This week, we’ve been talking to New York City-based Eugene T. Lee of MBK Sports, a veteran NFLPA contract advisor who’s been in the league since 1997. Eugene recently wrote a book about his experiences in the business, My Brother’s Keeper: Above and Beyond “The Dotted Line” with the NFL’s Most Ethical Agent. Today we’ve got the second half of our interview with Eugene. For the first half, click here, and for a war story from my history with Eugene, click here.

What was Brian Warner, AKA Marilyn Manson, like in high school?

“He was older than me. When he was a senior I was in eight grade, but one of my best friends from high school, his older brother was friends with him, and he said (Warner) would wear the polo shirts with the collars turned up and the denim jacket. He was kind of a preppy burnout.” (laughs)

Many agents, like you, recruit their alma mater heavily. Why do you choose to do that?

“There’s a connection. A lot of times (while recruiting from other schools), it’s buyer beware, but when you have a connection with the school, you know the kind of player that will get in, the program philosophy and the type of young man that goes to Notre Dame, and that graduates. Ninety-nine percent of the time that’s the kind of man we like to represent, in terms of the values we carry.”

How has your appearance on the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary The Dotted Line affected recruiting?

“I thought going into it it would help a lot more than it has. At the end of the day, if you have this huge client list of retired guys, it doesn’t really help you. You have to stand on your own two feet. It piques (potential clients’) interest but you gotta come with something behind it. Maybe going in I thought it would have much more of a compelling effect, but at the end of the day you really have to recruit a player based on what you can offer him, as far as services and experience, and I would have it no other way. If they signed with me just (because I was on The Dotted Line), I’d have questions about him.”

The book title claims that you are the game’s “Most Ethical Agent.” Interesting title. How did you decide on it?

“Well, I came up with the name, “My Brother’s Keeper,” and I loved that reference. It’s a biblical reference, and speaks about my faith, and being a Christian, and the mentality that I have when I represent a young man. “Above and Beyond The Dotted Line” and “By the NFL’s Most Ethical Agent” came form my publisher. They said, ‘it has to be superlative,’ and I said, ‘I know I’m ethical, but I don’t want to brag,’ and they said, ‘just go with it.’” (chuckles)

You’re aggressive about getting film into the hands of scouts, whereas most agents see it as unnecessary in the modern cyber age. Do scouts really take your DVDs and watch them? How do you know?

“We haven’t done DVDs in a few years. We’ve gone digital. The NFL’s Dub Center (the league’s film bank) has the games, but the reason we do that is to make sure they watch the best film on our guys. . . If you have a small-school player, like a Brian Witherspoon, teams might not have all his games in the Dub Center, so it’s valuable especially for smaller-school players. Now we send out MP4 files and links via email.”

On Wednesday, I introduced New York City-based contract advisor Eugene Lee of MKT Sports, a long-time friend and ITL client. Eugene, who was featured in a 30 for 30 documentary called The Dotted Line, also recently wrote a book about his experiences, and it’s very good.

I asked him a few questions about the book, and his responses are below.

Many agents’ friendships with college athletes prompt them to go into the agent world. You discuss your relationship with Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis while you both attended Notre Dame. Did this spur your desire to be an agent?

“It really wasn’t Jerome. At the time, he was just a friend. I didn’t get to thinking about being an agent until I was in law school, and got to be friends with football players later while playing pickup basketball with them, and I knew I could really help them. Back then, the industry had a real black eye, and agents were doing whatever it took to sign players. The relationships I developed on the basketball court at Notre Dame were pretty much what prompted me to get into this field, and my desire to stay around the game and compete and make a difference. As I’ve gotten older and there’s a bigger age gap, I feel that responsiblilty a lot more, and as far as being a mentor and a Christian, it’s equivalent to shining light where there’s darkness.”

In the book, you tell the story of your recruitment of Notre Dame’s Deveron Harper, and how when you finally met, it became apparent he had no idea you were Asian. Do you think he would have come to New York City if he’d known you weren’t black?

“Absolutely. Deveron was one of my first and favorite clients, and we had built up such a rapport over the phone over the first couple months that he just expected a black guy. He laughed when I wasn’t, but he’s as colorblind as I am. Absolutely (he would have come). It was just more of a funny time when it came as a complete surprise.”

In the book, you tell the story of one recruiting trip almost foiled because you found yourself covered in Wendy’s chili. How did your love for it develop?

(Chuckles) “I will say that I hadn’t had Wendy’s chili for 20 years (before that story took place), but I can tell you exactly where the love developed. I was at a Panthers game in Dec. 2009, and we had a couple Panthers as clients, and I’ve always prided myself on eating healthy and clean. We were at the game, and there were not many healthy options at the concession stands at the stadiums, but at Ericsson Stadium, they did have Wendy’s chili. So my associate, Dennis, said, ‘hey, get some chili, it’s the healthiest thing available,’ so I said, let me give it a shot. I had some, and it was great, so it became my staple on the road when I wanted to eat healthy. That was the case until about a year ago when my brother-in-law told me, ‘yeah, there’s this article about what they actually put into Wendy’s chili,’ and after that, I’ll never eat Wendy’s chili again (chuckles). So my love of Wendy’s chili has gone by the wayside.”

