This week, I’m going to try to answer a very difficult, but very popular, question that I get this time of year: If I’m an agent who doesn’t have a client working out, or I’m going to Indy to network as an aspiring NFL scout, when should I be there?

I should start by saying there’s no right answer to this. It all depends on your budget, your schedule flexibility, your willingness to “put yourself out there,” and why you’re going to Indy.

So when should you arrive and when should you depart? You may be one of those people who has a job or classes during the work week, and good on you if you do. However, if you don’t arrive until Friday night or Saturday, the week is pretty much over. Workouts start Thursday night, which means they’re pretty much over on Sunday. if you don’t arrive until the weekend, much of the hay is already in the barn. I recommend arriving Wednesday and leaving Friday or Saturday. Obviously, Wednesday of combine is a key part of our year at Inside the League, which we discuss weekly in our Friday Wrap (register for it here).

There’s another important point to be made. The NFL Combine is still a workplace for the league’s scouts and executives (as well as the players working out), so unless you are employed by an NFL team or are part of the media covering things, you are gonna feel left out. Indianapolis is a great place to hold the combine, but it’s a cold-weather city in March, so everything takes place indoors, unlike at all-star games. You need a badge to get through the door most places you’ll want to be, but there are shortcuts to getting access if you know a few tricks.

I’m going to focus on two tracks: aspiring scout and aspiring agent.

AGENT

• If your future is in player representation, you’re probably going to want to meet as many scouts as you can and maybe even catch the eye of a big firm that might hire you later.
• Unfortunately, there is no one hotel where agents tend to stay. All i can tell you is stay downtown if you can afford it. If you’re really budget-minded, stay near the airport (you can find places there for a fraction of the cost, though the Uber rides may balance things a little). I generally use the restaurants downtown as my “office” when I’m in Indy, and you can, too. i recommend this place. It’s centrally located and has really big booths.
• More bad news: The NFLPA no longer holds its all-agents meeting during combine. instead it’s held online the week before. So there’s no central location for contract advisors.
• If you’re looking for a place to stake out, the halls and corridors of the Indiana Convention Center are probably a good place to start during the day. It’s kinda like the “highway” of downtown Indy. Lots of vendors set up here for that reason. In the evenings, you’re looking at the Yard House, Harry & Izzy’s, Prime 47 and, of course, St. Elmo’s.

SCOUT

• If you want to be hired as a scout, you’ll need to be around scouts. One place to catch them is the Starbucks at the JW Marriott downtown. You’ll want to be there quite early; there’s actually been a whole story written about this in The Athletic. The key is patience and deference to the people you meet. If you’re too solicitous, you’re just going to make people angry.
• The JW has probably replaced The Omni as the best networking location in Indianapolis. The NFL buys out the entire hotel (or at least most of it), and most NFL teams hunker down there. Where scouts are, agents (and everyone else) tend to be.
• The hotel bar, Velocity, is also a popular place for scouts who want to catch a late beverage.

This week, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith called for the end of the NFL Combine. It’s probably bluster, and it’s unknown if it’s something Smith will continue to push for, but when a person in Smith’s position speaks, you have to consider what he says.

That’s why I asked a few of my friends in scouting what it would mean for there to be no combine. It’s a worthy question because, in the space of about 10 years, we’ve seen the annual Indianapolis workouts go from a mostly hidden evaluation exercise to a large media phenomenon which includes whistle-to-whistle coverage. That’s great for Internet scouts, but it’s made the job of NFL scouts a little less comfortable, at the very least.

