A Chance to Get Better

10 Friday Apr 2015

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I think I’ve mentioned in this space that one of the companies I work with is called Champions Search Firm. We help fill vacancies on athletic staffs. Historically, we’ve worked with schools in Texas only — one college and about 40 high schools since the mid-00s, from head coach to Director of Athletics — though we’re starting to get international inquiries now as well as looks from schools in other states that take their football seriously.

However, in a couple weeks, I’m going to flip the script a bit. On Sunday, April 26, we’re going to host our first-ever Champions Search Firm Young Coaches Seminar in my hometown of Katy, TX. That afternoon — we’ve set it up so coaches can drive in that morning, then drive home that evening without a hotel stay — we’re going to speak to coaches about how to move up in their careers. If they’re junior high coaches, we want to teach them how to get high school jobs. If they’re high school assistants, we’re looking to help them get head coaching jobs. If they’re small-school head coaches, we want to give them tips on getting the top job at bigger schools. If they’re not in Texas, we want to show them how to get to the Great State. You get the picture.

It’s gonna be pricey: $100 for an afternoon of instruction, and my early entreaties to the people in our database have given me a little pushback on the price. This puzzles me. I don’t know of anywhere else you can find people who will teach a young coach how to craft his resume; what to say (and not say) in an interview; how to build a program; and how to sell one’s self in a business that traditionally attracts people who aren’t self-promoters.

What’s more, we’re bringing experts. I’ll be providing an overview of the process, from interviews to references to assorted other topics (not that I’m an ‘expert’). Jason Montanez, author of ‘Lead, Sell, Care,‘ will talk about how to sell yourself to schools in your email queries, your personal manner and your interview. Jason is a high-energy guy with an infectious smile, and he lights up the room when he talks while, at the same time, coming across in an authoritative, no-bull way. Our keynote speaker will be Bob Ledbetter, whom I call the ‘Tom Landry of Texas High School football’ (I need to trademark that some day). Bob has not only won three state championships at the highest level (Southlake Carroll, which was Class 5A back then, Class 6A now), but he hired a coach, Todd Dodge, who won several more at the same school. He’s forgotten more about how to win as a high school coach than almost anyone knows, and what’s more, he’s got a great dry-wit sense of humor. He’ll talk about how to build a program, and how to build a plan that will excite any potential employer.

If you are a high school coach in Texas (or anywhere within driving distance), we’d love to have you there. I’ll have more details in this space as we get closer to it. Have a great weekend.

A Different Standard

09 Thursday Apr 2015

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The NFL sends out a daily briefing to all teams every weekday, and it lists the transactions and minutiae that make up the day-to-day operations of the league. A lot of it is stuff you can read on your favorite website, but some of it is solely for the consumption of team officials.

One of the latter daily listings is for pro days for individual players. In many cases, these are obscure players from small schools. Usually, they are represented by contract advisors who are very new to the profession, and that have limited connections in the business and perhaps a limited understanding of just what most NFL teams are doing this month. There’s probably a good bit of desperation on the part of these players and their agents as they wonder if scouts will actually show up at these workouts. Most often, I don’t think teams send representatives. After all, it’s quite late to be gathering 40 times and rep totals.

At any rate, when I see these individual workouts for players, I wonder why they’re necessary. Why did this player not go to a bigger school’s pro day, or register for an NFL Regional Combine? If the player is from a bigger school, was he truly not healthy when his teammates worked out, or did he his 40 time would not be impressive time and he wanted to put off the inevitable?

I was at a pro day for an FCS school last month, and as I talked with an established agent I’ve known for a long time, we talked about his client, who was working out that day. Though his client was really the only player teams wanted to evaluate, the young man kept coming over to his agent and pointing out things that didn’t make this the perfect day. He was asked to run against a light wind twice. The conditions were a little damp. He was shortchanged on his times. He didn’t get the start he needed because his shoes were worn in the wrong places. There were dozens of similar excuses, and he wasn’t the only player that had these issues.

My friend was a little dismissive whenever his client would return with another complaint. Later, the agent explained that he was trying to get the BS out of the young man. He was trying to squeeze him a bit, to pressure him, to get him to ‘man up’ and realize that if he was truly an NFL player, he’d have to perform even when he didn’t get the benefit of every doubt. He didn’t have nearly as much margin for error as he thought he had.

Later, as I discussed a different player with one of the team’s coaches, he said that when the team faced smaller schools from out-of-the-way programs, this young man always showed up energized and looking to make a big splash, and often, he did just that. However, when the school played ‘up’ against impressive FBS schools, the young man had excuses for why he couldn’t perform that week: migraines, hamstring issues, whatever.

