Dropping the Ball by Dave Winfield & Michael Levin

Author:Dave Winfield & Michael Levin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

The Agents

Maybe it was the movie Jerry Maguire. Maybe it’s the public’s disgust with high player salaries. Whatever the reason, sports agents are some of the most unpopular people in the world of professional sports. In that world, agents probably rank just above scalpers in terms of how little they are admired by the public. Yet with the money top agents make, they could care less about their public image and they just do their job.

The image the media projects of sports agents isn’t favorable. They are often portrayed as brazen, self-centered, smug power brokers, zipping around in expensive sports cars while talking incessantly on cell phones. They make outrageous deals for players that only contribute to the exorbitant—and rising—cost of the services of their flamboyant clients, which in turn adds to the cost of taking a family to a game. There has been an evolution of the agent in the past thirty-five years. Initially, they didn’t even have to be licensed. Today they are, and in order to obtain that license there are fees, an application, and a highly scrutinizing approval process.

The belittling of their character is unfair. Without an agent’s involvement, most players could not navigate the complexities of today’s contracts. Certainly, many of the most successful agents are demanding, hard-nosed, and arrogant. But to a certain degree, they have to be, given that they are going up against the lords of baseball—the owners—men who did not make it to the top because they were weak businessmen. A baseball player has the opportunity to negotiate a contract very few times in his career, and the owners provide stiff opposition when players make their salary demands, sometimes, as I discussed, even going so far as to use the media against them.

Players may complain about ownership, but for the most part, they don’t. They recognize that when it comes to influencing the media and shaping the public’s perception of a ballplayer, the owners have the upper hand.

The agent’s job is not nearly as simple as many people think—they don’t just sit down with an owner over a beer, ask for ten million, hear the owner offer six, and then split the difference. Their world is as hypercompetitive as that of the players they represent. Just as an athlete is often viewed as being only as good as the last game he played, agents are judged by the same scale: They’re only as good as the last deal they closed. Their successes and failures occur in the harsh glare of the media spotlight, just like those of their clients.

A big win means increased interest in their firm on the part of top players, prospects, and their families. Failure to show the client the money, the overused Jerry Maguire phrase, means that new clients are likely to shy away from their firm, and even their current clients may be wooed away by aggressive competitors.

Some agents wield considerable power, although often the perception of their power is greater than the reality. This suits the agents fine, because in their world, perception often is reality.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.