Here are the responses we got and the points scouts made:

• Why make medical examinations less efficient?: “They still have to have some type of central medical testing take place. It wouldn’t be feasible to have the players go to 32 clubs for exams, so I don’t ever see that component going away.  I could see them eliminating the interviews and making it a medical event with on-field workouts for TV.  They aren’t going to lose that programming for NFL network.”
• A lot of talented players might go undrafted: “It would definitely affect the way things are evaluated. . . Would make it harder on the players with removing the medical aspect. . . Would create more financial and logistical challenges for NFL teams, college teams and agents as well.”
• T-30 visits would have to be expanded: “My guess would be that there would be more medical question guys brought in for top 30 (visits), or the league may allow more than 30 visits. I don’t think it would affect pro days too much. There will still be the usual coverage with scouts and coaches to hash out questions.”  
• It would ultimately mean more work for the players: “If you don’t have them all in one place, the kid will have to most likely (be evaluated medically, be interviewed, and work out) a bunch of times with all the teams individually. It’s big business, and when clubs invest big money, they want to get as much information as possible to make decisions. It won’t change the information they want from the kids, I believe, just the method and logistics of getting it.”

Is Smith really serious? Time will tell. Ultimately, though, it probably wouldn’t benefit players the way Smith thinks it would. . . or at least that’s what scouts think.

To learn more about how scouts — and others around the league — think, make sure you’re reading our weekly newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can register for it here.

Wednesday, I spoke to my friend Jane Verneuille, who’s in charge of credentials for the Senior Bowl. Jane is kind of like the “mom” of the game, beloved by people like me who’ve been coming for decades. Anyway, she told me the number of credentials awarded this year was about the same as it always is. That took me by surprise, because the talking point among people here all week has been how the numbers are down. It just doesn’t feel like the same place it was maybe five years ago, before Covid.

Maybe it’s not true. Jane would never lie. The numbers are the numbers. Still, everyone I spoke to this week said the same thing: where is everybody?

I think the main factor, as pointed out by one friend this week, is that teams don’t send coaching staffs to Mobile anymore. It’s more than just the two teams that used to staff the game; you don’t see any head coaches, coordinators or position coaches here, and at one time, you saw them all. My old joke used to be that on your first day at the Senior Bowl, you wanted to take a selfie if you saw Sean Payton or Mike Tomlin in the bathroom, but by Day 3, you just wanted to go to the bathroom. These days, coaches just aren’t here.

Here are a few more reasons Mobile felt a little more empty this week.

• The closure of the second floor commons area at the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel is the biggest post-Covid change in Senior Bowl policies. The old joke used to be if someone set off a bomb on the second floor of the team hotel on Tuesday or Wednesday, they’d have to cancel the draft. These days, however, if you aren’t directly involved with the game or the league, you can’t go up the escalator. Everyone who has been coming here since before 2019 feels the difference and laments it.
• That’s not the only barrier segregating NFL personnel from everyone else. Since the game moved from Ladd-Peebles to Hancock Whitney Stadium, scouts and executives sit on one side of the stadium and everyone else stays on the other side. The view is the same; you just don’t get a chance to exchange pleasantries with the friends you’ve made the way you used to. That’s probably a good thing. They should be allowed to do their jobs without being bothered. Still, it’s different.
• The Shrine Bowl schedule has had an undeniable impact. “Arrival day” used to be Monday; now that practices in Las Vegas overlap Senior Bowl week, no one gets here that early anymore. What’s more, because the Pro Bowl is also in Vegas, people leave earlier.
• Similarly, weigh-ins used to be Tuesday’s must-see event. These days, like all but one all-star game, the Senior Bowl doesn’t even have public weigh-ins anymore. That’s one less opportunity for everyone on the coaching and evaluation side to be in one room together.
• I think that the absence of NFL coaches here has taken away some of the “job fair” aspect of the game. Fired college and pro staffs used to descend on Mobile with resumes in hand. I think these days, the bigger names in coaching are relying on their agents to do their networking.
• The AFCA Convention has probably replaced the Senior Bowl, to some degree, as an offseason rendezvous point. It’s held much earlier in the month, but it serves the same purpose.
• The Senior Bowl used to be the third or fourth week in January, but now that the game bumps up against Signing Day, I think that has had a big impact on the number of college personnel evaluators who used to make it here.
• XFL camps are under way. That’s a lot of coaches and scouts who might otherwise be in Mobile, either looking for jobs or simply renewing acquaintances.
• One thing I heard all week is how Mobile has been “built out” much more than in the past. It’s true; there are more restaurants and hotels, and some of them are outside of the downtown area. This has had an undeniable impact on the bars and eateries that used to be packed this week. It shocked me to find out that Wintzell’s Oyster House, which used to be a Senior Bowl institution, wasn’t even open on Monday. Later in the week, there were multiple empty tables during the evening rush. The restaurant is clearly facing staffing and service problems, much as the rest of the country is, but this doesn’t explain the obvious dip in demand.
• Financial professionals, especially those trying to break into the industry, used to be ubiquitous here, but they don’t get credentialed anymore. Granted, they don’t need to if they just want to watch practices or gather downtown, but I think many of them feel intimidated without the stamp of approval that comes with holding a badge.
• The number of people covering the game, sharing their opinions and interviewing players has grown immensely. Maybe people feel they don’t need to be here as much anymore.

