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All right, welcome back, guys. EYL Episode twenty.
Two twenty two out yet like that's crazy?
Yeah, twenty two weeks in Man.
So once again, as we always you know, we have to thank you guys for your support. Spent a hell of a journey. Yeah, and we're only going to continue to grow, hopefully.
God willing, yeah, man. And consistency is key, all right. We're just going to keep putt out more content. The support has been amazing and you know, the more you support, the more we just gonna keep putting it out. We educating everybody, not just all people. It's for everybody. Everybody can take a lessons from him.
That's a fact. That's a fact. So all right.
So the theme of the show is the financial plays behind sports and entertainment.
But we do more than that.
We do business, We do all kinds of stuff finance related, but it's still kind of sports and entertainment.
Right.
So we spoke with if you are loyal listener, you know, we interview Brandon Copeland a few weeks ago, right out to him. He's an NFL player, really good, yeah, thank you, thank you, And he he broke down a lot of stuff that people don't usually realize when it comes to NFL contracts and how players get paid and you know, things that we don't think about as fans just watching the game. Right, So that was interesting to get him to you know, give us some game from that perspective.
But today we got the flip side, right, So we have an NFL agent deals, Yeah, we got we got the NFL agent. So I'll give a quick backstory Chris Coy and this this came about literally today exactly.
Yes, perfect time, perfect exactly.
So Chris is going to tell his own story, but it's just a really inspiring story to hear. He's very young man, thirty two years old and has already been in the business for several years. Came in the business in twenty thirteen, so six years of experience in the business. Has worked with clients across the board for the last three years, I believe, has had draft picks in the in the second round right NFL Draft. Yes, actually went to the draft this year. So he's doing this thing
and he was independent. Now he's with a larger firm. Like I said, we'll tell you the whole backstory on it. But I think it's gonna be a really dope conversation because a lot of times people aspire to be athletes, but as I always tell people, there's a lot of way to make money in sports, even if you can't dribble or if you can't run a forty four point seconds whatever, you can be behind the scenes. So an agent is somebody that you could be an agent for
fifty years, forty years, right. Somebody told me once owners is always going to outlive a player every time. So it's the same thing with an agent or a business manager on account or financial advisor.
Right.
Your career as a sports player might be three years or five years, but behind the scenes, as a businessman or woman, you can do that for forty years or fifty years.
Yeah.
Man, I remember growing up with the name David Fulk. In my mind, I'm like David Falk. I never saw this guy's face, but I know he represented Michael Jordan. Yeah, and after Michael Jordan side, he's still represented player. So it's like that's absolutely I'm just true. Always going to outlive the player.
That's the fact.
So Chris, thank you, thank you for coming.
Man, appreciate it.
This is crazy how it all came about. But you said Brandon coprom the opposite so I would say, I'm on his side. I'm a player advocate, so that's I'm on the opposite side of the NFL team. So we had more so the team side. I'm negotiating on behalf of the player. But I thank you guys for letting me come today. Kind of crazy how it all came about, but you know, I'm here and I'm excited and you can kind of get started from the same hometown. Yeah, I was actually born in White Plains. Well, so Ba,
this is what happened. I was supposed to be born in white planes. I ended up being a medical emergency getting born in Bahaia and came back to white planes rather than that for the first six years of my life. Went to Calvary Baptist Church. I don't know if you guys have some more wild white planes, but yeah, so I moved there. I moved out to Maryland where I grew up. So I grew up in Columbia Laurel, Maryland area, right in between that DC Maryland kind of thing. So
kind of grew up out there. I thought I was going to be the NFL player in the world. I was a big like I was telling him I was a Knicks fan. But then I saw this guy, Dean Sanders, and I was like, man, I want to be him my goal. And then I went into my ninth grade year and I was the smallest kid in high school. I was the smallest kid in high school, but I was playing football. It didn't matter. I walked in high
school fourth for eleven ninety six pounds. And I went to my first football practice when we got pads and this guy ear hold me, and you know what the ear hold is. You literally get up and you're looking through your ear hole. And I was like, oh man, I still played. I still played, but I was like, oh no, I don't know if I'm being the agent anymore. I'm a NFL player anymore. I went home to tell
my mom, I don't forget. She was eating crabs, and I was like, I'm an announcement, you know, do my research, like I want to be agent. And she's like, and I literally walked in the house and stood up on a chair, like, Mom, I want to be an agent. Red mind thinks. She's like, all right, whatever, get up and get dressed and you know, get ready for dinner. So nothing think about it. After that, I went to you know, eighteen years old, you know, trying to fly a college.
He made that announcement at fourteen.
Fourteen years old. I defined it that I because I was always a committed person because any point that point I was deon Sanders, I was gonna be NFL player. Yeah, I didn't know. I didn't have the athletic system. I can't choo them and walk. I was telling you, I choiet like it was that bad. But needless to say, it was a situation where it helped me to you know,
it was a transition in my life. And that's basically what I do as an agent now is I help guys transition from different phases of their life where they're going from college to the NFL, from first to a second contract, from a second contract to the third, or even out of the NFL. So that's what I realized at a very early age. Like I said, and you know,
ended up going to hamp University. While I was there, I had a number of guys get drafted, saw their agent process and saw the agent business for what it was, and I called home to my mom. I was like, MA, I don't know if I want to be this agent thing, like these guys are really trying to track these guys with money, cash, cars, girls, things that attracted twenty twenty twenty one girl boy, and I was like, man, I'm
not that person that's not what I represent. So had a little coming to Jesus moment ended up, you know, soa like, you know what, I'm gonna go do some internships in terms for guys, and then here I am so clearly I changed my mind over the course, but it's later down in the story that's dope.
So all right, So first of all, shout the DMV. The heavy in d m V are like, we've had like five guests so far.
From Baltimore, so you got to make a trip out that Maryland.
Shout out to Maryland. We're coming to Maryland this weekend. Oh yeah, we're going to do that. We're gonna we're gonna come back and we're gonna do like a network and we're gonna do it. We got some stuff playing for d m V. So shout the d MV. So all right, so can you tell us the process of somebody wants to become a sports agent?
Right?
What how do you become a sports agent? Do you have to go to law school, you have to have a degree, you have to pass the test, Like what do you have to do?
Like what are you studying in school?
So the NFL requires that d have a post secondary degree. The NBA, I think is just an undergrad and baseball, I think you just have to have a client if I'm not mistaken.
So depending on the sport, every.
Everything is determined by a players. So if you want to be an agent, you have to go to the nfl PA and go do your research on that process. So what the NFL acquires is you have a post secondary degree. They don't really say what that post secondary degree is. I knew I want to be an agent at an early age. Number talked to a lot of
different agents. I was talking about their law degree, and a lot of them were saying, yeah, it's a great, you know, option for a fallback plan if I just want to be a lawyer, But it doesn't necessarily help me in this pardicular standardized contract. The NFL's a standard. You know, there's nineteen hundred NFL players, there's standardized contracts, so you really know negotiating statistics. Then you are actual
legal jargon. So I heard that, it was like, cool, I'll just go get a master's in Actually, at the time, it was a master's Sports Industry Management for Georgetown and they had a number of nfl PA advisors that worked there. And I was like, man, that's a good connection, and it made sense. So that's why I ended up doing.
