The following list came from my friend, Huntington, W.Va.-based David Rich of Rich Sports Management. Dave is not a super-agent in the flashy, represents-every-first-rounder sense, except when it comes to his sense of humor. If he wanted to take his series of stories on the business to the stage, he would be the Jerry Seinfeld of sports representation.

He’s learned a lot of lessons on his way to running a solid, mid-sized agency that regularly gets clients drafted in the middle-to-late round despite not going to the combine and not getting splashy headlines.

Today, he volunteered what he calls his ‘Top 10 rules every sports agent should know and follow.’ I’ve reproduced it here in full with minimal edits. Here goes. My favorites are Nos. 10 and 7.

10. Never let a player borrow your personal vehicle unless you want to find it burnt up on the side of the highway in Macon, Ga.

9. If you find a prospect, make it hard as hell for them to fire you for as long as you can, because they eventually will unless you are their dad (and often they fire you for their dad).

8. If a guy gets into your car on the way to the NFL Combine with a jug of water, and it has instructions on when to drink it and what to take with it written in Sharpie on the jug, expect that guy not to play in the NFL.

8A. (See also ‘If that same guy calls you from the NFL Combine at 4 a.m. saying he can’t find his ID, so he can’t take the NFL urine test that morning, despite the fact that he’s got his name written on the back of the shirt the NFL Combine just gave him,’ same advice).

7. Never assume when you ask a prospect if he’s been arrested that he’s counting arrests where he didn’t think he was guilty or where the case settled without having to go to trial.

6. All college players think they are first-round picks. All of them. Even the team managers. They all see what the first-round picks are getting (rental cars, training in Arizona or Florida, etc.) and they not only want it, but think they deserve it. What’s more, if you aren’t willing to provide it to them, it’s because you don’t “believe in them” enough.

5. Every player you sign will think he is the long-shot exception that is going to make the NFL, and beat all the odds. No matter that he only played one season; has no film; has two labrum tears in three years; and his college coach hates him and tells every scout he knows to “take him off their list.”  So prepare to lose money — a lot of it — because there is always some schmuck out there willing to pay more to train, house and feed a bad player, and you have to bid against them.

4. If the player is chasing you, there is a reason for that. Good players don’t chase agents. Good players are chased.

3. Most players don’t understand that their level of “want” doesn’t always equal the level of “will get.” Wanting to make the NFL does not mean you will make it. Lots of guys who suck want to make it. Players think their agent can call a team and say “sign my guy.” I always ask my players, “How pretty is your girlfriend?” When they tell me how hot they are, I tell them, “Really? That hot? Well I’ve got a really ugly sister. Break up with your girlfriend and date my ugly sister. No, I’m serious! Date her! Because I want you to! Just like you think I can convince an NFL team to cut a guy they really like for you.” They get it pretty quick then.

2. If your player is dumb, he won’t play in the NFL. Yeah he’ll make it for a while, may even get drafted, but if he’s truly dumb, like ‘can’t line up in the right place’ dumb, you are wasting your time.

1. I patented this phrase so don’t steal it, or I’ll sue you: Everyone says they want the truth, but then when you tell it to them, they wish you would have lied. This is so true, especially of hot women in bars and NFL prospects. I’m not saying to lie. I’m saying, you better be prepared to operate in the gray. Dark gray. I’m talking ‘Navy-Seal-raid-on-a-compound-at-4-a.m.-dark-gray.’ Abe-Lincoln-photo gray. You can’t tell a player he won’t be drafted. Ever. Even if you know he won’t be. You have to say that if he follows the plan and works his tail off, there’s no limit to what he can do.

I don’t have a war story today, per se. Instead, I hope you’ll permit me to pass along my dissection of a conversation I had with an agent from a top-10 firm today.

• I’m always getting asked by new agents how much money they need to recruit a player. Well, based on the phone conversation I had today, the figure his firm uses for budgeting is $35,000/player after the signing. This firm doesn’t cheat, but I’m still presuming the recruiting costs per player (which probably involve at least 2-3 visits each with probably 2-3 representatives) are around $3,000-$5,000 after you consider plane flights, hotel stays, meals and rental cars. This agency recruits players that range anywhere from 1-50 in the draft (from the first pick in the draft to about midway through the second round). So basically what I took from that is that if you want to recruit a first-rounder, the baseline is a commitment of about $40,000 to get you to draft day.
• I should mention two others related things. His agency doesn’t pay signing bonuses or stipends, which typically run in the five figures. If you’re a new agent with a limited client list, you’re definitely going to need to figure that into the cost, just as a sweetener to get the kid to consider you. That number could range into the tens of thousands, but let’s just say $10,000, for a grand total of $50,000/player.
• The other thing he added is that if the kid falls to the third round, the $35,000 becomes a break-even figure. The kid has to go in the first two rounds just to turn a profit. Now, as you know, a first-rounder in December is just a bad combine, a failed drug test, an arrest or a pulled hamstring on pro day away from the third round (or worse) in April. There are no guarantees in this business, except that bills will come due and you better pay them.
• There’s one other consideration. If you don’t have a client list ranging around 20-30 active players, you have very little shot of signing a player in the top 100. You’ll also need to spend, I would estimate, 100 hours on the phone with him and/or his parents. These are the non-money costs of recruiting.

We’ll get back to other aspects of the football industry in Thursday’s post, but I wanted to write about this while it was fresh. I hope you find it insightful as it pertains to your place in the football world.

