Category Archives: Getting started

New Agent Zoom VIII: A Bit About Our Guest & Our Session

29 Wednesday Nov 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started

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Wednesday night, we’ll have our eighth Zoom session for members of the 2023 NFL Agent Class, and this one will be a little different. Our guest will be Andy Ross, owner of Upper Edge Sports and, for about two decades, an NFLPA-licensed contract advisor.

Here’s Andy’s bio, from his agency’s website. Andy will discuss his career in player representation — which spans 18 years (he got certified in 2005) and work with two major firms, Octagon and Select Sports Group — as well as his newish firm, Upper Edge. Though the focus is working with NFL players, Andy has a grander vision and has plans to move into entertainment as well as representation in multiple sports. 

This is why he’s joining us on Zoom. Andy is looking for help, so several first-year agents will gather to hear what he’s got mapped out. It’s a tantalizing opportunity for one or two agents. I don’t know the details about what Andy is seeking, but the ability to potentially work with a seasoned and experienced agent so early in one’s career is something special. 

My guess is that Andy will offer a chance to recruit on behalf of Upper Edge, and perhaps there will be an offer to help with training fees for the right players. Obviously, that would mean that if the player makes a roster, Andy and the agent would split fees. That’s the usual arrangement, though I’m not trying to put words in Andy’s mouth. 

So to recap, here’s what I expect the body of the Zoom to be:

  • Andy introduces himself and his firm.
  • He discusses the opportunity he’s offering, what kind of agent he’s looking for, and what he can offer in return (I think that will be, mostly, the chance to work with someone with years in the game).
  • He describes the profile of the perfect candidate.
  • He answers a few questions from those on the Zoom and provides best way to contact him.

New contract advisors always ask me how they can earn a place with a firm that gives them the horsepower to really recruit, sign and represent legitimate players. Until now, I didn’t really have an answer, but Wednesday night, that ends. I don’t want to exaggerate the possibilities, but the bottom line is, this is something that’s pretty exciting. 

All ITL clients are welcome tomorrow night, but you have to be a subscriber first. The Zoom link goes out tomorrow afternoon. Want to join us? Start here. 

 

New Agent Zoom VII: Our Questions for Mike Delle Donne

20 Monday Nov 2023

Posted by in Agents, combine prep, Getting started, NFL draft

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Seems crazy that tomorrow night will be our seventh Zoom session aimed at helping inform the 2023 NFL Agent Class. We’ve covered so much so far, but we’re far from done.

The next two sessions, including tomorrow’s, are focused on helping rookie contract advisors ascend to the next level. One way to do that is by joining an established firm, which gives you clout and validation that is hard to find in Year 1 (or Year 2, for that matter). 

Our guest will be Mike Delle Donne of UA Sports. Mike is smart and capable, naturally, but he’s also been very good about building bridges and helping agencies understand the value he brings, which is one reason he’s been certified just over two years and has already served with two good firms. It doesn’t hurt that he already represents the kicker for an NFL team, New Orleans’ Blake Grupe, who signed as a UDFA out of Notre Dame last spring.

Here’s a list of the questions we’ll have for Mike.

  • How did you approach getting certified? What was your background?
  • Were you ever independent? What challenges did you face as an independent agent at first?
  • Is it intimidating to work for a firm that’s already established and already has NFL clients? 
  • How did you come to be associated with Roche Sports Representation? How did it help you in Year 1?
  • Would you consider yourself a person who networks well with agents? Is that a goal of yours? If so, has it been beneficial?
  • Why did you ultimately decide to move to UA Sports? How has it been beneficial? 
  • Did you bring clients with you to UA Sports? How was that handled?
  • Do you anticipate staying with UA Sports long-term? Would you ever be independent again? 
  • Tell us about recruiting and signing PK Blake Grupe. Did you expect him to be one of the 32 NFL kickers in his rookie year?
  • What’s the hardest part of being an agent? The best part?