So.
The requirement for the NFL is an undergrad and then post secretary post secondary degree whether that be a law degree or.
Anything in that, okay, And but then you.
Have ag Oh yeah, I'm sorry. That's just the qualifications in order to take the test. And then there's there's a test you take and you take it over two days, well not two days. The first day you go down there, they help you to kind of go over the book to Washington, d C. So that's where the nfl PA is, NFL Player Association is down and down down in DC. And while you're there, you go there the first day, it's kind of an open book. They try to kind
of help you through it. But if you didn't know that stuff going in, you're not going to pass that exam the next day and the next day it's an eight hour exam, and then a couple months later they tell you whether or not you passed the exam.
So what's on what's in the exam?
Like what understanding the contracts? Like Brandoon was saying, Brandon Randam was saying that you know you're not always you're never on a team, So you have to understand the in betweens of those things. So like the practice squad, what their salaries are, what the benefits are, what the guy's gonna make, what's the standardized contract look like, what's the big salary for rookies? All those kind of things.
And in addition to that, it's other contract legal jargon, things that have gone on and the end like, for example, in certain guys you have escalators based on certain play times. You have to understand the intricacies of a contract and in a dition to that player benefits because that's what you are as an agent. You're supposed to be a fiduciare responsibility for these players, to be a player advocate for them. So that's what they try to jam into this one test.
So even like before Brandon had said that information, it was new to me. So your time at Georgetown, were there connections that you had that informs you about some of these things or was there like literature that you actually had to research and find out?
So I had been reading the CBA since I told you I was fourteen. Oh, the collective, Yeah, I'm sorry, I used the term jargon, but yeah, the collective Bargaining Greement. I had been reading that since I was fourteen. I was prepared for that test at twenty one. I knew that test. Like I literally felt like.
You were reading collect Yes, I was.
Yeah, I mean literally like mom, mom, when I determined that I want to do something, I'm just focused on that one thing, and I literally was reading. I literally had printouts and contracts and reading different things. I will never forget. So as an agent, right, we don't so like, for example, the players you signed right when your first new agent Google and you do things like that, you don't really have the relationships with scouts and things that nature.
One of my guys connecting me with a scouting guy for the Green Bay Packers. He was, so, that's a whole nother conversation. But they have their own scouting department. And I got talked director I think I was a director of player of personnel. And the first thing I asked him was when you watch the NFL, Like, when you watch players, are you listening to mel kiper or to Todd McShay. And I'm like, he's like, no, I'm gonna call you back. He never called me again. Because
he does his own work. That's for the media, that's for the NFL, Like that's for us, that's not for other people. Like that was that that's not what they really care, but like they're really focused on doing their own due diligence, doing their own scouting and that whole process of getting scouted and all that stuff. So that's that's where my career changed when I built relationships with scouts because up until that point, I was signing guys
that were great. I like them and the individuals, but I didn't necessarily know who to sign at that point.
So all right, so for the average person that may not be reading the collective bargain.
He's giving it, I had no. I definitely was ready for that test because I remember running a like, yeah, thesis on that, like not thesis, but like a report on it at like twenty one, and I was like, oh, yeah, I got this test. I'm ready for it.
So say a kid in college, were even out of college, has a four year degree, because that's what you need, right, a four year degree. Do you have a four year degree and you want to be a sports agent? Do they have?
Okay, they got to go to grad.
School too, to school. Yes, you've got to post secondary degree.
So could that person have a degree in like sports management, Yes.
Sports management. So my degree is a master's of Sports Management, but we took business classes and addition.
To that, you have a degree in anything.
That the way that the rules are set up right now is that if you have a post secondary degree in geography and anything, you can sit for the agent in biology. The rule state post secondary degree. They don't say post secondary in business. I don't say law, and it's an NBA. It says post second.
So where do you get study material? Like how do you do they have like Caplin online study, Like how do you study for it?
So at the time, there was some guys out there that were that's what their business were. They were helped helping players. Are not helping agents or perspective agents to study for the exams because they're not necessarily they're pretty complex terms. But I don't know if they're still out there now. But the collective Bargain Agreement you can google and the a p DF that comes right off the
NFLPA website. It's not the most interesting read, but you know, you can get to the points where it's like, oh, they're a good thing. There's like fun stuff to read, like salaries and have those work and base salaries. And then you read about like like poison pill, which is something that Deon Sanders got put in his contract back
in the day. So those kind of things are that it's basically a pill that basically required there's something where Deon Sanders, if he had played a certain amount of STAPs they had, they had to give him an option for his contract. But they got rid of that.
Which team game with that Cowboys at the time, I thought it was that team from Washington, Washington Reskan.
Yeah, I'm not mistaken it with the Dow It was back in the nineties nineties. Yeah, Eugene Parker, who was actually one of the first black agents out there to really be that guy. He was the Eugenie Parker's agent, and he was Deion Sander's agent, and yeah, Rod Woodson, he had a number of guys and he was kind of like a four or four our black agent and business if that makes sense.
All right, all right, so so now we know how to become an agent, right technically speaking, as far as getting the test, it's not really that difficult. I mean, it's not easy to pass the test, I'm assuming, but it's not hard to You just gotta to take the test.
You have to take the test. But it's like it was. I hadn't been studying for a while, but I had.
Wow.
I also took the series six and sixty three. It was harder than that, and it was harder than I thought the seven was going to be when I was studying for that. So those are those are pretty decent. People fail, Like, there's some lawyers that fail all the time. Yeah, I think they. I think they had a passwork this year of like seventy percent. So there are people that definitely fail. So I just don't want people.
To feel like it's easy.
Yeah. Yeah. You had a background in finance though as well.
Right, So this is what happened. I got I went to Hampton University graduate in two thousand and nine, ended up doing a two year program at Georgetown. The NFL had a lockout. They weren't certifying any new agents. So I had a a decent amount of student loans and I wanted to kind and keep them in determent. So I ended up going to school part time. And while I have was part time, I had a bunch of
free time. But I was actually in a course where a former NFL player came in and said, seventy eight percent of NFL players are broke or have financial issues, financial direct like and have finance. That's the thing that set up to me. It's like, man, So I ended up going to get a job in banking because I figured, Hey, as a young agent, you know, I want to learn
about finance. I want to learn about financial education and be able to help and understand my clients, not necessarily from a standpoint of being a financial advisor, but at least being able to say I could sit at the table and say, hey, it's how you build a budget, this is how you do this, and you know, and some of those things I do for some of my clients. Some of them I don't. But at least I know that I'm at least I can tell you, hey, I
know how finance works. And I can sit down with a financial advisor and then tell you, hey, listen, you might want to get away from that.
Guy and you saw what you had it and said, you know what, I'm going to take every step necessary to make sure I'm the best at what I'm sure.