I think some of the void has been filled by aspiring NFL scouts from all walks of life. Some of them are from college personnel departments, but a lot of the people I’ve met have never worked for a college or pro team. Their fascination with player evaluation brings them to Mobile with hopes that they can make a connection that could be life-changing.

Mobile used to be the one place where everyone in the scouting and player representation industries gathered for one low-pressure week. That sense of community isn’t gone, but it’s certainly lessened. Not seeing people carrying around the faux-leather Senior Bowl notebooks that used to be handed out kinda makes someone like me sad. It’s nobody’s fault, I guess, but it’s a bit of a downer, and I’m not sure it will ever be the way it once was.

Last year around this time, we asked several friends in the industry about Joe Schoen, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Ryan Poles, who had just been installed as the new general managers of the Giants, Vikings and Bears, respectively. Here’s what it looked like.

It’s a new year, and there are new GMs in Nashville and Phoenix. We thought we’d ask around about them, as well. Here’s what they told us.

Monti Ossenfort, Cardinals (former Director of Player Personnel, Titans)

• “Well-organized but will need to become his own man. Bided his time and climbed the ladder. Heavily influenced by (his time in New England); will be interesting to see what new systems and ideas he will put in place. Very hard worker who is organized, but who will need to put experienced guys around him he trusts to allow him to run the entire organization from a football operations standpoint.”
• “Genuine individual, active listener and skilled leader!”
• “Monti is a well-respected person and evaluator in the personnel community. Very good work ethic. Always a hard worker when I went to schools and was on the road with him. Very good in school skills, with knowledge of coaches and contacts at each school. Excellent people skills. Very low-key, not an attention-seeker, and just goes about this job. Will be a popular GM for scouts that want to work with him because of his management skills and sterling reputation.”
• “Very high-character person that treats people the right way. Handles himself well. Doesn’t look for attention. Low ego. Very good leadership and people skills. Has come up the right way and didn’t skip any steps. Has been around consistent winners his entire career. Will take the foundation of the NE system and make it his own. I’d bet on him to succeed.”
• “Monti is A-plus all-around. The person, the scout, the leader, tremendous in all facets. Outstanding ability to collaborate and take every angle into decision-making processes.”

Ran Carthon, Titans (former Director of Player Personnel, 49ers)

• “Very sharp. Very organized. Outstanding evaluator whose voice has grown in that organization each year since his arrival. Got personality and does a great job mentoring young scouts for them. Niners have a deep bench but he will missed.”
• “Excellent communicator. Really cares about relationships.”
• “The job won’t be too big for him. He will be prepared. He knows how to treat people and will be a solid leader.”

• “Ran has a well-roundedness about him that is unmatched. It goes without saying he has the knowledge/history of the game and has put in the work – that’s clear. But his authenticity and charisma are what make him who he is. He’s true to his roots and makes you feel like someone is always in your corner. . . I’ve never seen players interact with an executive like they do with him, either. Very natural.”

For more insider takes on the game, make sure you’re reading our weekly newsletter, the Friday Wrap. You can sign up for it here.

