There’s a member of a recent agent class that loves to tweet 20-30 times per day, sometimes more. He does this despite the fact he’s got fewer than 500 followers. In fact, my former intern and I coined a term for having more followers than tweets — it’s a ratio named after this agent.

The funniest part is that probably half of his tweets are about how he’s ‘grinding.’ He usually throws in a hashtag to really drive that point home. In fact, whenever my associate and I see him at an all-star game or the combine, it’s a contest to see which one of us can say “grinding.” first.

I dropped by the NFLPA website today and found, to my surprise, that the members of the 2015 contract advisor class have already been added, maybe a week or so earlier than normal. To those new agents, I wanted to say, “Welcome to the grind.”

I’ve spoken to dozens of agents who passed the exam, and they are all brimming with excitement. The intrigue and the excitement of the business are before them, and they want to dig in, but often, they don’t quite know where to start. In these cases, I’m only too happy to help get them on the road to success with a few simple steps.

On the other hand, I also contrast the excitement of a new start in the game with the response I often get from those same agents a year later, when they’ve gotten a taste of the business. They’re a lot more realistic about their expectations, and they are a lot more aware of the costs (financial and otherwise) associated with the business. They also better understand the competition before them and the forces pushing back, from the NFLPA (often) to the schools that presume they have bad intentions.

But now’s not a time for that. Instead, I’m excited that there are more than a hundred new faces in the game, eager to make their mark and help guide young men along the road to realizing a dream. I might add that I’m here to help everyone who’s newly certified. At Inside the League, we’ve been fortunate to be a helping hand to those who are themselves looking to live a dream, and we’re happy to walk with you.

This is a day for celebration. Congratulations on your arrival! Now it’s time to get down to business.

I hope you’ve been enjoying the eight episodes so far of ‘The Agent,’ the first show to truly take viewers behind the scenes of the world of player representation. Tonight’s show (10E/9C on the Esquire Network) wraps the series. Here are three things I found interesting about the show.

• I guess the idea of a draft party is just something too tempting to resist to families of players that are draft-eligible. I understand; potentially being selected in the draft represents the culmination of a lifelong dream not just for the young men involved, but for their extended families as well. But what happens if you’re not one of the 250-odd players drafted? Or, as happens frequently in tonight’s episode, you’re drafted much lower than you expected to? It’s agony seeing your dreams die (or dim), but when it’s on camera, or when you’re accompanied by everyone you know, it’s infinitely worse. Tonight, you get to see families experience the crushing despair of lost hope when young men go undrafted. There’s somewhat of a happy ending when teams all post-draft, recruiting them for UDFA deals, but it’s a pretty hollow victory. But to all players hoping to be drafted next spring: if you weren’t invited to watch the draft in Chicago by the NFL itself, consider planning a very subdued draft-day get-together.
• When I watch movies based on true stories, I like it when, right before the credits roll, they show what happened next to the main characters, how their lives played out. To the credit of the show’s producers, this takes place for all the players signed by the four agents profiled in the show. I’ll warn you — it’s not all happy endings. This is inevitable, but the striking thing to me is how much recruiting, hand-holding, flattery, protecting, and, yes, coddling, goes into signing a player who winds up as an undrafted free agent or late-rounder. The price of signing a player who’s even on an NFL radar screen is to treat him as if he’s a certain Hall of Fame talent. That’s sad but true. Every year I get a few new agents who claim they’re going to get tough with their players and provide no kid-gloves treatment. It’s very hard to do that when these players have been given special treatment all their lives.
• On a related note, Peter Schaffer of Authentic Athletix spent a big part of this series pumping up Washington State QB Connor Halliday, encouraging him and patiently walking through the process with a young man whose draft chances were limited. Tonight, Peter is repaid for all his good will and financial investments by being hung up on when Halliday goes undrafted. Most players not only have a limited memory of the good things agents do for them, but are quick to blame an agent when things go poorly. This is another reality of the game.

I hope you’ll check out our live-tweet tonight. Lots of good insights as we wrap a fun nine weeks. See you tonight.

Episode 8 of ‘The Agent’ is tonight (10E/9C). The show covers the first three rounds of this year’s draft, and have plenty of intrigue and behind-the-scenes pageantry and byplay.

Here are three things I thought worth noting.

