For millions and millions of fans, tonight is a big night for watching TV, because HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ debuts for the ’15 season. As the show follows the Texans and chronicles J.J. Watt, Bill O’Brien and the team’s hunt for a starting quarterback, there will be plenty of fans glued to their sets.

But if you read this blog regularly, I’m telling you to DVR tonight’s episode of ‘Hard Knocks’ and watch ‘The Agent‘ instead. Here’s why:

• Readers of this blog are interested in the game behind the game. I think you’re going to see that in both shows, but ‘The Agent’ is solely focused on people who are ‘working without a net.’ In other words, an NFL team and its players are established, mainstream, powerful. On the other hand, the four principals in tonight’s show are out there taking chances, living ‘on the fly’ and facing tremendous consequences if they fail.
• If you’re a fan of ‘Hard Knocks,’ you’re probably not going to see anything new tonight. The characters will change and the logo on the side of the helmet will be different, but the template is pretty embedded. You’ll see the contrast between the first-rounders and the undrafted players fighting for reps; the superstars and how they live, off the field; and eventually, the injuries, cuts, promotions and other things that are the essence of training camp. With ‘The Agent,’ there is no template. You’ll see everything from another angle.
• If you watch ‘The Agent,’ you’ll get to know the players before they’re stars, and that’s pretty exciting. In just tonight’s episode, four highly touted members of the 2015 draft class are introduced, including Falcons second-round RB Tevin Coleman (73 overall). In the coming weeks, you’ll get to know Raiders DE Mario Edwards (drafted in the second round last spring), Ravens OLB Za’Darius Smith (fourth round) and several other players, some of whom signed with the four agents featured, and some who didn’t.
• I expect quite a bit of conversation on social media regarding ‘The Agent,’ and I think it will be educational and thought-provoking. We’ll be part of that conversation. I think that’s important. My gut feeling is that the tenor of the conversation on Twitter regarding ‘Hard Knocks’ tonight will be mostly from hard-core Texans fans. While that’s fun and can be entertaining, it’s different from those who are trying to ‘move the football’ (sorry) in their own professional lives.

I think if you watch ‘The Agent’ tonight, you’re going to learn something about the game, and about the business of the game, that you wouldn’t otherwise know. I hope you’ll join me in tuning in tonight.

You won’t see Amani Martin on the Esquire Network’s ‘The Agent,’ which kicks off at 10E/9C tomorrow night, but his shadow will loom over most everything you see. Not only did he do most of the filming, but he was one of the driving forces behind bringing the show to air.

He comes by his interest in the show naturally. Amani is a big sports fan, having been born just down the street from Yankee Stadium (“I’m not too happy about Toronto’s recent roster additions,” he said). He’s a dedicated Yanks and Giants enthusiast, but also an athlete himself: he played competitive tennis in college at a small school in Connecticut. Of course, there’s also the five Emmys won for his work on HBO’s ‘Real Sports’ and a documentary about the Brooklyn Dodgers, ‘The Ghosts of Flatbush,’ that aired on the network in ’08.

On the eve of Amani’s latest project, we spoke about what’s ahead for the Show. Here are his thoughts.

On how the show was born: “A lot of the shows I was interested in came from working at HBO at ‘Real Sports.’ We would go to an athlete’s home and I would always be aware of how important money was in that athlete’s life, and in a way that was often negative. . . I would see how they would interact with their entourage and their family, and how money was a positive and a negative, so I developed a concept called ‘The Contract.’ The show would follow players for a year to see how money affected their lives. In talking about it, a friend recommended I talk to Ed (Wasielewski). . . . The more I talked to him, the more I got interested in his life. . .  He’s struggling, but he’s a full-time agent and he’s very good, but it’s a struggle. . . That’s how the conversation with Ed started, and soon, we said, ‘let’s figure out how to make this into a series with a different focus,’ and let’s center around Ed.'”

On finding a network: “I followed Ed for six months, either me and a camera or me with a small crew, and I’d shoot him in his office or on the road, going to games and meeting athletes, and we used that and put together a sizzle reel. It’s a pretty essential piece of selling a show, because networks want to know, what are the characters like? Are they telegenic enough? Are they charismatic enough? If they don’t hold someone’s attention for five minutes, they won’t hold it for a whole show. We took it to about a dozen networks, and it covered the trials and tribulations of a real agent. Many networks wanted to see the reel, and we got really good feedback from it, but it had to fit their format and their demographic. There were certain networks I wasn’t interested in, because it didn’t need to be augmented by gimmicks. Long story short, Esquire got involved, and they felt it fit their demographic.”

On what he learned about being an agent: “A lot of people think you put on a nice suit and you’re a slick talker and you’re an agent. They have no idea how up and down the business is. You could do really well one year and then struggle the next two years. It’s a 24-7 customer service job. You’re always on the phone, always dealing with crises.”