Our special training guest Monday will be Jordan Luallen of X3 Performance and Physical Therapy. The results Jordan has gotten for players who didn’t get invited to the combine has been phenomenal. Few trainers have been able to move undrafted free agent prospects into draft range better than Jordan. He’ll introduce himself and talk a little bit about his service. He’ll be the fourth trainer to have joined us on Zoom, with more to go. 

I hope you can join us. Sign up here for ITL and we’ll send out the Zoom link Monday afternoon.

Here’s What Players NOT to Sign If You’re a New NFL Agent

09 Thursday Nov 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft

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Due to a pretty full schedule this week, I didn’t schedule a Zoom session for new agents. It’s the first week in about the last four that I haven’t huddled with new contract advisors, and I guess I feel like I’ve let people down.

That’s why I wanted to write a piece today that, hopefully, serves as a kind of substitute for a Zoom. Given that we’re mere weeks away from the end of the season for many teams, I thought I should look at recruiting. So, today, let’s look at the positions where players seem to have the least success making 90-man rosters and, even more, making it to the 53-man roster.

Center: If you follow what we do, you know we’re big advocates for signing offensive lineman, and that used to extend to centers, as well. I have learned the hard way that the guys in the pivot are just not as highly valued as tackles, definitely, and even guards. Only about a third of centers (technically, 36 percent) who signed with agents for the 2023 draft class actually made it to a 90-man roster via draft or signing as a UDFA. If you sign a center, you absolutely must sign one who has playing experience from guard to guard, and, even better, some time at tackle. Otherwise, you’re taking a big risk.

Cornerback: Signing a corner is really attractive because it’s a premium position, and if a player blazes an impressive 40 time, teams are going to at least take notice. If you’re an agent, it’s easy to talk yourself into signing a player who, if he has one special trait, has a chance at making a team. The issue is that there are an overwhelming number of people in the world who are between 5-8 and 6-2, and when they play football, very often, they play defensive back. If you’re playing the numbers, you better get a really good player at that size because there’s so much competition at that body type. You’re usually looking at 38-42 percent of all corners signed by agents actually getting to a 90-man roster (it was 38.08 percent in 2022). If you look at some other positions, the percentage is closer to 50 percent.

Wide receiver: Wide receiver is very similar to cornerback when it comes to scarcity. In 2022, 35 percent of receivers made it to a 90-man roster. Once again, if you get a really fantastic receiver, great, but if you merely sign a “good” one, odds are it’s going to be tough to get him on a roster. 

Kicker/punter: Training punters and kickers is a lot cheaper than regular position players. They usually spend a week with one of the kicking services, and it costs pennies on the dollar as compared to those who have traditional combine prep. However, teams simply rarely draft them. Yes, they are taken on draft day at times, but by and large, they are signed post-draft. Also, teams don’t carry backups at these positions, so you really must have an exceptional player to actually get him on a roster. One other issue: most teams use their special teams coaches to do their scouting for kickers, punters and long-snappers, so you can’t even appeal to scouts to get workouts, etc., as you do with all other positions. 

We’ll be back with two Zoom sessions next week. If you’re a first-year agent, or just an agent who is still learning the craft, why don’t you join us? We’ll have more details in the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here. 

Our Fourth New Agent Zoom Session: A Preview

01 Wednesday Nov 2023

Posted by in Agents, combine prep, Getting started

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Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, we’ll have our fourth Zoom session for new agents. This session will cover all facets of combine prep for draft prospects. We’ll answer several questions related to training. Here are a few of them, with our answers.

Is combine prep pretty one-size-fits-all? Yes and no. The basics are that you’re looking at eight weeks of training, typically, with an emphasis on explosiveness — the 40, obviously, but also the 3-cone, short shuttle, the jumps, etc. The importance and weight (no pun intended) of the bench press varies by position. Depending on the size and reputation of the trainer, there could be 30-40 players of similar draft station as your client training alongside him.