Yeah, no, it's it's and it's crazy because I didn't I didn't want to get a job in banking, and I didn't really like but that stable as young agent, Like you know, my first year I had I think I had one guy. He didn't even get into the NFL, Like he was on a super regional combine, which is
like guys that aren't now the NFL. So like my second year, I had a couple of guys and I The crazy part is I quit that bank so many times that my manager brought me back because I just knew, like I had signed a draft class of five guys and I was like, oh, they're good. None of them
got drafted. They both went undrafted. Three of them never even made it into the NFL, and then two played for a couple of years, but it wasn't enough to kind of really stand like, you know, get you to the point where you're you don't need a good regular draft. So it's a part time situation.
All right.
All right, So now we're gonna go into the next segment. Okay, Now you've got certified to be an agent, so now we want to know, all right, it's one thing to have, you know, the certification but now you actually have to get clients and become an agent. Right, So now we'll talk about the business of actually building your business.
So now second.
Ow, I'm doing.
All right, So now we're going to talk about building the business, getting clients and actually you know, starting from the ground and how you actually go about doing it.
Right.
So you started your own your own firm, right, yes, all right? How were we today?
I was twenty five? Yeah, twenty five going on twenty six?
All right, So you got your certificate and as opposed to just going out and working for somebody, you wanted to do your own thing at first?
How did you?
So?
All right? So can you talk about that? Like, how did you start the firm?
So I I was. I always wanted to be kind of my own agent and work from my own side and learn. I felt like you learn a lot more being an independent and agent. I said, a lot of big firms. I heard some stories with some of my guys where basically I kind of got, you know, put in this one hole and you know, depending upon how with two day sign and things of that nature. But they weren't given the same tools. So I always wanted to do my own thing. I want to start my
own agency. So I ended up, like I said, working in banking that particular bank. Shout out to P and C and CRSID my manager, she was amazing. In that bank, I met my first client, I met my athlete advisor at the time, and in addition to that, my investor. I worked in a pretty wealthy neighborhood in Montgomery County in Maryland, and I literally told every single body that was my thing. That's my thing always, like I've been passionate from fourteen. Everyone I've ever met are like man
like he wants to be a sports agent. So like now people hit me up, like, yo, you're really doing what you said you want to do, because that's everything I told everyone, And I think that's something that no matter what you want to do, you never know, you know who you might meet and run into. And I wasn't one of those kids. I wanted to do seventeen thousand things. So it's like, man, I could help this kid,
but you know, he's focused on so many things. I focused on one things like, hey, I want to be a sports agent. And I told every person in that bank, and a guy ended up taking me out to dinner and we ended up just linking and really connecting, and he was like, man, I don't want any friends, but he said, you know, I really want to help you build your business. And it was literally a gift from guy bro. I can't like, that's how I literally started my agency.
Yeah, I mean that's powerful because, like we preach a lot about mentorship and how important it is, because you could have went into this situation not knowing anything, and you know, you could have been discouraged by that, but you're encountered with this person change your life.
But it also speaks to the fact of a closed mouth doesn't get fed, right, sure, so blessings come your way when you open your mouth, all right, and you actually say what you want, a lot of times people don't say what they want in business and relationships. They kind of just hope that the person kind of catches the drift. The easiest way to get what you want is to say what you want and ask for it. They might say no, they might say yes, but at least you ask for it.
Right.
You kind of beat around the bush and you're scared to say something. You just kind of hoping something falls out the sky. It's never gonna happen. So the fact that you was even vocal about it and putting that energy out there, you attracted it. I'm pretty sure to.
You, right, you spoke some things into existence and they appear absolutely.
I literally talked to hundreds of people that came to the bank. You know, think that back then it had a lot of foot traffic into the bank, so literally people would come into the bank all the time. So I would talk to literally everybody. And what I was working at was like, I said, a wealthy neighborhood and you know that seem you know some guys that are making really good money. And it was like, man, you know,
I really like you. And a lot of guys said no, they're not interested, or it was just like, you know, it is what it is. But in addition to that, it's like having people in your corner that is willing to support you. Like my manager was like, she knew I was getting my she knew I was doing well. She knew I was talking people about sports, but she looked at that as my connection to the people. And in addition to that, she also knew that I wanted to be an agent, and then she knew this was
a stepping Stone. So the people that aren't positive in your life are also very important.
All right.
So now you're an agent, you got your own company up and running, right, Yes, how do you get clients? This is this is stuff that's always been interesting to me at least, like how do you get clients?
So social media is you're always your friend. I mean everyone is always on social media. So my first class, like I said, my first client literally walked into the bank. He had been kicked out of school. I helped him transfer, getting to another school and he ended up playing in the NFL and still placed in the NFL to this day.
You got him out when he was in college. So yeah, But I.
Mean I wasn't so as an agent, you can't pay for players, like you can't do anything. I made connections to help him to try to I basically was mentoring him through his process because he had just got kicked out of the University of Maryland and ended up transferring to the University of Delaware, and I just he was like my little brother. But I didn't, like I knew that I was an agent, so I knew that I was a buy the book rule, Like I'm that guy. I'm not going to do anything like it's going to
jeopardize me long term. So but I helped him. I helped him navigate through that process and helped his parents, helped his mom. I literally actually met his mom because she was coming in and open up a business account and we was just talking about football. She's like, oh, I got a son, I want you to really meet him.
And literally one day when the bank was closed and the drivetor was open, but I still had to stay their to lock up, we sat in there by for an hour hour and a half and it's just like, man, this dude is going to do. And I didn't know he was going to be an NFL player at that time, but I just followed him throughout his career. And then when it was time from to Mega's Asia decision, I was like, man, I've already built a strong relationship with
this guy. You know, I'm gonna give him a shot. However, he was like, man, you know you don't necessary spaceperience. So that's where a partnership situation happened. And then I ended up doing a partnership, but my company still did a like it was a it's called skin in the game, right, So as an agent, and I'm not to hope. I
don't get that too far ahead of myself. You're paying for the costs from the training, So the minute they declare from the NFL draft up until the NFL Draft, you flop that whole bill.
So what are some of the expenses.
I mean, you're paying for these great training facilities that are going to cost you ten.
Twelve, fifteen thousand dollars, like IMG.
IMG Academy's one EXOS is one of the bigger ones. There's one name Performance Compound, AESPI. That's another one, like there's a number of bit different fifteen thousands for the week, No, fifteen thousand dollars throughout that right, so it's eight.
Week So get you get a client after football season is over, right, they commit to you. Now they're your responsibility for Was it two months until the draft?
No, it's a so from January up until at that point May was the draft?
Okay? So five months? Five months? You have the financially support them. Yes, you pay for their travel.
Travel, stipend, housing, rental cars, training, training, food, and that's pretty much it for the most part for some guys. Then there are guys that are gonna get you know, marketing and things of that nature, and some guys do marketing guarantees and marketing advances and things of that nature for guys. So it's a that right now where our business stands. Right now in the age of business, a lot of kids say, hey, I got these three deals, which one do I they that's which one I'll go with.
Somebody guys said, man, I'm gonna go with this guy because I really have a connection with them. Those kids are you know, those are the guys that I try to go after.
So are the marketing deals. Traditionally for first rounders.