I know there’s a fine line to walk between being your best physically or just gutting through a difficult workout while you’re in pain or facing some strain or pull that taxes you. Sometimes, players penalize themselves when they ‘suck it up’ and hope that evaluators give them credit for playing through an injury. The point is, the truly elite players always find a way to excel, and the ones that are on the bubble find themselves on the outside looking in not because of circumstances, but because they needed every break to go their way just to make it into consideration for the league.

Let me give this disclaimer, as I often do in this space: I’m not here to rain on anyone’s parade. At the same time, if you’re a young NFL hopeful or a person who represents one, recognize that only the truly special talents make it onto the big stage. The NFL is for the great player, or at least the young man with the physical tools to be great. If you (or your client) aren’t one of those people, that doesn’t mean you’re not a very good athlete. It only means you’re part of the 99.9 percent that doesn’t quite measure up to the extraordinary standard that all NFL players meet.

WSW: Travel trials

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Today, I was talking to an agent who’s had struggles satisfying a high-maintenance client during travels among teams. It reminded me of my own experience working with a high-maintenance client several years ago.

I had a friend in realty who was working with a Texans player living in Atlanta. She had set everything up so the player could come into town, hit several locations over two days, then fly back with minimal hassle. Of course, things rarely go as planned when you’re working with athletes used to having all their travel taken care of for them by their college and NFL teams.

My friend had worked hard to verify that they’d fly in early and we’d pick the young man up from the airport, then whisk him to several houses over two days, and put him back on a plane the following evening. Things got interesting when we got word from his financial planner who was with us in Houston that the player had missed his flight. That wasn’t entirely surprising. However, it was surprising when we showed up to pick him up and, though he insisted that he was in the pickup area, he was nowhere to be found. Oh, by the way, he wasn’t alone; turns out that, at his insistence, his financial planner had bought his ‘advisor,’ a street runner, a ticket as well.

So his realtor and I were at the airport planning to pick up one player, but it turns out, we were at the wrong airport (there are two in Houston) and needing to make room for two. OK. We’d roll with the punches. But it would take about 45 minutes to get to the other airport, which would mean the first half of the day was wiped out and the various house visits she’d planned would have to be completely altered.

The next 24 hours were like a comedy act. The next day, the realtor and I arrived to find his party had grown to a full processional, and his posse traveled in a convoy of vehicles behind us as we visited house after house. My friend and I went from realtor and host to caterer, entertainer, travel concierge and a handful of other duties associated with keeping several people happy.

It’s just a reminder that things rarely run exactly as planned, especially when you’re trying to keep a young man who’s rarely had to face the basic accountability that ‘regular people’ live with day to day. It’s something to prepare for as you consider a career in football.

A Viewer’s Guide to Draft Coverage

06 Monday Apr 2015

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Now that we’re less than 30 days from the draft, you may be doing plenty of Googling your favorite team’s draft needs and trying to read everything you can on who they may be drafting. Here are a few things to remember.

  • It’s all based on clicks: One of my good friends runs a football site, and even though it’s relatively new, he’s gotten pretty good traction and is making money with it. How? He’s learned that people will click on any link if it includes their favorite player. So, for instance, he publishes something on Andrew Luck — and I mean anything — and then spends all his time placing it on message boards, Bleacher Report comment sections, any anything fan-based that will get him clicks. Here’s what’s interesting: he has his interns write his stories, and really doesn’t care about the content. He knows no one is editing it and that, in the long run, he doesn’t even care if it’s quality work. He just wants to get people to hit his link. That’s where the money is. So keep that in mind when your team is the Patriots and some website says they’re looking Mariota or Winston.
  • Not even NFL teams know how the draft is going to go: I remember a couple years ago a scout telling me his team was having its personnel staff rank undrafted free agents. They were ranking players they didn’t think were worth drafting. That’s ludicrous. Every year, several players a team rated as draftable fall through the cracks. In fact, probably at least half of players that go undrafted held draftable grades by at least half the teams. That’s why guys that are rated as undrafted free agents are the ones that will be lucky to actually be undrafted free agents. Those guys are the ones that held a fifth- to seventh-round grade.
  • Trading down is way easier said than done: It seems so elementary that a team that has a high pick can trade down and get a bunch of lower picks, and it’s all even Steven. In fact, this whole chart is predicated on this idea, but it rarely works out that way. There are salary considerations, plus the ‘sum’ of an impact player in the first round is rarely worth the ‘parts’ — the later-round picks obtained in return — received in return. So when you start seeing those rumors about massive trades up and down, take them with several grains of salt.

