: An Inside look at the Salary Cap and Negotiating Player Contracts, written by Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap and football biz veteran Vijay Natarajan. I’m pretty excited about this book because I think it makes a difficult topic, one that’s central to the modern NFL, a lot easier to understand.
I had several questions for Jason and Vijay and I covered some of them yesterday. Here are a few more questions and answers regarding their book, as well as the cap and its perception across the nation.
The average fan hears about the salary cap all the time, but do you feel most have a reasonable understanding of the cap and how it works?
“We think the average fan has a basic understanding that there is a limited amount of money that can be used on the roster and that there are ways to manipulate the cap to make it happen. But when it comes to understanding the future consequences of the actions being made, we think there is much less understanding. For example, you may see a team (beat) reporter (discuss) moves made by a team to comply with the cap that adds millions of dollars to the following year. Fans listen to this and their initial thought is their favorite team is doing great finding ways to manipulate the system with no understanding that the team is actually putting themselves in a bad situation the following year. Then the team goes out, has a stinker of a season, and is now millions over the cap. There are also many misconceptions about contract values, guarantees, and true earnings on a contract.”
How about the general media? Do they ‘get’ how the cap works, in your estimation?
“The print media has gotten much better with their understanding of the salary cap in recent years. It helps that they can often lean on agents or even team front office executives to help clarify some things. We think the increase of bloggers who focus on contract-related items, and the social media-fueled, hard-core football audience that they have to write for, has made them learn more and more about this side of the NFL. There is still a similar lack of understanding when it comes to long-term consequences, both good and bad, on contract decisions, reasons behind certain contracts, free agent possibilities, and certain rules concerning the cap. We think when it comes to your radio/TV personalities the cap knowledge is lacking. Granted, that side of the NFL is going to have limited appeal for everyday discussion, but if you are going to criticize a team on air for a salary cap charge or contract value for a player, you should at least have a fundamental understanding for why the team did it.”
Do you think the average fan wants to understand how the cap works?
“Guess it depends on what you consider average. If the average fan is the person who starts paying attention in September, and whose interest level is dependent on their fantasy football roster or team record, and only has an offseason interest in the team at the start of free agency and on the first day of the draft, we doubt they would have (deep) interest in the cap. If the average fan is the person interacting all year on forums and blogs, actively follows reporters on social media, and engages with other fans either online or offline for a majority of the year, then we would expect them to be interested in learning about the cap. Crunching Numbers gives you another avenue to become invested in your team and speak more intelligently about the NFL.”
How long did it take each of you to ‘understand’ the cap?
“In terms of understanding the basics in a way where we could go and sit down with someone who has worked in the NFL for years and have an intelligent conversation, we would say a couple of years. The reality is, we are still in a learning (phase) and you gain more knowledge all the time.”
In general, do you think most teams manage the cap well, or are there teams that put themselves in jeopardy consistently due to simple mistakes?
“Being a fan of the NFL, for a long time, and having seen various approaches to salary cap management, we would say that the majority of teams have gotten much better at managing the salary cap than they were 10 to 15 years ago.  The decision-making process has changed a lot since then for most teams, and it’s led to more efficiency, even though the dollars in contracts are getting bigger and bigger. Still, there are more than a handful of teams that, year after year, are having to find ways just to comply with the cap because of some really bad decisions. Check out Chapter 17, Salary Cap Philosophies, for different strategies executed.”
If you’re part of that hard-core fan base that lives and breathes the NFL, I really encourage you to give Crunching Numbers a look. I know Vijay and Jason are passionate football people but also regular guys, and that’s why they can convey such a complicated topic in a plain-talk kind of way.