It could be for first rounder, it could be for a receiver or a running back. Yeah, because they're gonna get a trading card deal. They're gonna maybe do some appearances, depend upon what school they go to. They may have some autograph signings and things of that nature. So you're advancing them the money on the on that. But that's the only thing basically you get back from that. And then basically once you know, once they get drafted, they
pay you. So it takes you some time to kind of get out of that hole.
So so all right, let me let's just because this is interesting. So what's the average cause for let's say first second round draft pick.
First second round draft pick is probably gonna cost you in upwards of about one hundred, one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to forty thousand dollars.
Maybe per player, per player who is, but.
It all depends on how you do your model. So there are agencies out there now that don'tly charge one percent and they have a certain they pay. Hey I'm only capping you at fifty grand. But they're also not
making as much money on the contract. But they're also what they are is they're they're I'm not gonna as they're a big agency that gets seven eight guys every year, so they're just trying to monopolize and kind of kill the young guy or they're not young guy, but the smaller agency that doesn't necessarily have the same bankroll, if that.
Makes bank take a little bit, so for sure.
So but the thing about it is that you're but I try to stress to the players, like when that guy signs eight of you, he's gonna do the same thing next year, next year, next year. Think about that. Just in three years he's got thirty two clients. And I'm sure they have a staff to be able to service you. But you're not gonna be serviced by a guy that recruited.
You, all right, So all right, So one hundred and fifty thousand for let's say a top player right from January to February.
That's you.
That's your responsibility to pay for it. Right now, you're hoping that he gets drafted highly.
Right. The agent's cut is.
Three percent pawn if at this point the NFLPA has done something where they put standardized one and a half percent for every single player. Now you can negotiate up to three percent, but some guy's got one percent. Some guys charge zero percent on the first deal because they know they're not going to make any money and just do a loan on the guy. And then so like it's everybody structures it differently. There's no standardized agent. This
player costs X, this player costs be. And in addition to that, if a player is projected to go tenth and he goes fortieth, you know you're looking. You're looking at the player like, man, he lose a lot of money. That agent's like, man, I'm never going to bete my money.
So when you when y'all in the green room during the Obviously you get invited to the draft if you're most likely going to be a first round pick.
So I am in year six. This is my first year in the green room. But there are agents that have never really I was talking to a guy yesterday who's he's been in the business eighteen years. He's never had a guy drafted a higher than fiftieth. I've had guys drafted fifty fifth and thirty eighth this past year, so I mean, I'm still ahead of the game. But yeah, that was my first year in the green room, and I had a client that was projected to go top
fifteen and he ended up falling to thirty eight. I mean, he fell into a great position in a great situation. But yeah, it's gonna take us a little bit of time to get the money back if that's invested.
What are the emotions as you sit in that green room, because I remember it is I'm getting uncomfortable right now.
It is the most uncomfortable because I think, like we were talking about before, like as an agent, people think you're all powerful. You have these relationships. Yeah, these might be my friends, but I can't, like, I know one of the GMS from a team in the NFC North, for say, and I'm like, yo, what's going on? What's going on my guy? You know he's sliding, he said, Man, I heard you know he's gonna go by by this time
he and that didn't happen. So like, I'm texting people, but they don't know what other teams are doing because it's the thirty two teams that have thirty two different draft boards. So I have talked to a number of teams that had him projected to go here, but things happened and the trickle down effect. So what ended up happening this year was Cleveland Ferrell who end up going number four to the Oakland Raiders. That was it had a tumble effect on everyone projected in the top five.
He was projected to go top twenty twenty five, so that ended up having a tumble down effect, and then they had a couple off into Linement that didn't go until later. We really thought that Cincinnati, Atlanta, we thought that those were our hotspots. Once those things are passing. I was like, man, and I know we talked to these teams in the twenties. Let's see what they talking about.
Literally texting people from them, but it's like they're not going to give you any information because like they don't want you to go to another team say hey, listen, I know this team is going to do that. Like the justice is how the business works. So as an agent, you are literally your most powerless during the agent process.
So let me ask you this.
Let's get back to the money of it, right, So how do you recoup that one hundred and fifty thousand thats you just spent.
Over the course of the career of this player? So my client signed a four year the four year seven million dollars and over the course of that, I'll make the money back and then you'll be broken.
Are you Are you adding all? Right?
So let's say you have a one percent fee that you're charging the client, right, are you adding something additional into that or you're just taking it out of the one percent that's just giving it advance.
If you're if you're gonna if you're gonna give one percent, if you're gonna charge one percent, you're not going to give a major upfront out pouring depend upon who the player is. And there's also, like I said, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for players. It's based on players that are projected to go top twenty twenty one because twenty one is when the fully guaranteed contracts. After that, everyone's contract get is a little bit deater down to unguaranteed.
So he signed a four year, seven million dollars deal with four and a half million dollars guaranteed. So we'll make our money back over the next couple of years of him getting paid. When he gets paid, we get paid.
So let me ask you this.
It's a gambling it's a gamble.
Let me ask you this too, because so this happens Reggie Bush. Yeah, you pay one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a kid the day before the draft he changes his mind.
That other agent or whoever hires him has to end up paying you your money back legally, that's how it works. Yes, so we signed. In addition to the SRA you sign, you are signed. You signed to essay in a representation agreement, you also sign a dendums that entitle you to that money if you're fired. So the only way I would ever get this money back because it's an investment, right like the guy Layo Collins Layo Collins was supposed to
be projected to go top ten. He ended up going undrafted, So literally there's nothing his agent can do as far as returning getting money back. He just has to play the game until it's a point where he didn't get his second contract, and then you make your money from there. So as an agent, you're kind of just sitting there waiting for your guy to get drafted and based on where they get drafted as a draft slot, and that's where you determine how much money they make.
You said, you said something about after twenty one that not guaranteed. That was only the impression that first round picks are guaranteed.
No, the first twenty one draft picks have fully guaranteed contracts, all for skill, cap and injury. So what that means is that they cut you for skill, like you're just not good enough, if they cut you because you're you know, you're injured or whatever the kis can be, or if they cut you because your skill, if they have your cap casualty. So as a result of hey, we need some cap room to pay you know, Colin Kaepernick.
Right, of course not but yeah, shout out the camp.
So all right, let me. So let's let's let's keep it real. How dirty is it? How dirty?
Like?
Could we see these movies and we see we had these scandals, people getting paid off.
Can we talk about the dirty side of it?
Don't I'm not I'm not one to name any names. I'm not one. I'm going to talk to you guys, just like I'm presenting to a young man who may ask me this question. At the end of the day. This is a very dirty game. And it's a situation where you're recruiting a kid and you're trying to sign them for his first contrac up to his first contract. A lot of times you have to go back and re recruit your clients because you have guys that are sharks that have been out of the business or been
in the business for a while. They've done great contracts for these guys, so hey, let me go pick a guy.
Now.