On the difference between a show like ‘The Agent,’ which is a docu-series, and reality television: “A docu-series finds a fascinating story about a character, and it follows the character around and crafts a story. A reality show, really, what they’re doing is deciding what’s gonna happen beforehand, and then watch the characters interact somewhat authentically there. For example, the Kardashians are going to the beach, and then (the show) augments the drama and conflict. In our series, the agents overlap and know each other but they’re not in direct conflict, and even if they were in direct conflict, you wouldn’t be seeing them at the lunch table yelling at each other.”

Today, for War Story Wednesday, I wanted to pass along the response from Ed Wasielewski when I asked him if anything unexpected happened during the filming of the docu-series.

“There was one time that I let an important production staff member drive at the tail-end of a very long road trip back from Indiana. We were all sleep-deprived and he was trying to lend a hand with the driving. We were somewhere on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

“Normally, I like to drive myself unless it’s someone that I really know and trust, and this important production staffer was driving and he almost wrecked the vehicle when he dropped his Starbuck’s bottle. He reached below to grab it, eyes below the steering wheel, and we’re on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and I was starting to think, “This could be my last trip.”

“I think I learned a valuable lesson that night: unless I’m driving or it’s someone I completely trust, no one else is ever driving on one of these long trips again. It was a pretty important production guy, and I couldn’t say more than, ‘could you pull over? I’d like to finish driving on this trip.’ I mean, I was texting with my staff member from the back seat: ‘What do we do here? Are you OK to drive?’ ‘Anything’s better than this’, he (texted back).

“There aren’t too many moments when you’re thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, this could be it,’ but this was one of them. We were all kind of sleep-deprived, but his driving left a lot to be desired.”

Stories from the road like this one will make up the series, The Agent, which kicks off in six days (Aug. 11, 10E/9C) on the Esquire Network. If you read this blog faithfully, you’re not going to want to miss it.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know the number of would-be NFLPA contract advisors was down a bit this year, off by maybe 50-75 candidates (based on the number of people taking the agent exam this year). I have a number of thoughts about this.

• The fact that the numbers are off a bit from the past 2-3 years isn’t a big deal. Recently, having about 300 in the room was pretty routine, but this was easy to explain. The new runner rule, which outlawed any contact between a prospect and an agent’s non-certified representative, prompted many agencies to certify any and all of its employees.
• Then again, it’s possible there are fewer people with a passion to work with players, for a couple reasons. One, it’s been a long, long time since ‘Jerry Maguire’ was in theaters. Of course, maybe ‘Ballers’ will reignite that spark. Two, I think the move to analytics has probably attracted a lot of people who might previously have seen agent certification as their surest route to fulfilling work.
• If more people really understood what was in store for them once they became full-time contract advisors, maybe fewer really would get certified. I mean, check this out. It’s a copy of the minutes from the last players association meeting, and it shows that the players are actually considering dropping the standard commission on contracts from three to two percent. If this happens, it will be nearly impossible for new agents to recover their expenses.
• The NFLPA is a very good thing for players in some ways. It has been a leader in demanding certification for agents, and ensuring that they actually know what they’re doing with regards to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. This is very important. On the other hand, the union regularly runs over the agents who are supposed to be advocating for the players. To wit: the NFLPA is assisting a top NFL player who’s trying to negotiate his own deal, and it very rarely intervenes when an agent tries to poach another agent’s clients.
• When there’s no justice and no reason to have a presumption of fair play, it’s pretty demoralizing. The upside for the union is that so few people know how this business really works. So many young, idealistic people get into this game thinking the players are the victims; it’s a narrative that’s advanced by the media and people around the game. What you find out quickly, however, is that most of the people on the ground floor of the business — the less-established agents, trainers and financial planners who are trying to earn a foothold in football — are actually pretty earnest and fair-minded. Not all of them, mind you, but most of the ones I’ve met.

This is one reason why I’m pretty enthusiastic about ‘The Agent,’ which kicks off in about a week and a half (Tuesday, Aug. 11, on the Esquire Network). It’s a chance to see contract advisors conducting business in jeans and collared shirts rather than three-piece suits or leather jackets. It’s a chance to see them operating alone and uncertain, instead of talking fast and with total confidence.

I hope, for better or worse, it’s a great learning tool for anyone interested in the business side of the game. I think it will be.

I just watched the first edition of ‘The Agent,’ which follows four NFLPA contract advisors through the run-up to the 2015 NFL draft. It kicks off Aug. 11 on the Esquire Network at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT. Here are three thoughts.