How much influence do you have over your client’s combine training? That kinda depends on the draft caliber of your client. I’ve heard stories of fringe draft prospects reaching out to agents, hoping to sign with them, and they tell the prospective contract advisor that they’ve “already got their combine training picked out.” Obviously, it’s not that simple. The bigger, more popular trainers have aggressive social media presences and do a good job of selling their services and, of course, touting the big names they’ve trained previously. These trainers are very enticing, but their pricing can exceed the costs you want to assume for a late-round pick. 

Does geographical location really matter? It may matter to your client. Increasingly, the top combine prep facilities are in the Sun Belt. Training doesn’t take place 24 hours per day, and most players will want to go somewhere they can enjoy their off time. You don’t want to be insensitive to that, but at the same time, it’s not your responsibility to cater to those kinds of needs. It may take a little finesse to figure out what situation fits your client and your budget. 

Here are a few other questions we’ll address:

  • Who expects training?
  • What is the cost of training?
  • How do training costs compare with lodging and food?
  • What is pro day training vs. combine prep?
  • Do players repay training? Is there a way to recover training payments?
  • Do players at all positions get same kind of training? Does it all cost the same?
  • What if I don’t have a training budget?
  • How do I protect my training expenses in case of my client terminating me? 

We’ll also be joined by my friend, Kevin Dunn, of TEST Football Academy. Kevin has trained players of every stripe, from first-rounder to free agent (including Steelers QB Kenny Pickett), and has facilities in New Jersey and Florida. He’ll discuss what TEST offers, what they recommend for players on the draft bubble, general pricing, etc. He’s the second trainer who’s appeared on our Zoom series, and he won’t be the last. I think it’s critical to hear from subject matter experts, and Kevin definitely qualifies.

If you’re someone who has your own questions about combine prep, we’d love for you to join us. All you have to do is join ITL, which you can do here. We’ll send out the Zoom link later this afternoon. It’s going to be a fun and informative evening. I hope to see you there. 

 

Here’s Why the ’23 Draft Class Will Challenge New Agents

26 Thursday Oct 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft, NIL, Scouts

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Tonight is our third Zoom session aimed at helping “coach up” the 2023 NFL Agent Class. In our first session, we interviewed David Gregory of BullRush Sports, who was the only independent rookie agent to have a player drafted in 2023. We discussed that Zoom session in this post. In our second session, our guest was Houston Texans beat writer Aaron Wilson, who discussed the relationship between the media and the agent community. We discussed his session in this post. Tonight will be different, however.

Tonight, we’ll have no guest, and I’ll be the one doing the speaking. We’ll talk about recruiting your first client; managing state registration costs; weighing registration with schools; the all-star invitation process; figuring out what kind of commitment to make to name, image and likeness (NIL) and more. We’ll also have a couple special guests. It’s going to be a jam-packed, highly informational night.

We’ll also discuss the special challenges faced by the 2023 agent class due to the market forces affecting the ’24 draft class, which are plentiful. Here’s my take on why this year’s rookie agents will have a higher bar to clear.

This is the year the NIL/transfer portal/Covid bonus year creates a very top-heavy class. One reason there’s no NFLPA Collegiate Bowl this year is due to the difficulties the game had in populating its rosters for the ’23 game. My friend Kalyn Kahler at The Athletic did an excellent story this spring on the amount of players who skipped the ’23 draft for NIL dollars. Most of those players have already expended their Covid bonus year, so they’ll be in this year’s draft pool. That’s among the reasons there are, legitimately, six or seven QBs in the discussion for Day 1, and there are equally talented players across the board who would normally be first-round shoo-ins who’ll be drafted later. That’s going to have a cascading effect on the later rounds. My guess is that the bigger firms will still roll the dice on the would-be Day 2 types that wind up getting drafted in the fifth and sixth rounds, gambling that they’ll still have productive NFL careers. Maybe they won’t — maybe they’ll say a sixth-rounder is a long shot, regardless of the year. Time will tell, but my guess is that the major and mid-major firms will get their fill, as usual.