It's the point where a lot of guys what what agents are doing, what agents have done for years, is they pay current some of their current clients to go recruit for you. Talk to your teammate. If you're unhappy what it is, say I'll give you something on the side. So it's it's dirty in the capacity. But the idea of it is is that it's agents fighting against agents. It's they're just trying to give out the better deal
because you gotta taken sideration. If you sign a guy on an SRA for you know, when you first sign him and you put up that upfront investment, may you trying to get on a second contract. You already got the money. You may not necessarily have to give him any money in order to sign him. So I mean it gets dirty and that.
So like play out of college, right, that aren't supposed to be able to take anything. What are some of the things that they take?
So what now is probably popular in the agent business is that agents not smart enough to not give money to players directly. Like when I was saying I was investing a certain amount of money, that's once they're signing there, yes, But now what they're doing is that they use financial advisors or runners in the capacity to pay these guys. And it's just like hey, I'll give you a loan. You know, I'm going to give this guy a loan
or pay this guy. Say say you're a top player, and somebody say, hey, I'm gonna fifty thousand dollars and then once he returns, once he you know, comes out and signs with you, you'll pay me back that kind of thing. So it's because those guys aren't regulated by the NFL fund, by the NFLPA, we're regulated. So if we do get caught doing something like that, we can lose our license, be Bard. There'd be all types of things depending upon what state. Alabama will throw you in jail.
Like it's could be the real.
And that is Alabama for the past five years has been pretty much the NFL.
Oh in a lot of ways. Sure, yeah, for sure, and but I mean it's there. But you got to also take situation that some guys represent coaches, So I represent Nick Saban or this guy or that guy. Hey, you know that's a connection. But I mean that's good business per se because you have a referral process. But it's it's harding for harder for a young agent or agent like myself trying to kind of you know, develop
his business in that cassy. And I mean I have, like I said, I have eight clients in the NFL currently and I'm you know, continue to try to build that business and things that and so it's like my mom asked me. She's like, well, they're out here recruiting your guys or the second contract guys, why don't you go out there. That's really just not my like I would. I would sign a guy on a second contract if
it comes from referral. But I'm not about to pay if I got to pay you in order to sign with me, I got to pay you to keep you, Like I'm not. I'm not in the business of paying players. I feel like I add. My goal is to add value to these players' lives and to help them and help them be successful men, and them to realize the NFL's a business. Some things your money can't buy exactly, and the NFL is a business, and these players are products.
And once that product becomes effective, you are thrown away and shifted to the side. And these agents that are calling you right now, a lot of times you can't even get in touch with them.
Yeah, I'm glad you said that because the NFL, you know, the average contr the average career is very short.
Yeah.
So my thing, my question to you is do you have aspirations of going to Major League Baseball or NBA.
No, I have a player's hard like I was saying, I wanted to be an NFL player, so this is my best job to live. Y cares to my clients, and it's a situation where I want to see like it's bigger than me, right, Like I want to see young black men do well. I want to see guys not fall into the same pitfalls that other guys falling.
I wanted to see guys that are successful at fifty years old, that developed relationships while they were in the NFL and now they're using them to become big, successful businesses. That's what I try to preach to my guys is about you know, I told people what I want to do at fourteen the earlier. You know what you want to do. Especially playing in the NFL, you have the
best options to go in, be successful and go. You know, if you're say you played for the Buffalo Bills or New York Giants, whatever the case may be, and you want to work in finance or you want to do this, there's not too many people that aren't going to call you back at least have a meeting with you, develop those relationships, build up that resume that says something other than punt block or tackle and you know you can be a successful transition. I mean the NFL. I can
tell you all the time. It's a head start in life. It's not for long. NFL not for long.
All right, Okay, so now we're going to the next segment. But before we do, I just had one one quick question. So right now, you first you mention your first client in the bank. But right now you're a season agent where you're meeting clients every single you're getting new players every single year.
How do you recor play? Is now like what's your probress?
So now I have relationships with scouts. So like there's the structure. So everyone knows the NFL structure from the coaching side, right, so you know you got your head coach, you got your assistant coaches, receiver position coaches. You also have that in the scouting community. You have the general manager, you have the assistant GM, you have Director of college Scouting.
You have scouts that go and scour the things. What now I've been able to do is develop relationship with those scouts and they say, hey listen, They'll go over there area with me and say, hey listen, this kid is good. He's gonna go here. He projected here. You know you should go after this guy, and that's how I kind of determine who I'm gonna go after.
And then but how do you reach a player?
Social media is key to success for a lot of guys. So you like sliding d Yeah, I mean sliding dms, I mean reverse look ups. I mean I've done things like you may have a mother on your bio right at the end, and it's like, hey, I can google his mom. LinkedIn is always great. I can send an email to his mom, do things like that. But I mean there's different ways to ask.
These are things that people don't think about, right. It's like it sounds simple, like okay, but how do you It's like, how do you get in touch with a player?
Yeah, you think outside the box and you got to realize most emails. It's the same thing with the bank thing and telling people I want to be an agent. I got way more news than I got, yes, But when I was able to get a meeting, I was like, all right, cool, at least I feel good about the meeting.
Do you show up at schools?
No, I'm not one to go and bombard you and things of that. That's just not who I am. I don't have that like New York mentality.
For the lack of better words, You're not on the sideline.
No, no, I'm not really that God that's gonna be like yo, clan, let me how at you for a second. I need to do it some type of casual and I want to have some type of relationship with someone next to you in order to build that relationship, like maybe I'm mean an uncle or do something like that.
And those are typically how my clients have come through referrals or and for a situation where I've known someone that's connected to them, or if it's like one of my scouts can be like yo, like my guy, my guy to me from a teams like you need.
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You get on Cody Ford, and Cody Ford was a client of mine this year wind up getting drafted. Teked around. He was like, man, he's gonna be a really good player, and throughout the draft, like, like I telling you, this is a very difficult time to watch your client fall through the draft. But like even afterward, I was getting text from scouts like, don't worry. He fell into a
great spot. You know he's gonna have a great career and it's gonna take a little bit of time, longer time to make your money back as an agent and as a as a you know, an independent or a smaller agency. I mean we're a mid sized firm, but like it's a little bit different on your bottom line than it is that a CIA or some of the major agencies. When they get a guy that fell those rounds that you know they already had six other draft picks they got drafted in the first round.
Your value, I mean, you're not as evoyant.
No, for sure, but they signed six, seven, eight, guys every year.
So it's all right, cool, So now we're going to go into the next level as far as taking the business to the next level, scaling and different challenges that you face as as an African American agent. All right, so you're an agent, right, We went through the process of what it takes to be an agent. We went
through the process of you know, being an agent. But there's challenges in the agent business, like well businesses, right, So what are some of the challenges that you face as a young person as an African American male?
Right?
Even though the sport is driven by African American players and we've made strides in the agent business, there's still the majority of the agents are still white, right, Yeah, so it's still a flip, like even on the ownership side, on the management side all of that stuff where the players are black, but the other side of the table is majority.
So they have they put the Rooney rule in place for the owners, but there's nothing in place.