Wednesday night, we had our fourth in-depth question-and-answer session aimed at the members of the 2022 NFL Agent Class. Our guest was Greg “Tripp” Linton of HOF Player Representatives, a return guest from last year, when we first launched our Rookie Agent Zoom series. I had to bring him back after he spit straight fire at the ITL members of last year’s class. He didn’t disappoint Wednesday night.

Here are a few highlights.

Quid pro quo: “Nothing is for free in this game,” Tripp said. To illustrate this, he described getting calls from scouts touting under-the-radar prospects (he got four calls from scouts just during the 90 minutes we were on Zoom Wednesday night). When scouts call, they aren’t doing it out of altruism. Their hope is that Tripp signs the player and he goes undrafted, in which case Tripp brings the player to the scout’s team as a UDFA. Does it happen? You bet it does. Not every time, of course, but probably more times than not. Relationships matter in this game.

Relationships with trainers are as important, or more important, than scouts: Tripp must have listed four or five times that he gets a break from his trainers — on payment schedule, on training offered, on services offered, etc. — due to his relationship with them. This doesn’t happen overnight, obviously, but it’s important to cultivate bonds with workout professionals just as you do with scouts, marketing professionals, wealth managers or anyone else.

Balance your conversation when building relationships: You can’t rush a developing relationship in the game, especially when it comes to scouts. You’ll need to engage in other stuff – family, his team’s success, birthdays/holiday greetings, whatever — rather than just pumping NFL evaluators for whatever kind of player info you can get. If you treat these as all take and no give, you won’t get anywhere.

Traits over stats: Most rookie agents won’t represent draftable players. Instead, they’ll have to hope teams see something special that warrants a signing post-draft (or, maybe, selection in the sixth or seventh round). The NFL is all about winning matchups, and more often than not, a team will try to catch lightning in a bottle late in the draft rather than making a solid-but-not-sexy pick. Teams don’t value Day 3 picks the same way they do Days 1 and 2, so often, it becomes dart-throwing time. If you have the chance to sign a player with limited snaps and awards, but off-the-charts triangle numbers, choose the latter. At least in your first year or two as an agent.

There was more, obviously. Here are some of the comments I got after Tripp’s Zoom:

• “Finding so much value from these zoom calls man. Honored to be a part of the ITL fam and I can’t wait to send your platform to every agent I speak to that follows in my footsteps.”
• “I have a healthy list of questions to ask (trainers) after last night’s session with Tripp. Damn good stuff as always.”
• “Tripp is hilarious. I was dying last night. No one keeps it realer.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. If you’re missing these sessions, wow, you’re missing so much. Two more are ahead in December: a deep dive into choosing a trainer and a look at all sides of all-star games. To join us, join ITL.

Still not ready to make the leap to paying $29.95/mo? You can still register for our weekly newsletter, which comes out later today. Do that here.

Last night was Session III of our NIL Zoom class with marketing and endorsement expert Sammy Spina of Vantage Management Group. We brought you several highlights from Sammy’s first session last week, but there’s far more where that came from. 

Last night, Sammy went into depth on contracts and agreements, both between the agent and his client and the client and a potential business seeking to engage him. Here are a few valuable points he made.

• When it comes to setting up an agreement with your first NIL client, don’t overcomplicate it. I see a lot of fear from agents on this, but it’s probably not necessary as long as you’re careful.
• It’s not a bad idea to send your agreement to the compliance department at the player’s school. It may save you trouble down the line.
• Consider not signing players to exclusive deals. It helps the client understand that your relationship is not built on a contract, but on how productive you can be for him.
• Make sure it’s clear with your client (and anyone else who reads the contract) this is an NIL agreement only, not an NFL representation agreement. Seems pretty elementary, but it might help to reaffirm the boundaries of the deal.
• Some agencies charge 30 percent on their deals, but it’s a good idea to stay between 10-20 percent commission. Fifteen percent is common.
• Most local companies in college markets don’t do a lot of endorsements and marketing, so make sure you have an agreement ready to help walk them through the process. This stuff is new; make sure you’re willing to be the guide.
• Make sure you’re putting limitations on how long an establishment can use a player’s name, image and likeness. Remember, your client’s NIL has value. Don’t give it away indefinitely.
• Make sure the company understands in advance if the school doesn’t allow the player to use the school logo/marks. You don’t want a disappointed franchise owner once the appearance takes place or the post comes out.
• Remember: Collectives may seem closely associated with a school, but they have no official relationship with a school. It’s an important distinction.
• The vast majority of athletes are entering into deals for $5,000 or less, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself or your client. Also, don’t believe everything you hear or see on the Internet.