This was a bigger agent class than in recent years. We counted 163 new agents this year. That’s about 60 percent larger than the normal agent class over the last 2-3 years. That means a lot more competition for the usual 7th/UDFA prospects that rookie contract advisors normally battle for. 

FBS schools have robbed many FCS-and-lower schools of talent. The liberalization of the transfer rule means big schools are more often recruiting for new talent from mid-majors and sub-FBS schools. This means the talent a new agent might have been able to find at a smaller local school isn’t going to be there anymore. It’s also important to note that once a player attends an FBS school, there’s a certain expectation for pre-draft training and other amenities, regardless of his merits as an NFL prospect.

Scouts are being asked to evaluate more players than ever before. Because there’s been such a migration of talent to the big schools, NFL scouts are being asked to evaluate more players than ever. When a scout arrives at a school, typically, the pro liaison gives him a list of 8-10 players to evaluate. More and more, they’re being given lists of 20-25 prospects. The upshot of this is that there will be fewer “diamonds in the rough” that got overlooked in this draft class. This is important to note. And again, even if you’re signing a guy who only a rotational player, if he played at a Big Ten or SEC or ACC school, he’s not going to be a cheap signing. That’s just the way it is.

The all-star game schedule has been reduced. We’ve already seen the previous No. 3 game, the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, go away. We’ll also see format changes for the two games just below it (the Collegiate Gridiron Showcase and Tropical Bowl) that were forced by new, restrictive NFL policies. This means fewer players will have a platform to impress NFL evaluators.

If discussion of these matters interests you, and you’d like to join us, it’s not too late. Just register for ITL, and I’ll share the Zoom link. If not, but you’d like to stay abreast of what’s going on in the agent community, make sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter, the Friday Wrap.

I’m Addressing Law Students Thursday — Here’s What I’ll Say

16 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, Uncategorized

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On Thursday afternoon, I have the privilege of addressing the South Texas School of Law here in Houston. My audience will be law students who have an interest in being NFL agents, and I look forward to answering some of their questions about the business.

I think I’ll call my presentation, Here’s What You Need to Know about NFL Player Representation. Here’s an overview of the points I will make.

  • For all intents and purposes, forget about NIL. Some agents enter the game thinking they’ll use name, image and likeness as their entree into working with players. The problem is, done correctly, NIL representation takes an incredible amount of man hours and bears fruit only slowly. What NIL has evolved into in college football is something very different, and this needs to be explored. 
  • Don’t fall into the trap of thinking negotiation is a big part of player representation. At least not at first. This is a classic sports law class talking point, and it’s something I have to spend a lot of time unwinding with many of my clients. The 2011 CBA made a player’s rookie deal mostly a paint-by-numbers proposition. You won’t be sitting across the table with an owner or GM in a smoke-filled room, pounding the table, for a good 5-7 years. If ever.
  • Don’t consider certification unless you have access to cash. This doesn’t mean you have to be personally wealthy, and it doesn’t mean you have to hand out gobs of dollars to players as a signing inducement. However, you are not going to make progress on your student loans in the early years of your career in player representation. Not if you’re doing it right. The simple fact is that you’re going to have to spend a certain amount of money to sign players worthy of NFL consideration.
  • Waiting until you’ve got 500 mostly NFL contacts on LinkedIn won’t work. If you’ve already got friends in the game, great, but you’re going to make most of your key relationships on the fly. What’s more, most of those relationships will happen because you both have skin in the game. No amount of social media connections or beers/meals bought is gonna get you a draftable player. You’re going to have to go out and do it. Then the relationships will come.
  • There’s a certain way you need to recruit players. First of all, forget about signing a draftable player in Year 1. An independent rookie contract advisor gets a player drafted about once every couple years, and then only in the sixth or seventh round. You may be the exception to that rule, but chances are, you’ll sign someone who moves up into the draft after being a UDFA prospect than someone that everyone sees as a possible fourth-round pick.
  • Plan to be independent for a while. I can’t tell you how many of my young agent clients ask me, early in their career, if any agencies are hiring. That’s just now how this industry works.