Frustration and Foolishness

02 Thursday Apr 2015

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Right now, I’m working on expanding my message to new markets, and it’s funny to see how people whose agenda should be education try to marginalize it.

Here’s an illustration. In the space of two days, I’ve gotten emails from two people (one an agent, one a parent) describing how schools segregated contract advisors from the rest of the attendees at pro day. Virginia Tech and Coastal Carolina went to extraordinary lengths to keep agents from being able to watch and follow their clients, even though these clients no longer had any college eligibility!

To me, a college is talking out of both sides of its mouth when it commits to educating its players  and getting them to the next level, but limits the players’ representatives’ access to these auditions for NFL teams. Shouldn’t agents be the ones with unlimited access, while the parents and friends are restricted? This is upside-down, but I guess, then again, it’s not.

I mean, really, it’s punitive. It’s a school sending a message to contract advisors, I think. The message: you are radioactive and we will jump through every hoop to make sure you are kept at a distance. That’s childish, because it doesn’t affect a team’s big stars. It affects the players on the fringe, the ones that are scratching and clawing for any chance to make it.

Take a look at how many players have risen to NFL stardom after entering the league as undrafted free agents. They are numerous. Maybe they’d be even more numerous if schools took the attitude that we’re going to move heaven and earth to assist your agent, financial advisor, or other representative in his efforts to get you into the league. After all, the school’s going to take full credit during the recruiting process if they do make it.

Forgive the rant, but this is persistent and stupid. This time of year, I hear these stories all the time, and I wish there was something I could do about it. Maybe, slowly, someday I can.

WSW: April Fools

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Sorry.

Obviously, I’m not going anywhere. I’m the same guy I was. Still running ITL and journaling regularly in this space for people interested in succeeding in the biz.

I hope you’ll accept a funny War Story, since it’s Wednesday, for your trouble.

In the 90s, before the Internet, ATM cards and Pay Pal, money was a lot different. When coaches were going out to recruit, schools handed them a wad of traveler’s cheques — I’m not even sure if these things still exist — and sent them on their way. Today’s WSW is about one coach I know. He even went on to be an FBS head coach and had great success. Maybe today’s story explains how things had a way of working out for him.

This coach was not especially disciplined. In fact, during his time as an assistant coach in the early 90s, his team had been reluctant to send him on the road, fearful he might get himself into trouble. Eventually, the team relented, sending him to South Florida, around Miami. What could happen, right?

Plenty happened. In his first days in South Florida, he discovered Jai Alai, a kind of ‘team racquetball’ contest that was exceptionally popular in the area in the late 80s/early 90s, especially with gamblers. Back then, pari-mutuel wagering and Jai Alai went together like Miami and vice. In the space of a day or two, two things happened. One, the coach got a crash course in Jai Alai. Two, he became dead broke.

That left him with few options. There were no cell phones, and what would he say if he called the school anyway? For the coach, a burly sort, there was one thing to do: find the bars on the Hispanic side of town, where he had an idea.

He’d wait for things to get busy, then challenge a fellow bar patron to arm wrestle. Arm wrestling was this coach’s game, and this became his hustle. For several nights, he spent the evenings arm wrestling for $10 a match, then sleeping in his car.

At this point, fortune smiled on him. Details are scarce, but either he was able to locate a former coach in South Florida, or he bumped into him a friend one night at the bar. Either way, he found a sympathetic ear, and his friend allowed him to sleep on his floor. Now the coach had access to a phone and non-vehicular lodging.

From there, with a small loan from his friend and his earnings toppling arm wrestling enthusiasts, the coach went on a whirlwind recruiting trip, hitting all his stops and making all his contacts before returning to the school. It all worked out, though odds were against it almost from the start.

I like to provide a moral to my anecdotes, or at least make a point. I’m not sure there’s a point today. Maybe today’s lesson is that even when things work out, you’ll need a few breaks.  Good thing my friend, this coach, got plenty during his recruiting trip to Florida.

Your Life’s Work

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Yesterday I was meeting with a gentleman in the financial industry. He’s super-wealthy and has been able to accomplish more than probably anyone I know when it comes to creating financial resources. I think that’s great and I have tremendous respect for that.

Given the choice, who wouldn’t want to be wealthy? And who knows? Maybe I’ll be wealthy one day, too. It would be a wonderful way to make a positive impact on the people I love and a whole lot more people, too.

On the other hand, great wealth is not a priority for me. Maybe it’s because of my middle-class upbringing. Maybe it’s because I care far more about changing people’s lifestyles and attitudes. I guess I’ve always felt that money would take care of itself if I succeeded.