There’s still one more night (tonight — the session kicks off at 8 p.m. ET), so if you’re interested in NIL, please join us. You can sign up here. Don’t forget, you get the videos from all four sessions as part of the price ($100 plus tax). I hope you can join us.

In the football space, player representation used to mean getting players signed to NFL deals. It’s much more than that now that we live in the name, image and likeness (NIL) era. 

We take our job of helping people in player representation do their jobs better seriously, so I asked two friends and subject matter experts, Sammy Spina of Breaking  Into Sports (and Vantage Management Group) and Peter Schoenthal of Athliance, to join agents and prospective agents in a Zoom session, which they did on Tuesday. It was incredible. Sammy and Peter didn’t disappoint, and their vast knowledge of the NIL arena was matched by their organizational skills. We got to see videos, hear stories and gather tips on how to build a book of business. For almost two hours, Sammy and Peter presented information and answered questions.

Here are just a few tips I gathered Tuesday night.

• The best way to cold introduce yourself is to bring him a deal.
• Face to face is the best contact. Call or email when necessary, but getting in front of someone is always best.
• It is in the best interest of the school for your client to take advantage of opportunities.
• Be specific in your ask. Smaller businesses will be intimidated otherwise. Take away as many variables as possible once you know a little about the business or potential sponsor.
• Every athlete, no matter the school, has the opportunity to make $1000/mo. It’s a matter of knocking on doors and using your imagination.
• Don’t be afraid to say no. Naturally, you are looking for deals, and desperate to gain traction. Still, not every deal is a good deal.
• Even if your client has a limited following on social media, there are ways to make money anyway. Camps are one way.
• Collectives with contact info lists for interested vendors are out there.
• When it comes to what a player puts on social media, don’t post it if your mom wouldn’t like it.
• NIL is not about the four years he’s in college. It’s about the next 40 years. Really.
  

If you couldn’t join us, but still feel like the information presented would be valuable, let us know. The video is available for purchase, and trust me, you’ll want to watch it once or twice and probably play back certain segments several times. If you’re an ITL client, it’s $50 plus tax. If you’re not, it’s $80 plus tax. 

We’ll discuss the week in greater detail in tomorrow’s Friday Wrap, which comes out at 7:30 p.m. Register for it here.

Next week represents almost a month-and-a-half since the 2022 NFL Agent Exam, which means results are right around the corner for the 200-plus test-takers this year. For those people seeking to rep NFL players, that’s the good news.

The bad news is that the number of new contract advisors certified this fall will be thinned by technical difficulties that precluded numerous applicants from even taking the exam, which was offered exclusively online for the second straight year. Those unlucky would-be test-takers have two options: ask for a refund of the $2,500 testing fee by the end of September or give it another go next summer. Easy come, easy go, right?

Not exactly. Zachary Karber, a Tampa, Fla.-based attorney, is a prime example of the real-life cost of this delay. Rather than trying to describe his plight, I asked him to put it in his own words what a bitter pill it was to swallow this unexpected 12-month waiting period.

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So why is it a “bitter pill” you may ask? Well, to use myself as an example:

• I have my JD/MBA degrees and nearly 10 years of experience in both the boardroom and courtroom providing legal and business services to banks, politicians, hospitals, developers, and numerous other professionals.
• I spent several hours every day memorizing the source materials during the 2-3 months leading up to the exam, and even temporarily closed my practice the three weeks prior to testing day.
• I took multiple practice exams, attended group seminar courses, retained a certified agent as my private tutor, and created flash cards. I directly expensed roughly $10,000 and indirectly waved goodbye to over $30,000 in lost income preparing for the exam.
• As a result of these sacrifices of time, energy, and money, I aced all the practice exams and was extremely confident that I’d pass the actual exam.