If you’re in Houston and interested in joining us, contact me on Twitter/X for details (@insidetheleague, DMs always open). I’d love to pack the room, but we need to get you registered first. Also, don’t forget to register for our newsletter, the Friday Wrap. It’s got nothing to do with Thursday, but I promise you’ll enjoy it. 

Dogra’s Exit Headlines NFLPA Agent List Update

05 Thursday Oct 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started, NFL draft

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Ben Dogra is no longer an NFLPA-certified contract advisor. That’s one of the biggest revelations of the NFLPA’s updated posting of the current representation class for NFL players.

The Players Association refreshes its list of all licensed contract advisors in October after the deadline for dues payment passes on the first of the month. This year’s update brought news of several key exits and other highlights, but none is bigger than the departure of one of the first true titans in player representation. 

For those of us who have followed the business of the game for the last two decades, it’s hard to believe Dogra might not be at its forefront. When I launched ITL in 2002, Leigh Steinberg and David Dunn were fighting it out over their respective roles in the growth of Steinberg Sports, which had become a behemoth in the field of player representation. Soon, however, Steinberg, Dunn and others in the industry had a rival at the top in Dogra. By the time he had risen from an intern at SFX in the late 90s to one of the faces (along with Tom Condon) of CAA, Dogra was not just respected, but feared. I remember having a conversation with one of the top contract advisors in the game when Dogra was at the height of his powers, and I was struck by the awe in my friend’s voice, as well as his desire not to cross Dogra. From the stories of Dogra’s near-fights (literally) with NFL executives to tales of his magic tricks (again, literally) performed for friends after several late-night beverages in Mobile, Dogra cast an oversized shadow over the industry.

When Dogra was dismissed by CAA in 2014 for cause, the impact across the industry was seismic and, ultimately, began his descent. He even briefly lost his certification, and though it was restored in 2017 (and though he won a big arbitration judgement against CAA over his termination), his career never regained its luster. Still, at one time, he represented Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Mario Williams, A.J. Green and countless others, and for that decade from about 2004 to 2014, if there was a black player slated for the top 10 in the draft, Dogra was the agent to beat. His last first-rounder was Ohio State’s Damon Arnette (1/19, Raiders, 2020), and per the latest NFLPA rolls, he has no active clients in the league today. In the history of player representation, no list of truly great NFL agents is complete without Dogra’s name.

If you’re an aspiring agent hoping to one day break into the league, Dogra’s rise from unpaid intern at SFX to the NFL’s mountaintop in about a decade’s time should inspire you. On the other hand, if you’re an established NFL contract advisor regularly representing the NFL’s best, his disappearance from the limelight should be a reminder that nothing is forever, especially in pro football. 

There’s a lot more to be learned from the new NFLPA list of 1,026 contract advisors. We’ll be talking more about who’s out, who’s in, and what the latest list tells us about the state of player representations at Inside the League in our Rep Rumblings and in our weekly newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.  

Ask the Agent: Our 10 Questions for Rookie Success Story David Gregory

18 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Agents, Getting started

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For about the last 10 years, we’ve been working with first-year agents, trying to help them avoid the usual rookie mistakes that so often take down NFLPA-certified contract advisors before they’ve really begun their new ventures. We’re entering Year 3 of moving from daily emails to monthly Zoom sessions, and the response has been great from our clients.

Zoom sessions allow us to bring in special guests like former scouts, active agents, trainers and other experts. In fact, for the last two years, we’ve brought in the directors of all the major all-star games to introduce themselves to our clients and give them guidance on getting a player invited.

At any rate, it’s that time again for us to kick things off, and Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET, our guest will be David Gregory of Bullrush Sports. David got certified last summer, but didn’t spend his first year certified “learning” and sitting on the sidelines. He dove right in, and for his efforts, he was the only independent rookie agent to have a player drafted last year (Northern Michigan OT Jake Witt, who was selected in the seventh round by the Colts). It’s a monumental task just getting a player signed as an undrafted free agent in Year 1. To get a player drafted is off the charts.