Crunching Numbers: An Interview with its Authors

28 Wednesday Sep 2016

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Though I feel like I’ve got a good handle on the football business, I know I’m completely out of my depth on the salary cap. It’s something I’ve always wanted to become more knowledgeable of, and I’ve looked for a book that might illuminate that.
Along comes the book, Crunching Numbers: An Inside look at the Salary Cap and Negotiating Player Contracts, written by Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap and football biz veteran Vijay Natarajan.
Vijay is a longtime friend and ITL client, so I reached out to him when I heard he’d co-authored his first book. I shipped over a few questions, and he and Jason teamed up to answer them. Their responses are below.
Whose idea was the book? Why did you decide to do it?
“A few years ago, we were pretty much chatting about salary cap stuff and realized that there was a common interest and kept in touch from there. The decision to co-author Crunching Numbers was easy. Take a topic that you really enjoy that had no resources available outside of the CBA. It seemed like a natural idea for a book.”
How long did it take to write it?
“We worked on and off on Crunching Numbers since late summer of 2013. A good portion of the book was written by the end of 2014 but with so many changes in the NFL contract landscape and rules, not to mention front office changes, we found ourselves updating constantly to keep things current. This was good because with the added time, and no firm deadline, we expanded the book to include a number of (new) things we probably did not intend to originally have in there – such as small bios on the people behind the scenes (i.e. contract negotiators) around the NFL. Basically, every time we would go to update we would realize, “hey, wouldn’t it be good to have this in the book?” and then add a new portion to a chapter or sometimes an entire new chapter. Each time you add something there is a great deal of research involved. We have over 300 citations in the book, so it was a time-consuming process to do it correctly.
“Since this book is the first of its kind in this field, it was really important to take the time and do it right and not do a rush job. The last few months have really been spent in the editing process and working with some (cap) people in the NFL just to make certain we didn’t miss anything.”
Besides selling plenty of books, what would you like to accomplish with this book?
“Really, the main goal of the book is to educate more people about a very important side of the NFL. Every year, between December and March, the talk about the salary cap and contracts dominates the NFL, but so much of what you hear on the radio, see on Twitter, or read is incorrect or uninformed.
“There is nothing worse than listening to a popular sports radio host answer a question on the salary cap and respond, “it’s too hard to understand and explain to you.” That’s nonsense! Even if you go to work in the NFL, it’s trial by fire when it comes to learning. This book, we hope, gives people the fundamentals to succeed much faster.”
Thursday, we’ll talk more with Jason and Vijay about their perception of how well the cap is understood, even by NFL teams; who seems to ‘get’ the cap and who doesn’t;  and how easy it is to go from cap novice to expert in Thursday’s edition of SIF. In the meantime, I hope you’ll check out the book’s Website.
I enthusiastically endorse the book for anyone who reads my blog regularly, loves the business of football, and wants to have a fuller understanding of one of the main drivers of personnel decisions in the NFL.

Waves In The Pool

22 Thursday Sep 2016

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At this point, we’ve covered the ramifications of the recently confirmed SRA that the NFLPA has published for the 2017 draft class. As you know, the default agent fee will be 1.5 percent v. the previous rate of 3 percent, which was already lower than all major sports.

We still don’t know how this will impact the agent business, though we know it won’t be good. With a week until the NFLPA’s deadline for paying 2016-17 dues, there’s a great chance several good contract advisors will opt to get out of the business.

However, problems for some could be opportunities for others. In the last week, I’ve had a handful of financial advisors ask me how I saw the new agent fee affecting their part of the business. Would it be a negative or a positive? Maybe, just maybe, this could be an opportunity for financial advisors. Here’s why.

  • Good agents will leave the business due to this move. There’s no two ways about it. What’s more, eventually, the news of this move will trickle down to the young, motivated people who annually register to take the agent exam. This means it’s possible draft prospects could find a lack of good advisors that know the ropes.
  • Financial advisors, many of whom (though new to the game) have an intense desire to help young players make smart decisions about their money, could fill the gap.
  • The lion’s share of the financial advisors who can capitalize on this are younger and more patient though probably less accomplished. Elite financial advisors rarely want do the day-to-day hand-holding that the business requires; after all, they’re superstars in their own right.

As I mentioned, financial advisors are already starting to think along these lines. This year, we’ve matched up four former NFL scouts with agencies to work with them in the run-up to the draft. I had a financial advisor ask me last week if I thought this might work in his business. I told him I’d get back to him, and I haven’t yet, but I think maybe this is an idea with traction.

The rule of thumb in this business is that about every three years there is a major new development that hits the football business like a tidal wave, requiring agents, financial advisors, trainers and the like to adapt. Obviously, the less agile can’t, don’t or won’t adapt, but those who can identify these trends early can often turn them into opportunities. One previous such wave was the rise of combine training. Another big one was the shift from low-interest loans and letters of credit to marketing advances or outright signing bonuses to entice draft prospects.

We’re about to see how many people across the football world can benefit from this, and how many will get pulled under. Just maybe there are those in the money world who can make this an advantage.

Agent Samantha Stephenson on LaQuan McGowan and ‘Undrafted’

15 Thursday Sep 2016

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If you read this blog regularly, you’re a fan of what happens in football behind the scenes as well as on the field. That’s one reason shows like ‘Undrafted,’ which debuted Tuesday in its third season on The NFL Network, have become so popular.

I made sure to tune in Tuesday after my former ITL intern, Murphy McGuire (and probably the rookie agent of the year as the only independent first-year contract advisor with a draftee this year) tweeted that the show was kicking off this week. It was then that I remembered that another ITL client, Samantha Stephenson, had a client on the show. I was especially excited to find out that she was the only agent that got airtime Tuesday night.

With that in mind, I reached out to her about the show and her experiences. Samantha, who’s one of the most approachable people in the business anyway, said she’s already getting attention from other players (mostly true long shots from previous draft classes). I advised her to politely decline them, of course.

Here are a few thoughts from Sam that I found interesting. They run a little long, but I found Sam pretty insightful and I thought you might, too.