• The players spotlighted tonight all have major family parties complete with guests, food, and people crowded around a TV set. This is very common, very tempting, and in my mind, a big mistake. The draft is an incredibly vexing and unpredictable event. You’ll notice that the agents don’t attend any of these events, and there’s an obvious reason why: they don’t want to be the focus of everyone’s ire if (when?) things go wrong. If you’re like me, you’re going to be especially sympathetic with Kentucky DT Za’Darius Smith, who winds up getting pursued by an irritable broadcaster that absolutely insists his selection is imminent . . . until the picks pass by and it’s not. Smith is a really patient and engaging young man before he finally hides from the guy.
• One note on the sports media: when I worked in newspapers, we would occasionally get phone calls from people that wanted to settle a bet. I remember, in ’95 or ’96, I was working at a paper in Lubbock and some guy called, asking us who the best QB of all time was (my vote went to Marino; everyone else said Montana). The point is, there’s some perception that sports writers/reporters/etc. know more than the rank-and-file fan. These days, I’m not sure that’s true. They may have a few more connections, and may have some insights they don’t share with readers, but for the most part, the wide variety of information sources and deeper analysis means fans don’t have to take a backseat to media these days. The guy who keeps bugging Smith is pretty much Exhibit A.
• One more note on the media: often during the run-up to the draft, you’ll hear that a certain player interviewed with 7-8 teams at the combine. This is always spun as the teams that have the most interest in the player. That’s not true. It’s often the teams that have the least interest in the player, because they didn’t even get basic interviews done during the draft process; they’re just covering their bases, nothing more. This manifests itself tonight when the agents list the teams they expect to draft their clients. In most cases, they’re dead wrong. Teams have become quite adept at hiding their true intents, and often, the teams an agent lists as having the most interest are actually the teams where the agent has the most contacts. He’s talked up his clients with his buddies on those teams, and therefore, he feels his client has an excellent chance with them. But really, it means nothing. Watch for this tonight.

Make sure to join me for more insights tonight on the ITL live-tweet.

If you watched last night’s episode of ‘The Agent,’ you saw me have an uncomfortable conversation with Ed Wasielewski of Philadelphia-based EMG Sports (well, actually, two difficult conversations).

As Ed and I discussed his client, Houston DT Joey Mbu, he casually asked me where I saw him going. I gritted my teeth and told him sixth or seventh round. He countered that he expected him to go in the fourth. As the workout went on, Ed spoke to a Texans scout who had Mbu as an undrafted free agent. This meant Ed had to do the difficult chore of letting Mbu and his mother know there was a good chance no team would pick him on draft day. Which happened.

It made me wonder, what made Ed think Mbu was going fourth round? I had spoken to five scouts and all five had him as a bubble draftee and most likely a priority free agent. That’s not the kind of return Ed was seeking. Today, I had this text conversation with an agent who had kicked the tires on Mbu last year.

Agent: The trick is to know it before you sign the player. I knew Joey would sink, that is why I backed off.

Me: The question I have is, why did Ed think he was going fourth round? Who thought that?

Agent: Multiple scouts did. A lot of people I talked to said they liked the size and arm length. Sr. Bowl invite. And the school was selling him hard to NFL teams. I went against what I was hearing after multiple games and not seeing what I needed to out of the athlete. Some good scouts that I trust liked him early and off junior film.

Me: That really puzzles me. When I called around (scouts) crapped all over him. I guess it shows how quickly a star can fall.

Agent: What time of year was it you had talks?

Me: mid-Feb

Agent: Got you. My talks were in the summer and July and August. Also as you know people see guys very differently.

Me; Yup.

Ed didn’t make a mistake based on terrible information or lack of scouting contacts. It just goes to show that scouts are fallible, too, and often a prospect in December is a non-factor on draft day. It’s just one more reason this is such a volatile business with no guarantees.

Tonight is Episode 7 of ‘The Agent’ on the Esquire Network at 10E/9C. Here are a few things of note in tonight’s show.

• I think there’s a perception that all players aspiring to the NFL are guaranteed an equal and fair shot at performing their best. I think this is especially true among today’s players, who often see expensive combine training programs as almost a right. Not true. Not true at all. In fact, in tonight’s episode, we see pro day workouts on the campuses of Washington State, Cincinnati, Grambling, Houston and Massachusetts. Only two of these schools have indoor practice facilities, and one school’s workout area is practically underwater, prompting an agent to claim it’s “unfair,” and maybe it is. Well, scouts don’t care about fairness. They’re trying to get confirmed numbers on literally thousands of players in a short time frame, and if one school doesn’t have optimal conditions, well, it’s on to the next one. That may not be fair, but it’s reality. A lot of players lose this perspective along the way.
• Here’s another thing many aspiring agents don’t understand: your client is your boss. Even if you’re in your 50s, have decades in the game, and he’s 21 or 22 years old. This means that even if you pour $10K-$20K into preparing your client for his pro day, if he’s not feeling it that day, and chooses to skip a portion of the workout — that’s it. You can jump and stomp your feet all you want, and hope that he understands that a window is closing that might not open again, but that’s all you can do. As players begin to see their teammates go through the draft process, they start to trust themselves more and their agents less. This is a tough pill for many agents to swallow, and understandably so. You will see a bitter example of this tonight.
• At some point, all agents ask scouts, team executives, and analysts like myself where they see their clients going in the draft. Very often, this is hard news to deliver. Scouts are people, too, and they don’t want to rain on an agent’s parade. Often, a scout will muddy the waters by being vague or just telling an outright ‘white lie.’ In tonight’s episode, I personally have such an experience when I’m interfacing with a longtime agent client who’s also been a friend and supporter for a long time. Fans and people outside the game like to think that the game is made up of cold logic and detached analysis, but you can’t take the human element out of the game. Sometimes that’s good, but other times it’s very hard.