Anyway, we’ll go about an hour, and these are the questions I’ll be asking him. 

  • Why did you choose to become an agent?
  • What is your background? Did it give you any advantages?
  • How did you decide on a budget for Year 1? What was your budget?
  • How many players did you sign? Why did you sign them?
  • How did you first identify Jake as a player to recruit? How did you then initiate contact?
  • Did you give any consideration to sending Jake to the XFL?
  • What was the lowest point for you and Jake after you signed?
  • When did you know there was real interest in Jake? Going into draft weekend, did you expect him to be drafted?
  • What was draft day like?
  • How has Jake’s selection by the Colts affected your Year 2 plans?

If you’re entering Year 1 as a contract advisor, I hope you’ll join us. There’s no cost, but you have to be an ITL client ($29.95/month, cancel at any time).  Your first year as an agent is incredibly tough, and getting to hear from the horse’s mouth how others enjoyed success is invaluable. 

We’ll send out the Zoom link to all our rookie subscribers Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before we get started. It’s going to be a good time, very informal, with plenty of time to get questions from the attendees in addition to the ones I ask. I really want this to be a win for everyone involved, and remember, we’re just getting started. We’ll have them monthly (sometimes twice monthly) for the rest of the year. Hope to see you Tuesday.

2023 NFL Agent Exam: Thoughts on ‘Results Day’

08 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in Agent Exam, Agents, Getting started

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Today is THE most bittersweet day of the year for me, personally, because, on one hand, I get to celebrate the realization of a dream with so many people, but also have to console the disappointment of so many others. I try to get in the trenches with everyone who uses our exam prep services, and that’s the truest of good news/bad news propositions.

A few thoughts as so many people deal with life-changing emails that arrived in their inboxes this morning.

  • For many of those who didn’t get good news today, the testing centers played a big role. I heard lots of stories of people who showed up, only to find that their test was cancelled, or that it would be held later than scheduled. Other test-takers got plenty of intrusion during testing, or had some weird demands made on them. If that was you, find a new testing center next year. Even if you have to drive a little more. 
  • One other note for those who didn’t make the cut: it might be a failure of your note organization more than your grasp of the CBA. One contract advisor who helps with exam tutoring insists that you could theoretically skip studying the CBA altogether if you had extremely organized notes and you were exceptionally good at identifying what the exam asks in each question. 
  • If you passed, or if you didn’t, take this weekend to relax. If you passed, you deserve to celebrate. If you didn’t, rest up and get ready to join us in February when we resume our Zoom sessions. Nothing that happens this weekend will affect you next July.
  • If you passed, consider joining us at Inside the League. Next month (or maybe even later this month), we’ll begin our Zoom sessions for new agents. We’ll have instruction on who and how to recruit, how all-star games work, how to set a training budget, what to expect from players’ parents, and so many other relevant topics. We’ll have agents who were in your shoes next year telling their stories, as well as former scouts discussing player evaluation and other topics. We’ll also have Zooms to help you find sleepers in the draft. I hope we can work with you.
  • You probably have some favorite NFL draft accounts on social media, but begin looking for accounts that focus on small-schoolers. Unless you already work for a major agency, you won’t be signing any potential first-rounders this year.  I also highly recommend following actual former NFL scouts. They not only know their stuff, but they will often give you tips and engage with you if you ask intelligent questions. Here are a few Twitter accounts I recommend: Blake Beddingfield (@BlakeBedd), Rodrik David (@RightStepAdv), Greg Gabriel (@ggabefootball), Randy Mueller (@RandyMueller_) and Mark Gorscak (@gors55). Emory Hunt (@FBallGameplan) and Damond Talbot (@DraftDiamonds) are not former NFL scouts, but they are key follows.