I don’t travel in the corridors of power that lead to true wealth. To do that, I would have had to map a very different path for my life. Maybe you did that at a young age, but my guess is that if you are reading this blog, simply making big money as quickly as possible is not your primary goal. Anyway, I hope that’s the case.

Here’s the thing. If you get into this business, whether on the scouting side or the agent side (the two paths I write most about), you’re going to have to be satisfied with the things I really value, the things that attracted me to the business. No. 1, it’s the game. Football is special to me. It offers the violence, aggression, passion, athleticism and other qualities that I want in my life. No. 2, and it’s a pretty close second, is camaraderie. The shared sacrifice, the blood and sweat of the game, is just something people in the business understand. There’s a shared respect.

What’s more, I’ve never seen the gaps in racial harmony in sports that I’ve seen in the rest of my life. If I roll through the names in my phone, it’s probably close to 50-50 black to white. I can’t speak for others, obviously, but I can’t think of one time my black friends (agents, coaches, scouts, players) treated me differently, talked to me differently, or otherwise treated me with kid gloves because we were different races. Can you find that in other businesses? Maybe, but I think sports comes as close to crossing that chasm as any other business does. It’s just a brotherhood.

No. 3 would have to be the direct impact you can have on lives. So many young men and their families have expressed deep appreciation for what I would consider little things I’ve provided — tips, advice, counsel, introductions, whatever. I’m fortunate enough to be able to make a living doing this, but it’s awfully rewarding to be able to help others in a substantial way.

So this is my point: if you’re going to go the distance in this business, great wealth may not come your way. Getting rich quick doesn’t usually happen in this business. Be ready to accept this, and value the good things that do come with it. At the same time, don’t apologize if you don’t value what the world may greatly value.

The End

30 Monday Mar 2015

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I get a lot of players and their parents who reach out to me this time of year. Many of them are seeking an agent who can help sell them to NFL teams. I tell them this week is a sort of ‘line of demarcation’ for NFL evaluation.

At this point, a draft-eligible player’s college career, all-star play and combine are long in the books. He may be working out for teams at his pro day this week, but most are done. That means there are no more opportunities to spark interest for scouts and NFL teams unless players are invited to do so. Now, some NFL teams hold their own local workouts for players who competed in high school or college in a team’s metro area, but the number of invitees is usually limited to 20-30 players, maximum.

This is why, even though I know they don’t want to hear this, I tell most players I speak to at the end of March that if they are NFL prospects, they will know it by now. They are getting calls from scouts, scheduling private workouts, getting invited in for visits, or at least getting some form of correspondence from people in personnel. If they are not, it may be time to move on.

If a player is willing to accept this and still wants to pursue his dreams, he probably needs to do something to spark new interest in his playing ability. Usually, this has to take place on the field. He has two main options. One is the Arena Football League, which started play this weekend. Arena teams are always looking for local players they can plug in when injuries strike, but they pretty much have to be local. AFL teams don’t have the budget to be able to bring in people from across the country for workouts.

The other outlet is the CFL. I generally discourage players from going to these cattle call-style open tryouts, especially before a player’s pro day, but if he has run the winter gauntlet with NFL teams and still not won anyone over, it may be time to see if there’s interest up north. Most of these workouts charge $100 (usually cash only), and there will be plenty of them all over the country in April. Most agents take a pretty dim view of these workouts because the chances of success are pretty minimal, and I’d agree with them. However, if a player makes it to the end of March without much interest from NFL teams, odds are long anyway.

Look, anything can happen, and the last thing I’d want to do is rain on a young man’s parade. At the same time, I think it’s important to be straight with people. As I always say, the NFL is not for the good, but the great, player. It’s rare for players to make it to college athletics, much less professional sports. Every young man doesn’t fit that profile, and there’s no shame in that. All you can do is give it your best shot.

Pro Day Thoughts

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Two or three times every March, I try to get out and hit pro days that are not too far from me in South Houston. Monday was one of those days; I attended the workout held by Packers scout Alonzo Highsmith at Lamar University in Beaumont, about two-and-a-half hours from me.

Here are a few things I found interesting.