How do you determine which trips to take your wife on? Do you do this because you spend so little time with her during recruiting?

“Absolutely. I’m on the road quite a bit, and (my) wife really has to make sacrifices, and I’m very appreciative of that. She is the big determinant of what trips she takes. Warm city, fun city, she’s coming. A couple years ago, we went to Memphis. That was an easy sell. Great music, great food, and we went to Graceland. Or if we’re visiting friends in a city, she’ll go, but usually if there’s warm weather, it’s a fun city, there’s good culture, or a there’s a connection with people in the city, she’ll come on the trip.”

More from Eugene on Friday.

This week, we’ll be talking to New York City-based Eugene Lee of MBK Sports Management Group. Eugene was certified in the early ’00s and has been an Inside the League client almost since its inception in ’02. He’s also been a great friend all those years.

He’s a man of great integrity, great faith and hard work, and it’s been exciting to watch his rise in the business. In fact, a lot of people got a chance to watch part of that rise as he was the focus of documentarian Morgan Scurlock’s ESPN 30 for 30 presentation, The Dotted Line, in 2011.

Eugene recently wrote a book about his experiences as an agent, My Brother’s Keeper: Above and Beyond The Dotted Line with the NFL’s Most Ethical Agent (more on that title later). It’s really good, and gives readers a real inside look at what the business is like for an independent agent without a million-dollar expense account. Eugene has to carefully pick his potential clients, trying to find high-character young men who can also play a little, while trying to keep costs in line. Meanwhile, he’s also got an off-the-field life which includes his wife, who’s an actress and singer. It’s a true high-wire act, and his book includes dozens of stories of his successes but also, to his credit, tales which make him the butt of the joke. Like Eugene, it’s very authentic and real, and it’s a fun read that I highly recommend, especially if you are considering life as an NFLPA contract advisor. You can check it out on Amazon here.

I’ve interviewed him about the book, and I’ll have that interview in this space over the next two days, but first, a story that, I think, shows a little about Eugene’s dedication to his clients (and that didn’t make the book).

It was January of 2008, and about 48 hours before players arrived for the ’08 Hula Bowl. At the time, the Hula Bowl was the No. 3 all-star game (after the Senior Bowl and Shrine Game), and an invitation was pretty highly valued. After all, the game offered not only a platform for getting evaluated by NFL scouts, but it was played in Honolulu, not a bad place to spend a week in January.

Like dozens of other agents I knew, Eugene had been reaching out to me regarding a player he represented. It was Stillman cornerback Brian Witherspoon, a player scouts told me had incredible straight-line speed (Witherspoon actually made a run at an Olympic berth as a sprinter after his NFL career ended) but who had a small-school pedigree and who was still a little raw as a pure cover corner. Eugene knew ‘Spoon’ needed that game, and an invitation to the Senior Bowl and Shrine Game were a long shot.

Unfortunately, I was all out of spots for defensive backs. What’s more, I had spent my entire travel budget when I got a call, less than 48 hours before he was scheduled to arrive, that Washburn cornerback Cary Williams (now with the Redskins) had sprained his ankle during combine prep and couldn’t make the game.

As I hung up the phone, I didn’t know what to do. Well, I knew what I wanted to do, which was to call Eugene (for some reason I’ve always called him by his initials, E.T.), but I didn’t know how to do that. Eugene had been begging and pleading with me for weeks to get Witherspoon into the game, but I simply had no room. Now I did, but I had no budget to get him there. Would Eugene pick up that flight? I could only imagine what it would cost.

Now, I know dozens of agents who would have told me to get lost. Yes, getting a kid into an all-star game is a big deal, but asking an agent to pay for his travel back then was pretty much a slap in the face. Never mind that we were talking about a ticket that would cost at least a grand, and probably more. But hey, I needed a cornerback badly, and maybe, just maybe, Eugene would send him.

I remember calling him from the offices we had set up at the Marriott Ihilani in Ko Olina, the team hotel. I think I called him in the afternoon, Island time, which was probably late-evening in NYC. I didn’t really know how to make the conversation ‘pretty,’ so I just came out with it: if Eugene could get Witherspoon to Honolulu in a day-and-a-half, he could be in our game. Of course, that would mean that (a) Eugene would have to arrange for Witherspoon to get there, (b) he’d have to find Witherspoon’s pads and get them there, and (c) Eugene would no doubt want to join us at the game so he could talk up the kid’s prospects with the NFL scouts in attendance.

As I recall, Eugene took the call well, but asked to think about it. Even then, I couldn’t give him a break — I had to know ASAP if I had a corner or not, and I didn’t know where I’d find one. Soon, however, he called and confirmed that he’d find a way to get Spoon on a plane.

We never talked about how much that flight cost, or how he came up with a helmet and shoulder pads, or any other of the particulars. But it impressed me then, and impresses me now, that Eugene was willing to take all that on to get his client to the game. As it happened, Brian had a great week, which didn’t get him drafted, but did get him signed as an undrafted free agent, and he beat the odds by sticking in the league for four years. There’s no doubt in my mind that doesn’t happen if Eugene doesn’t get him to Hawaii on a few hours’ notice.

Check in tomorrow as we talk to Eugene about his book and his career to date.