Before I go, let me share some of the joyous texts I got from several successful test-takers, all of them unsolicited. 

  • “Passed! Thanks so much for all your help Neil. I’ll be sticking with ITL moving forward – Couldn’t have succeeded without your team.”
  • “I’m overwhelmed with happy emotion brother!!! 🙌🏾 And you were part of that journey!!! And I truly appreciate you!!!”
  • “I passed the exam Neil! Appreciate all the help along the way man! Let’s keep in touch man, I’ve already referred someone who’s taking the test next year to go to Inside the League.”
  • “Just found out I I passed the NFLPA agent exam. Now I’m a player agent for both NBA & NFL Players! THANK YOU & ITL FOR EVERYTHING! Now that the easy part is complete, the journey has begun!”
  • “Thank you for sticking in my corner of the past few years!!! I literally couldn’t have done it without you!!!”
  • “You are the freaking Man!!!!  Could not have done this with out you!!!!  You and (ITL instructor) Ian (Greengross) deserve a congratulation too!!!!  Thank you so much!!!!!!!” 
  • “LFG!!!!!!!!!! Can’t thank you and Ian enough. So (freaking) happy right now.”
  • “Thx! ITL has been a tremendous resource already. You are truly tapped in…just like the name Says “ITL”. Let’s go!”

See you at the Friday Wrap later today. Aren’t registered? Sign up here.

Google and the Rising Cost of Sunday Ticket

25 Friday Aug 2023

Posted by in Getting started

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This week, we turn our blog over to NFL Draft Bible’s Ric Serritella, who not only produces our annual NFL Combine Seminars, but who is very knowledgeable and in tune with the technology behind the game. 

Have you ever woke up on Sunday morning and checked the local listings to see which NFL games will be televised in your market, only to turn on the TV to discover the game has been blacked out? It happens more frequently than you may know. There’s an explanation, according to a $6B class-action lawsuit filed in US federal court, which accuses the NFL and DirecTv of conspiring to limit the availability of televised games in the NFL’s attempt to artificially inflate the price of Sunday Ticket.  

Google, which has since purchased the rights to Sunday Ticket (a deal reportedly worth $14B), is now entangled in the case and is being accused of withholding evidence that could be used to prosecute claims in court. The story is developing.  

There is a large portion of NFL fans and the league’s commercial clients who are fed up with the price-fixing antics as evidenced by the 2.4M people and 48,000 business owners listed in the lawsuit. Attorneys are demanding answers in court and want the hidden data from Google uncovered in what could go down as the largest media payout settlement in history. 

Last season, the cost of NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTv was $300. This year, on Google’s YouTube platform, the cost has increased to $449. Want RedZone? Add an additional $50, which brings the total costs north of $500 after taxes and fees – nearly a 70% increase! YouTube subscribers are being offered a ‘discount’ price of $349 annually ($299 before the season) but you’ll be on the hook for an additional $72.99/monthly cable service bill ($875/year). That’s beaucoup bucks! 

One of the biggest dilemmas for consumers who do seek the ‘discounted’ subscriber rate model is that they are already locked into an existing streaming service or cable provider contract. Google has made no attempt to reimburse early termination fees for new customers at this time, a tactic often implemented by cell phone companies.  

So where does the case go from here? The antitrust litigation is set for February of 2024. If found guilty of the accusations, the NFL could be on the hook for a $6B claim. It’s a figure that would represent a $187.5M hit in the wallet for each of the 32 organizations.

Google’s acquisition allows the company the rights to sell NFL Sunday Ticket through 2030, at which time cable cords may be obsolete.  

For those of you who wish to track this case, it’s Ninth Inning Inc dba The Mucky Duck v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, 5;23-mc-80213-NC. We will be sure to keep tabs on the case’s progress here at ITL, since none of the NFL media rights-owned outlets, nor any of the mainstream media, picked up on this story.  

Make sure to follow along with all things football business in our weekly newsletter, which goes out at 7:30 p.m. ET every Friday. Sign up for it here.