  • Highsmith came to Beaumont to work out a handful of players, probably 10-12, who are far from blue-chip prospects. At best, two of them will be in camps, and it would be a real long shot if either get drafted. Still, Highsmith was there, doing his due diligence. That’s a real credit to him. He’s a true old-school scout who does his job the old-fashioned way, watching film and relying on his network to find undiscovered gems. He’s pretty much the antithesis of the modern view of scouting, which is moving way more to ‘analytics’ and a view of evaluation that is more related to measurables and less to what happens during a game.
  • This catch has made an indelible mark on players across the country, and maybe not in a good way. It’s become so bad that I saw multiple receivers yesterday catching the ball one-handed in warmups, as if this is supposed to impress Highsmith. One kid, a transfer from a bigger school who has had multiple off-field issues and didn’t even finish the season with Lamar, caught every pass thrown his way (warmup throws, drills, tosses from the ball-boy) one-handed, as if he thinks this will translate to the NFL. Want to impress a scout? Run good routes, put up good numbers, listen to your coaches, make plays, train hard and catch everything thrown your way with two hands.
  • Even though Lamar is a smallish school without a whole lot of tradition, yesterday was the school’s second of three pro days. The first was on March 10, which was run by scouts from the Texans and Chiefs. On Saturday, a Rams scout will have a workout for a handful of invited Cardinals. This is why, when it comes to college football and pursuing a chance in the NFL, geography counts. An FCS school that’s only been playing football for five years may not even have a pro day if it’s located in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest or even parts of the Northeast, but the Cardinals seniors almost have to prove they can’t play after getting three separate audiences with NFL scouts. Texas and the Southeast are different, special, when it comes to football.
  • There are some parents that overdo it a little. I know they are well-intentioned, but that doesn’t help a young man’s prospects. I’ll leave it at that.
  • On the way back, I stopped at a restaurant. I was wearing my ITL gear and a waiter (probably about 5-8 and wiry, around 150 pounds) noticed the logo. We had this conversation:

Waiter: “What’s that (gesturing at my shirt)? What do you do?”

Me: “I have a football consulting service. I work with agents, financial planners, combine trainers, some scouts, some coaches, some parents, lots of people who are in college and pro football.”

Waiter (eyes lighting up): “Oh really? I need to get an agent. I was supposed to play in college but I had an incident in high school.”

Me: “Where did you wind up playing in college?”

Waiter: “I didn’t. I was supposed to but I didn’t.”

Me: “Have you played since then?”

Waiter: “No.”

I recommended he attend an open tryout for a CFL or Arena League team. Which is to say, I probably didn’t practice what I preach, which is to tell young men like that to move on with life. I guess my strategy was for him to attend a workout, find out how long his odds are, and hope that he comes to his own realization.

Commodities

19 Thursday Mar 2015

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You may be reading this from a tablet, laptop or phone while sitting in a sports management class. You might even be a sports management major. Ever wonder what kind of company you’re in?

Based on this link, there are 471 schools in America that offer either an undergrad or masters program in sports management. Let’s say that, conservatively, each program dumps 20 graduates with either a four-year degree or master’s degree in this discipline every year. That’s just under 10,000 men and women vying for a place in the world of sports business.

Now, if you’re trying to get a degree in sports management, I applaud you. Based on my research, more and more young NFL scouts have just such a degree (some a master’s, even). It’s not as common a degree for young agents, most of whom were pre-law in college, but I’m sure the number is growing. What’s more, I’m fully aware that not all young folks in these programs have the passion for football that I — and maybe you — have.

Still, I think it’s fair to presume that many, maybe most, are at least open to a career in football. Let’s say half. That means whatever year you graduate, you have to be better than about 5,000 people every year just to get an internship or entry-level job with an NFL team.

That means, in the business world, you’re a commodity. Generally speaking, unless your last name is Rooney or Kraft or you’re Jerry Jones’ nephew, you’re not a Ferrari but more of a Ford Taurus. Your job is to make yourself unique.

Hey, that’s not impossible. This blog is about going for it and trying to beat the odds, and I’m hopeful that our daily read gives you an edge in that endeavor. But you’re gonna need to help yourself along by volunteering with a team, networking until you find that key mentor, or doing something that separates you from the pack. Here’s an interesting thought.

As I think I’ve mentioned in this space, I attended a conference on ‘EntreLeadership’ hosted by Dave Ramsey earlier this month. He said you don’t have to ‘kill’ the competition, or ridicule them, or even hate them to beat them. I’m paraphrasing, but he said you’re going to be smarter than about a third of your competitors, and you’re going to be able to outwork another 50 percent of them, so that leaves only about 20 percent of the competition that you really have to worry about. That really reduces the numbers. It doesn’t guarantee you anything, but your odds just got a lot better if you make that realization.

If you’re getting a sports management degree, good for you. I wish I’d had that chance when I was in college. But realize that attending the right classes and hearing the right lectures is a long way from guaranteeing you’re going to get where you want to go.