Unfortunately, at no fault of my own and for reasons completely outside of my control, I was never able to sit for the exam and never even answered a single question.  Three weeks after the exam fiasco, the NFLPA ultimately informed me that my only options were either a refund of my application fee (declined) or that I could sit for the exam again the following year (accepted).

The hardest part about all of this is not the money I lost; $40,000 does not even equate to the weekly salary of your average NFL player.  Instead, it’s the bitter taste I now get in my mouth every time I see or think about pro football. I know it will only go away once I actually take and pass the exam.

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If you took the exam in July, and you’ve been waiting to find out how you did, there may be good news around the corner. We discuss in the Friday Wrap, our newsletter read by thousands of people in the industry that comes out later today. Register for it here.

This morning, the NFLPA sent out an email to its 2022 test-takers lamenting the technical issues so many faced. For many — I don’t have a number, but I would estimate anywhere from 15-30 — their issues precluded them from even taking the exam. To those people, said the NFLPA, you have two options: get a full refund for the exam (and this must take place by Oct. 1) or wait until 2023 to take the exam again.

First, a few comments from those affected: 

• “I personally would have rather taken the test this year and failed trying, then not being able to take the test at all. The proctor company clearly stated it was their fault and that their server was out. I asked for a later time in the day and they wouldn’t accommodate. I think it’s on the NFLPA to chose either a better proctoring service and or have parameters in place if this were to happen again. Possibly having slots available the day after the main test for those that faced technical problems.”
• “I’m obviously very disappointed after spending quite some time studying and preparing myself for the exam to not be able to take it due to technical difficulties, but I understand it’s not the NFLPA’s fault or anyones fault for that matter. . . I’m looking forward to taking it next year!”
• “This happened last year with a few people. Maybe they need to choose another testing center or go back to in-person testing. This is very frustrating and unfair.”

• “Like in football we can only focus on the next play! At least I have a foundation for the exam next year.” 

• “Since it came nearly a month after the exam fiasco, all my built-up anger, frustration, etc. has all subsided, so I’m a lot more humble about it.  It’ll still sting a bit for the next year, but I fully accept the NFLPA’s decision. . . The silver linings: I got 11 more months to prepare for the exam & perfect my business plan, met some excellent industry folks along the way . . .  and I got more drive in me than I ever did before.  By this time next year, I plan on having a master Jedi Knight level on knowledge of all the rules & regulations.”

Here are my thoughts:

• I expected that this would be the NFLPA’s response, for a couple reasons. No. 1, writing a new exam would be a lot of work, and more than the NFLPA would like to do, I’m sure. No. 2, this wouldn’t work anyway, because the exam is scaled, and how do you scale the results of two different exams? No. 3, even if they could scale the two, this would presumably push participants to receive their results sometime in October, presuming they took Exam 2 by the end of the month and results took their normal 4-6 weeks. That’s just too late to wait to recruit.
• My guess is they knew their course of action weeks ago, but wanted to give participants plenty of time to cool off. There were plenty of test-takers the week of the exam who were figuratively ready to storm the NFLPA’s offices. You can see in the above quotes that tempers are no longer flaring.
• What’s the big deal, you might ask? So they didn’t get to take the exam this year. They have another year to study. There are two problems with that approach. No. 1, most of the people we worked with on preparations were ready for the exam. It’s hard to get as “up” for game day the second time as it was the first time, though I’m sure all our clients will. The bigger issue is that many of these prospective agents had a member of the ’23 draft class (friend, family member, etc.) they were planning on representing. Now that will be impossible, through no fault of their own.
• Naturally, we will walk with those people who didn’t get a chance to be tested this year, hoping to make this year count anyway. For those who are members, we will include them in our Zooms and instruction for their respective rookie years so they can hit the ground running next year. There’s also name, image and likeness work that requires no certification. We’ve got a very special event on the calendar that will allow them to sharpen their skills and maybe even make some money between now and next summer.