“They had done their own kind of keeping an eye on players throughout the season, and they were looking for players this year that were really close to the cusp of being drafted or undrafted. Not only good football players but a good story to tell, things that make them more unique, than just the average football player you see on the field. But you’ll find so many of these guys have stories to tell, and have overcome adversity in one form or another. LaQuan had gotten quite a bit of press going into the season after the 2015 Cotton Bowl when he scored the 18-yard touchdown catch. After that, people started to notice him as a 400-pound tight end. And he had done Sports Illustrated (and other media), and there was press out there about him playing the position he did at the size he was. (The producers) reached out to Baylor, and they gave (the producers) my contact info, and I thought it would be a great opportunity.

“LaQuan is also very different form the typical football player, very quiet and to himself, and very protective of his story. To some degree, at Baylor, he probably felt like he couldn’t say no (to the media), so at one point he said, ‘I’ve already told my story to all these journalists, and there’s nothing else for me to tell.’ I definitely had to show him the upside, and I think during the filming process, we experienced that as well. He’s more of a ‘to himself’ guy, so having cameras and microphones follow him around was pretty exhausting for him.”

On the risk of Samantha looking bad on the show:

“I mean, of course, players are always looking for the agent that will land them as a first-round draft pick, and they were with us all day long on draft day, and we know the story (LaQuan goes undrafted). It was a hard day, a very emotionally hard day, and viewers will see me texting teams and making calls that go unanswered, and I’m sure some will attribute that to my agent abilities. So there was definitely that risk that I knew I was taking, and it’s still very very possible (he wouldn’t be) drafted, and it will all be on TV for everyone to see that he didn’t get drafted and people will attribute that to his agent. So I knew that going in, but it wasn’t until they were already filming when they asked me to be a part of it (and be on camera). I had planned to go to Baylor for pro day, but he wanted me there (for the first day of filming) to kind of filter and help him feel more comfortable with it, so I went down. On the first day, I’m sure the producer was saying, ‘this agent, she’s a lawyer, what a nuisance!’ It wasn’t until Day 2 (of filming) that they miked me up and heard more of my story and how I’m connected to LaQuan, and became an agent after my first year of law school, and that night the executive producer called me and said, ‘hey, we really want you to be a part of it. This is more of a story than just LaQuan’s story.’ It wasn’t until then that they wanted me to be a part of the process, too, so in that moment, I had to decide, is this about me or LaQuan? I thought, if this is a good look for LaQuan, and it reflects poorly on me, it’s OK because this was good for him.”

On the risk of LaQuan looking bad:

“Honestly, I can’t think of a time (when we had to discourage them from filming something or the direction they wanted to go). I’m not sure for the other guys, but for the filming for LaQuan, it was the same director, same camera guy and same (microphone) guy, so eventually LaQuan warmed up to them, and they started to warm up to him and understand what they could get and what they couldn’t.”

On LaQuan’s uphill battle:

“I can’t get on a whiteboard and draw up the best play in X’s and O’s, but the thing that I say is that, I know the business of football. Those of us that know the business of football knew LaQuan was a long shot. Even at the combine, when we were having the happy hour after the (ITL seminar), and (other agents) know of LaQuan, but he’s 400 (pounds) so that’s gonna be tough (to get him in an NFL camp). Everyone else thinks, ‘I‘ve got strength and I’m bigger and can run the 40, why isn’t that great? And they don’t understand that there’s this distinct mold you have to fit in to make the NFL, and 400 pounds is not that mold. It was Year 3 as an agent for me, and I knew what I was taking on, and I knew he had to lose weight to have a chance, but it was the other outside voices that made it hard. Like ‘you killed pro day,‘ and he had coaches that made him feel he was good, and dealing with those outside voices is what made it the hardest.”

On walking through the entire process with him:

“I was with him (on his pro day). It was my idea originally (to be there), and they ended up liking it, but I had already planned to do it. I was the only agent around my player for his pro day, and I guess that’s not the norm, but I couldn’t imagine sending my guy out for the biggest interview of his life by himself. That’s not the agent I want to be. Just preparing him for the interviews, going over questions, helping keep his nerves calm, getting the right nutrition in him the day before. Draft day was the same. I just couldn’t imagine not being with him. And it was even harder because we had to deal with the cameras and mikes in our face. It was very hard, and they interviewed me for the wrap-up interview a week and a half ago. It was a really hard night. LaQuan had to handle it, and I flew my best friend in and I wanted her there for emotional and technical support. I had 60-70 numbers I was monitoring, and I had her sending texts so I could be with LaQuan. I told the film crew, and I’m sure it will be on the last episode or two of the show, but I had to go to dinner with my friend and let the emotions out, and then film again the next day. I couldn’t have imagined not being with him. As much as he didn’t understand to a degree, I can’t imagine going through that alone. If you want to be an agent, you have to be able to face those  hard situations. His family was hurting, but I couldn’t, being able to see him again on Sunday and talk to him one on one, it was hard, but let’s pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and keep moving forward.”