A couple years ago, I was having a phone conversation with an agent who’s a longtime friend and supporter of ITL. We often talk generally about the business (he’s an avid reader of this blog, too). In our discussion, he asked me how many of the almost 800 agents in the business I thought were making more than $100,000.

I guessed high and said 100. He laughed and said it was a fraction of that, maybe 20. I’ve often gone back and thought about that. If it were possible to track such things, who was right? My friend or me?

I thought about this when I tripped across this link while browsing the web earlier today. I knew the big movie stars were making a killing and the big directors and producers, too, but it was interesting to learn what agents make. Now, I must caution you that I don’t know anything about how the agent business works in entertainment, or how many agents make this kind of dough, or how long it takes to build to that level. Still, it was interesting stuff.

A couple weeks ago, I texted a young woman who had expressed interest in representing athletes in the past. I wanted to know if she had taken the NFLPA exam this summer, and her response was interesting. “I’m still deciding if I want to be (a sports) agent” she texted. “Our entertainment side has grown so much and is more lucrative.”

She went on to say that her agency was considering “(divesting) wholly of the sports side. 1% with 40+ hours a week is probably not the best business decision for us right now. It’s a bummer because we love it, but the opportunity cost is rough to ignore.”

I subsequently sent her a text on Nov. 2 asking if she’d gone through with the NFLPA exam, and she never responded. I guess that answers my question.

I know I strike a negative tone at times in this space, and I don’t mean to be discouraging. However, I do want everyone considering this business to know the risks, to give themselves time to prepare for this business, and to understand that it takes a special kind of passion to make this career work.

On Monday night, I spent an hour on the phone with a new agent. It was really refreshing.

This agent had lots and lots of questions, and she was clearly taking notes as I discussed the various answers to her questions. There are a lot of people who come into this business thinking they already know the answers. There are still others who’ve spent a little time in the industry and think nothing’s changing. Wow, is that ever wrong. . . .

Here’s an example. There’s a new all-star game added to the slate this year called the College Gridiron Showcase (CGS). This is the fifth game in January and will take place the same week as another game, the Medal of Honor Bowl, which was pretty well-received in its first year (2013). It would be easy to dismiss a new game, and already I’ve gotten lots of questions from clients asking if the CGS is even worth considering. I’m sure lots of agents don’t even know about this new game, and others have already dismissed it as a waste of time. This is where it’s an advantage to stay up to date on the business.

Though the CGS is a new game, the people running it aren’t new. The organizers have spent a great deal of time putting all the pieces in place, and have developed a solid base of sponsors to help give them the resources to do a good job. One of the game’s co-founders is Craig Redd, who’s himself a former NFLPA-certified contract advisor who knows the drill quite well (in addition to being a high-character, standup guy). Among Craig’s smart moves is bringing in John Murphy to run the personnel side of things. In addition to being the Assistant GM of the CFL’s Calgary franchise, John has been involved in more all-star games than I can count. He’s super-familiar with the process and knows what NFL talent looks like.

I haven’t personally checked out the hotel sponsoring the game, but I’m sure it’s more than adequate. They’ve been smart about assembling broadcast partners, and they’ve got a good field for the game. They’ve also been aggressive about reaching out to NFL teams and they’ll have a great group of scouts there. But you might not know that if you don’t read ITL (sorry for the shameless plug), or if you are serious about staying up to date on things.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I feel that you can be successful in the football business, but you must be vigilant about information-gathering to ensure victory. This is just another example of that. Don’t ever presume the learning process has ended and that you know all you need to know.

Earlier this week, I had a lengthy conversation with a young law student who’s dedicated to being an NFLPA-licensed agent someday soon. Among the topics we discussed was internships. He’s worked with agencies before, and wants to continue his learning. His question to me was, should he look large firm or small firm?

The easy answer is to go with a small firm. The opportunity for growth is huge, and there’s no limit to what he’ll be asked to do. In addition, he will have a chance to see, up close, what the firm’s principals do, and measure their success. His first experience was with a small firm, and he got marketing expertise rather quickly due to their handing him several accounts (much to his surprise). The downside to working with a small firm was easy, too. They only had one client who drew draft attention, and when he didn’t make a roster, there wasn’t much to do. For this reason, he said he’s thinking trying to make a run at a big firm next.

I think it’s a good idea, but if you’re in a similar situation, there are a couple things to think about.

The first item is the high barrier to entry. Everyone wants to intern with CAA, Athletes First, Rosenhaus Sports, or whatever. The truly elite agencies have dozens and dozens of applicants. I worked with one top-ten agency this summer trying to find them a new hire, and after sending them the cream of the crop among newly certified contract advisors, they wound up rejecting all of them and starting over, hoping to find a young, hard-charging Ivy Leaguer. Most firms are the same way. They want guys who have a pedigree AND a fire-breathing work ethic, so the first drawback is the difficulty in landing an internship. It’s a serious barrier to entry.

The second negative is that if you go to such an agency, you better burn your ships. The odds of your getting hired will be very long, so you’re going to have to work like you’ve never worked and be able to adapt to any situation (and succeed at it). I know lots and lots of young agents who got their first taste of the sports agent business as interns with big firms, but ultimately weren’t hired. They spend years trying to chase success on their own, but lacking the client list, sizzle and muscle of a big-time firm, don’t get there. The pedigree gained from an internship with such an agency doesn’t translate to success.

So which way is the smart play? To me, if you’re looking to land an internship next semester or next summer, send out lots of resumes to agencies big and small. Just know that, depending on the size of the firm that picks you up, you’ll have to adjust your strategy.