For the agencies or general managers general managers, right, yeah, so that's owners. Yeah, so no, not at all. So yeah, that's it's it's there's some difficulties as far as being a black agent. I mean, like we were talking earlier, Rich Paul was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, So Lebron and his effect him being like, you know, the greatest player or you know, one of the greatest players in basketball and kind of having his team around him
being black. I think that's helping us and changing the way people are thinking, because like, man, those black guys can do it, why can't you know, give a guy a shot. And agents have done pretty well, and there's some black guys that have done really well, like Eugene Parker was one of the most well respected agents. He recently a couple of years ago he passed. But I
mean there's been trailblazers in that capacity. But there are still players that want to sign with white agents because they see white general managers and they see white scouts or white bit like. So the scouting community we talked about earlier is I would say a good portion white, So I mean they understand that, so they think white guys like to do business white guys. But I mean we've we've we have some agents that are doing pretty well.
Like I said, I've had some couple of draft picks, some got a guy who's coming up on a major second contract James Bradberry for the Panther. So like, I mean, we're we're gonna be okay, but it's gonna take some time, and it's gonna take more and more guys that are of stature to hire a black agent and be in front of that black and you know what I'm saying.
So, yeah, I want to talk about that Lebron effect if we could just for a minute. So Lebron, that's one of the things, even with you know, Ridge Paul and Avacada and all of this stuff that he does with his team. How has that I mean, you talked about it briefly, but do you feel the effect of like seeing a Ridgeport Anybody's not MANI of Rige Paul's Lebron's agent.
He's also Anthony Davis's agent.
He's on a cover of Sports Illustrated today because they know that this is his summer, this is the most important.
He's on the cover Sports Illustrated because he's one of the most influential sports agents period and definitely in basketball. So to see a young young black man, I think he's like in his early thirties, do you.
Feel that help you as far as when you go talk to clients.
Yeah, I think, you know, Lebron is well respected, so I think that you know, him having a black agent helps him in the NBA side for sure. The NFL side, I think there are some black agents that have done pretty well for themselves. But I don't necessarily if everybody has a different criteria. So you know, you just have to find the guys that are willing to accept the fact that you're black or you know, and build off your resume. And I think that my clients see me
as a young black guy at too. It's still hip and we still you know hip, please God, needless to say, it still understands the hip hop generation understands, like I'm still we still listen to the same music, you know, I'm you know, trying to get out of this rat race of going after girl after girl, trying to you know, take my thing to the next level, you know, And and it's a mentorship in that capacity. But I'm still out there, like I still understand what's going on with them.
So yeah, we can relate on a more personal level, but a lot of times the biggest thing is like, hey, what's your you know, criteria, What's what criteria do you have set for the type of agent that you want to sign.
You know, Lebron is obviously an icon.
I think he's one of the greatest businessmans that we've ever seen. I think he copy is the great the greatest. I like magic in him, and so I don't know that.
So I heard something about Lebron. If he does a deal, he won't do a deal without taking equity in the company. And I think we all know how important equity.
Yeah, for sure.
So like obviously he plays in the NBA, so it's a lot more easy. It's easier to market him because you can see him for sure, andfl tougher where it's tough. But do you see a player out there now that potentially could have that type of Lebron effect where it's like, you know what, I'm gonna give the fifteen percent to the people I came up with, whether is it like a Cam Newton or maybe Antonio Brown or somebody that.
So there's a there's an agent that assigned two black quarterbacks back or over just over the black back years. Deshaun Watson and Dwayne Haskins both have black quarterbacks, So it's gonna have to be from a quarterbacks side, we have to get to the quarterbacks. They get the biggest content, they have the biggest contract, and they have the most FaceTime.
So what about barb receiver. It's like Odell Beckham.
Odell Beckham has not black so yeah, I mean, yeah, everybody has his agent. Yes, Jarvis Landry had a black agent, so it has a black agent. So I mean there's a number of guys that definitely have Like, there are more guys out there that have black agents.
Well, like from from a talking about this off camera where the NFL is different from the NBA, because you know, the average NBA player, right like, even if you don't know sports, you have nothing to do with sports at all, odds all, unless they're like a point called like cal Lowry, We're not even to talk about what happened.
He got black, right. I just knew. I just knew he just drink the thing about it. I knew it was hard to shoot behind the backboard. So I was just like, there's who else could do.
To Toronto?
No, I mean, I think not to Toronto.
But they clapped when Katie got hurt. I don't like that.
No yet, you know it's always gonna be bad. App Well, it was a.
Bunch of them. I heard them claps here in New York.
It was unfortunate. It was unfortunate.
We've seen Drake almost crying, so we took it hard. So all right, So NBA players easy to spot, right because they're tall, they're lanky, they look like they're different from every other person. NFL players not so much. Right, So you have of the NFL, nobody knows who they are. Yes, they could just walk down Toimes Square and not get recognized at all. That kind of leads to a couple
of problems right a marketing. It's hard to market it in a play because you don't know who he is unless he's Tom Brady or Odell back On or something like that. I think also b it leads to a lot of unnecessary spending. Like you said, like a lot of these guys you see in the clubs and they order one hundred bottles because now they're trying to draw attention on themselves. For sure where the NBA player they might do it, they might not, but they don't. They're
seven feet tall. They reready know who they are.
Absolutely.
And then also just from a failed standpoint of like doing like you see, especially whide receivers, you see him doing like a lot of antics, right. I feel like that's kind of like they need to have attention, right, Okay, So what's your thoughts on that?
So I think one in three are tied in together when it comes to receivers. So I have a cornerback who's probably one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.
I would say, what's his name?
His name is James Bradberry plays for the Panthers recruit I mean he literally guarded all the top guys. I mean, you've got to take the seneration. He three times ago or six times either between six times he tried Mike, Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Mike Thomas and does really good jobs them, And everyone talks about this game against Julio or Julio did the two hundred and twenty four yards. He got hurt within the second drive in a game,
so that's why Julio went off. But needless to say, he is a calm outside like he's not like me, me, me, me me. He's the opposite of Jane Ramsey. And I respect Jane Ramsey for what he's done because that's how a lot of guys have shown marketing. They want to show themselves and that's why receivers chat outsinko. He did something today where it said he never spent any money of his NFL money, He's only spent marketing dollars. But the idea of it is that he had to put
himself on in order to get those marketing dollars. So did become a character. A lot of people will say that, But the idea of it is that he knew what he was doing and he was trying to, you know, build out his marketing side. He had a plan, so with most NFL players. I was listening to a stat by the NFLPA, ninety seven percent of marketing dollars go
to the top three percent of the NFL. The NFL we all know the Odell Beckhams, of Tom Brady's, the Patrick Mahomes, the you know DeAndre Hopkins, like Ada Green and not even someone so like Julio Jones, Mike Thomas, Mike Evan like all the times I'm talking about. But the thing about it is that they played. They they're the top three percent, So the rest of the NFL
is fighting over the last little three percent. So there's a lot of social media deals and things of that, and so there's ways to make money from a marketing standpoint, but a lot of times what they've seen is is that success comes with me, me, me, me me, and that's what the blueprint has been for guys to be
successful marketing wise. Deon Sanders, I love him to death, but he was definitely But Deon Sanders had a plan, like he knew the biggest things with those guys that say me, me me, Like Richard Sherman, I remember having as my business partner. We were having a conversation after that game against Michael Crabtree. He yelled at him and he was like, man, I was like. He was like, that's the worst thing he could do. Is the worst thing positive things? Brand I was like, No, Richard Sherman
just became a star. And Richard Sherman went straight off because he was in the camera. It was something to talk about. It was a major game, so everyone was talking about that.