Just four episodes left of the first docu-series to truly show what the agent business is like. Make sure to check out our live-tweet, as well. See you tonight.

Episode 6 of The Agent is tonight at 10E/9C on the Esquire Network, and features the four agents as they work with their clients at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis last February. Here are a few things to watch for:

• I think there’s a perception that agents have all these connections, that all doors are open when you’re ‘in the game.’ That’s true to some degree, but then again, agents will always be agents. That means some people will try to keep them at arm’s length, no matter how established they are. Tonight, you get a good illustration of that in Indianapolis when all four agents profiled watch their clients run the 40 from a screen in a hotel room or hospitality suite. Agents don’t get to go into Lucas Oil Stadium. Not yet at least.
• It’s hard to walk the line between seeing a client as a friend/business partner and as an investment. We see this when Sunny Shah of Paramount Sports has to ‘encourage’ his client to train for his pro day like never before after he’s tested poorly in the 40. You can tell that Sunny is trying to control his frustrations, and wants to really let his client have it, but he can’t. If he does, the player may unconsciously give less than his best effort or even fire him. And poof! There would go any hope of recouping his $15,000 investment.
• If you’ve got a player projected in the first 2-3 rounds, you can get plenty of attention from NFL teams. If not, that access may be limited. In tonight’s episode, we see a long conversation between Peter Schaffer of Authentic Athletix and several members of the front office of the Cowboys, including Executive Vice President Stephen Jones. That’s the only interaction between teams and agents that we see, but most likely not the only contact the show’s producers sought out.

Tonight’s episode gives viewers an inside look at one of the most intriguing parts of the football business. Now, with Hard Knocks over, make sure to check it out. And make sure to tag along with us during our live tweet. See you tonight!

Today, I got contacted through Twitter by a player who hoped to be on a 53-man roster this week. We met because he played in one of the all-star games during the ’15 draft cycle, and we’ve become friendly since. I like him and was glad to hear from him. Anyway, he asked me a few tips about finding a new agent.

This is a pretty regular occurrence, and this won’t be the last message I get this week from players frustrated with their circumstances. It’s even possible that this young man’s agent did a lousy job, but I think there are a few things that need to be said when this situation arises.

• Players aren’t rejected by the NFL because they had a bad agent. Obviously, there’s no way and no how an NFL team was going to overlook the players drafted in the first round last spring, no matter how bad their representation.
• Most of the time, players get extra chances because they had an agent. Agents get players into all-star games; call teams in March, begging scouts to attend out-of-the-way pro days; beg teams again after the draft, hoping to get their players undrafted free agent deals; and often call all summer, begging teams to take one more look.
• If your agent didn’t do a lot of begging, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not a good agent. It just might mean that he came to the conclusion you’re not NFL timber. That doesn’t make you a bad player, or a bad person. It just means you’re not in the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent of football players.
• If you’re frustrated because you’re not in the league, think about how frustrated he is. No. 1, there’s an excellent chance he came out of pocket for thousands of dollars to get you ready for this day. No. 2, he thought you could play or he wouldn’t have signed you, and he’s been proven wrong. No. 3, it’s really frustrating to be told, time after time, that the team is “full,” or just getting no call back at all, or plainly told “don’t call back.” All of these are regular responses from agents calling, hoping for a chance for a client. It’s pretty soul-crushing.
• Contrary to popular belief, the CFL is not automatic if you don’t play in the NFL. Shoot, even the Arena League isn’t automatic. You need slightly different skill sets for each of those leagues. Sometimes — very rarely — a player lacks the skill sets for those leagues, but is a better fit for the NFL.
• The NFL just came off its most intensive period of player evaluation. Making cuts from 90 to 75 isn’t easy, and making cuts from 75 to 53 can be positively painful. There will be many players cut this weekend that wind up having two- to three-year NFL careers, either active or on the practice squad. The point is, those players cut this weekend are pretty much the next call for a team with injuries. If you didn’t spend the last six weeks in camp — and I don’t mean this in a bad way — you probably aren’t getting an NFL job.

If this post spoke to you, and is pretty accurate to your situation, I don’t want you to be discouraged or give up. I only want you to understand the odds against you. That’s the only reason I write this. I want everyone to succeed in football; shoot, that’s our motto. But not everyone can, and that doesn’t make you a bad person.