• Think of every show that’s ever purported to show the life of a sports agent. Let’s see. You’ve got ‘Jerry Maguire,’ of course, and ‘Arliss.’ You’ve got ‘Entourage,’ and now ‘Ballers’ (boy, HBO sure loves agent stuff). You’ve got Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, ‘The Dotted Line.’ You’ve got ‘Super Agent,’ which aired in 2005. I’ve never seen ‘Ballers,’ and I’ve only seen bits and pieces of ‘Maguire’ (which really surprises some people). I’ve seen several episodes of ‘Arliss,’ though it was more of a screwball portrayal and not really to be taken seriously. I saw one episode of ‘Super Agent’ and nearly vomited. I’ve seen one episode, I think, of ‘Entourage.’ I saw Spurlock’s documentary several times. Anyway, ‘The Agent’ puts them all to shame (though I don’t grade ‘The Dotted Line,’ which was very good, alongside the rest of them). If you read this blog, you are not gonna want to miss it. In fact, set the DVR right now. I’ll wait.
• I’m proud to say the three people I’m closest to the in the show all come off as real people. No putting on airs or strutting around in sunglasses that cover their entire face. Two of the agents featured spend their first minutes on air riding in limos, putting on designer suits and the like. Bright lights, big city stuff. But two others, Ed Wasielewski of EMG Sports and Peter Schaffer of Authentic Athletix, are just regular guys, dressed in regular clothes. If you sat next to them on a plane, you’d never know they were agents. Meanwhile, Rick Roberts, who handles personnel for Pro Source Sports, is every bit the man on the show that he is in real life: knowledgeable, approachable, likeable and down to earth. All three of my friends are as authentic on the screen as they are in real life. You’ll enjoy getting to know them.
• I know I come across as a party pooper when I’m always preaching how much work agents do, but it’s true. You get to see it in this show. I’m sure there will be plenty of private planes and invitation-only parties in later broadcasts, but the first edition featured a lot of nights spent alone in hotel rooms and long, lonely car rides. There’s one scene that captures the life of an agent perfectly. An agent has been courting a player for months when, out of nowhere, he’s asked to meet the player’s ‘mentor.’ The mentor wants to meet the agent in the next 24 hours, which means a cross-country flight on a ticket bought a few hours before wheels-up. The agent sits in the darkness of his car, alone and exhausted, as he ponders whether or not it’s worth the energy and expense to drop everything and meet with this person he doesn’t know, hoping it gives him an edge. That, right there, is the essence of this business.

We’re about a month from the second episode, and I can’t wait. If you are interested in the football business and really want to see it, warts and all, you’re going to want to watch every episode. Check it out.

This is a question I get all the time, and since we’re a week away from 300 people descending on Washington, D.C., to take the 2015 NFLPA contract advisors exam, I thought I’d try to answer that question today.

When it comes to the exam next week, it seems like it’s much easier for attorneys, especially those who’ve had a chance to take the ITL practice exam. Here are a few statements from agents who took the NFLPA exam after the bar exam, taken from our free newsletter:

• “I don’t want to say it was easy, but after taking the bar, I had confidence I’d pass it because of my law background. It was straightforward.”
• “I thought it was pretty straightforward and easy.”
• “If you put the time in and have a reasonable amount of intelligence, you shouldn’t really worry about it.”

Here are a few from non-lawyers:

• “I studied for three-and-a-half or four months, and being self-employed, I could spend 2-3 hours a day studying. After taking the test, I thank God I did that.”
• “The info on the exam can make you intimidated, but if you listen to the seminar and take good notes, it’s doable.”
• “I thought it was fair but tough. You definitely have to know your stuff. I. . . actually studied my stuff on my honeymoon.”

I also think players get a feeling of confidence when they find out their agent is also an attorney, so there’s a benefit there. And with litigation a constant possibility in this business, it comes in handy.

On the other hand, I think attorneys often ball back on their knowledge of the law as their salvation, and this is especially true of lawyers in a big firm. And they should — the law is an intricate and complicated thing, and it takes a smart person to help folks clear legal hurdles. If you spend most of your time wrangling with judges and arguing why a person is guilty/not guilty, you might put your faith in your knowledge of the collective bargaining agreement. Unfortunately, that’s not going to get you very far in this business.

How well you recruit is about 90 percent of your grade as a young agent. That’s something a lot of new agents don’t realize (especially established, high-earning attorneys). I spend a lot of time on the phone with new agents, and usually, I can get a good handle on whether or not that person is going to be successful. Lots of new contract advisors find out they passed the test in September, then don’t know where to start. Often, they punt their first year in the business as a result.

I know the lion’s share of people reading this blog aren’t attorneys and not all want to be agents, but plenty are. Some of them might be in D.C. next week, so I thought this was something to address. More next week.