Is that who stolen's gold chain?
No, Michael, that was a key to leave keep to leave is another one who's a great cornerback to get a whole lot of marketing. But the idea of it. This is that he's quiet, kind of cool, like he just does his own thing. So that's but that's it. It's a mean me me. It's like the philosophy exactly exactly.
Controversy sells shock valuelve for sure, and you could be a great player, but if you don't really open your mouth, yeah, nobody did.
Absolutely, No one really cares about you unless you're out here of doing that. But by the same token, if you do it, you've got to be able to back it up. Because if Richard Sherman wasn't built the right way and he wasn't about to have a great career, and he also didn't have like the foundation off the side of the like off the field and doing all the other stuff he was doing, he knew like, okay, cool,
I'm confident myself at this point. And then he was like, all right, cool, But if you jump out there too early and like, oh man, that's not going to work out well for you. So you just got to be confident in your abilities. But cornerbacks and receivers are typically the most confident individuals in the in the room.
Yeah for sure.
And like you said, I think he used the term the rest of the guys they have helmet children absolutely.
So yeah, we were talking about the clubs and things that, like with the NFL, they want you know, we all want to turn pretty women. We want to be seen. So a lot of times what you'll find the NFL players are baseball players or anybody else has the biggest chain and the moment bottles. They spend the most money in the clubs because it's a situation where no one knows who they are, so it's like, oh, we got
so and so tonight. Like it's like, you know, like they want the the DJ be like, oh, someone buying all them bottles and people look and it's like that guy. But the idea of it is that it doesn't really make sense. And I try to get my clients away from it, and you know, I try to put on seminars and stuff like that to help them to realize, like, you know, you're adequate without having to do all of that. And that's fun at times. Yeah, but the question is
is that how do you balance that? And if you're doing that every single night, then there's a problem.
So how do you feel afel pressure? Your clients are rich, the millionaires, right, No.
That's what you get it wrong. My clients make ones about a million dollars. However, not all my clients make millions of dollars. So some guys and that's another thing that Brand's talking about that's hard, and I really empathize the players. They have the hardest locker room from a workers experience, because I'm twenty two, right, I could be undrafted free agent, I could be a baller, you could be the first round pick. You're twenty two, you may
hell of money. But at the same time, they're competing on and off the field. So if he goes and buys a new building, I got it.
Like.
That's the issue is that everyone thinks that they're millionaires because they play in the locker room. There's a bunch of guys that are millionaires, but on a fifty three man roster, I think it's average from seventeen to eighteen or eighteen to fifteen, guys are millionaire like guys making millions of dollars. Other guys are mostly on rookie deals. Are kind of the revolving door. The last ten so I.
Had a fifty two players, only seventeen.
Fifty three, And it's depending upon the team. Some teams have more. But I mean, I think I'm told that seventeen and eighteen guys are you know, making millions of dollars on major second contract.
It depends what team.
Let's go back to that. That's interesting.
So out of fifty two players, seventy three fifty three players, seventeen let's say roughly have million dollar contracts in a ball.
Yes, are making millions of dollars.
So like your stars, a vast majority of NFL players aren't making millions.
No, they're making a couple hundred thousand dollars or if they're making a million dollars, they're making just under a million or a million dollars. It all depends on every team is a little differently.
In their careers is very short.
Careers are very short, and most guarantee contracts. No, most guys don't get to second contracts. The average career is three to four years, depending upon what position you play exactly. Quarterbacks typically stay a little longer the receiver. Some guys stay a little longer. But you literally could go from like I mean not to call someboey out like Corey Coleman. Corey Coleman was a first round draft pick a couple
of years ago for the Browns. I think he's on his third or fourth team now and he's trying to make a roster and he's a situation where he's a receiver for the New York Giants. But everyone knows Sterling Shepherd and this guy, you know what I'm saying. So, and the crazy part is that Sterling Shepard and Corey Coleman both came out the same year. So Corey Coleman was the first round draft pick, Stirling was the second
round draft pick. Now, Stirling's making way more money than Corey, but Corey got more upfront money, but he thought he was. And you have the too excitations. So being an NFL player is a gift and a curse because everyone around you think you're making so much money. So when you go back home, you like feel like you got to stunt for your family and you know you got cash.
Request that's seventeen out of fifty three is yeah. I never thought of it like that, And I guess depending on the financial structure of the team, it could be less right because when you said that, I'm thinking about a team like the Patriots, who are very, very stringent with their finances right for sure. Right, Tom Brady probably is the best player in the NFL, maybe in the NFL history, but he's never been the highest paid player.
No, But they say that Tom Brady gets a lot of off the field marketing dollars and he puts them that's due to his performance, of course, and Robert Craft puts them on deals like he's getting his money. But it's a situation that nectually come from so under the table, actially under the table, but it's a situation where Jerry Jones takes care of a lot of his players, like some of his former players is cut in on business deals.
I was like, hey, I help you out this, Like some owners are really really good from my owner's perservative and helping these guys. And I think a lot of them, I think majority of them aren't that that way for their stars. But not everybody's going to be a star, right And if you're a star too early, say you're a star your second year and then like you tear your achilles your third year or you know what I'm saying, or you're not the same player two years later. You
can literally go from being you know. That's why it's like you gotta stay humble and stay focused. And when you get the big contract, that's fine, but now you've got to be able to put it away. And then you got these numbers that get blasted out, and a lot of times they're coming from my agents that want to say, hey, yo, I got this guy as big deals. But when you come back and see the real deal,
the numbers they're not nearly as high. It may be, hey, I can get him this all with escalator, but he's got to do X, Y Z in order to get this number. But everyone comes and look at you, and you become the target. So it's like, man, I love to be got it to make twenty million dollars and sit in the corner and nobody know me.
We got we We have to get you a quarterback, yeah, because we got to get you a quarterback. Because this week Carson Wentz when you said that if you have a great second year and maybe you get hurt and Carson Wentz. Now, granted, I think he's going to be a phenomenal player, but his team did win a Super Bowl without him.
He just signed an extension for one hundred and forty million.
Because this is a quarterback driven league. You need a quarterback. If you don't have a quarterback, your season is like, we're going to continue to do we have to do Kyler Murray literally was like, dang, they had Josh Rosen for a year. They drafted Kyler Murray this year because it was like, hey, listen, we need to do this. We brought in his coach. He runs this offense better. So it's still a quarterback driven league. Everything. Every everyone knows like that the quarterback is the key to a
successful year in most teams. The Baltimore Ravens, you know, they had trend deaf when they also had one of the best defenses.
Of all times, of all time, like the Bears that they went they had, oh I thought eighty five.
You know, yeah, yeah, for sure. The other Bears coach, Yeah, lovey and all that kind of stuff. I'm trying to think about teams with you know, no quarterbacks being their stars. But yeah, typically like that, Yeah, like I said, eighteen guys or so, those numbers changed that ben pinball teams. Some guys may have twenty two, some guys may have twenty three, but not all fifty three guys are making a million dollars. They don't have enough money for the
salary cap. But I mean they do, but it does, it's not it's a structure based on.
So I'm in the NBA.
I know the collective bargain, it's fifty percent of the revenue needs to be spent on the player salary.
Yeah, it's not fifty to fifty. Now at this point, what is the NFL's there. I think they're forty five percent and I think the end of the league team is at fifty percent. If I'm not saying they're in a process of redoing this this new CB.
Yeah, because they're saying that they might have a lockout.
So so that's one thing that I think that I don't know what's going to happen, because the NFL, like that lockout was ugly, and I think everybody took their lumps from that, like even though they say the team the league won it and all that kind of stuff. But by the same token, what the issue is with that lockout was it just wasn't good for TV contracts.
So now the NFL is coming up on all these TV contracts and they got to renew these things, and they're like, man, if you can't do that, then I need I need you guys to be under CBA before we do this deal again. So I think the NFL is pressured to get the players a better deal because they're going to make a better deal back end.
Yeah, the NBA did the deal with T and T in ESPN was twenty four billion.
Yeah, NFL's but you gotta realize the NFL is still king.
I think, Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm thinking, like, if that's twenty four billion the NFL.
But it's interesting because the NFL is the most profitable league in professional sports boy out of the three major sports in America.
The players get paid.
The least YEP, but the players also get hurt the most. But by the same token, it's a situation where players contracts need to be shorter. There need to be three year guarantee contracts because that's really what you get when you get a big deal like that. So everyone looks at like, hey, I look at guaranteed money and what you're getting your first three year payoff, because that's really what is what you're really have a good, great chance
of making. So like if you're bumming your first Let's say say we take a guy who's signs a major contract and his first year he doesn't play as much. Well, second year he's just terrible. The third years like, all right, man, we paid this guy twenty four twenty five million dollars, let's give him another chance. After that third year, they're willing to kind of watch. So they need to do more structured, fully guaranteed three year contracts. But Kirk Cousins did that.
When you just said that, I'm thinking, like that sounds like Jameis Winston.
Yeah, but I mean I don't like to say anything bad about players.
And I mean like, because he's in a position like this guy is still Younger Trophy, he's a number one overall pick, he's a quarterback, and he's a quarterback, and it's like, what do we do because we watched Fitzpatrick come in and light it up, and now it's like, wait, should we even.
Start this guy now? You know, So they got some decisions.
And now this is down in Miami with Josh rosen Ran on his career potentially. So it's going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out. But needless to say, it's going to be I don't think the CBA is going to be I hope. I think that they're making progress. And from what I hear from the Asian community is that, you know, we probably will have a CBA before. It won't be the lockouts, because that's another thing. Guys were taking lockout loan.
Yeah, I was going to say before so Dame Dash's cousin forgot his name, but Vince Young had sued him.
You know about this, I heard, I think I heard someone.
Yeah, so Vince all right, So Dame Dash's cousin, he was a financier, something to do with in finance, right, and he started a business during the last NFL lockout where he was loaning guy's money but he was loaning no money at like fifty interest, forty five or crazy interest, right, So Vince Young ends up suing them, and long story short, like it all came into the media why he took the loan. He took a loan of like three hundred
thousand dollars to pay for his birthday party priorities. Right, But it's just disturbing that a number one draft pick would have to take a loan. That means you're living paycheck to paycheck. And that's why I say all the time it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep. Athletes live paycheck to paycheck all the time. It's just that their paychecks might be fifty thousand dollars.
And by the same talking, they're getting paid over the course of four months. So they got to really stretch that throughout the rest of They gotta be more budget conscious than even teachers or like you know, teachers cant paid them nine months potentially, and they had that three months law or whatever. They have that four months and other than like OTA's are making coming and now they have the player performance when they get a piece of that.
But for the most part, that eighty percent of the income, it's going to come from that base salary during the season. You're during the season, and it's gonna add over seventeen weeks pay taxes, So you're living like a king when you're in season. There's a lot of broke NFL players that played last season right now. I'm sure because it's just but it's it's things like you said, like it's
the financial education is not taught in the school. It's not taught you know when you get it's try they try to teach you when you get to the NFL. But at that point in time, these guys have to literally sit back and look and man and say, listen, I may not live I mean, I'm gonna live a lot longer than I play football. And I try to tell my guys all the time, like you could live like a king for a couple of years while you're in the NFL, or you could live like a prince
for the rest of your life. I mean, there's a lot of different things you can do to save your money. Like I mean, you're boys talking about, you know, in real estate, and that's really you know, where a lot of guys can go back and invest into their college towns and stuff like that. Those are the kind of things that you really want to start to get your money to work for you because right now all you're doing is basically bringing on these checks in and spending.
And some guys are scared to you know, do investments or things like that, but just gets a regular savings account and live off. Like I always tell the guys like, hey, listen, you're in a you're in an NFL city, look at the average income, live above the average, and you live a good life. Like and a lot of the stuff during the season is paid for and like, but they do have some I mean some other expenses, Like you know, if they get cut, they have to transport their car, like,
so they have some other outside expenses. And in addition to that, they sign leases and you know, they try to sign leases that you know will let you out if you get cut or and the teams try to do a lot, but they can always do more. But by the same token. At this point in time, it's starting. You know, you can't blame that person, blame this person. You got to take an incentive to say, Man, I want to be successful. I want to have money when I leave the NFL. I don't want this to be
the highlight of my life. I want this to be a stepping stone to something greater.
Nah man, that's powerful.
Chris Man, we want to thank you for coming on before before we wrap this up, I want to say how this actually came about, because I think it's important for people to understand what the power of networking. So Chris and I actually just got introduced four hours ago. So yeah, so another gentleman, Allan shout out to Allen. He follows us on Instagram and follows the podcast and he was saying, like, you know, I got a guy that I think that would be good for you to meet.
I know you're a financial advisor, he's an agent. So I'm like, all right, cool, let's connect. So he text he put us in a group chat text today, yeah, at two o'clock. At two o'clock is like eight o'clock right now, and he was like, you know, you guys should meet. So Chris has an event this weekend. He invited me to and he's like, let's talk tonight, like eight o'clock if that's cool. So I'm like, yeah, we could talk, but we actually are filming the podcast in
midtown Manhattan and Chris is uptown in Halem. So I'm like, if you want to come by just to vibe out with us and we could talk right after the podcast. He's like, all right, cool. So we're supposed to interview somebody, and long story short, the person that he was supposed to interview he had to cancel. We had a family emergency, so he had to cancel, like at the last minute.
So Chris was already on his way, so I called him like, look, we're already down here, do you want to interview you know what I mean, Like, I mean, I think it'll fit you a sports agent. We talk about sports all the time. So do you want to do you want to interview it? He's like, yeah, why not? So I say that to say, first of all, Earn your Leash is based on a true story, Like it's really this is really.
Like real life right, Like it's like real life story.
But also it's just the power of you never know, like you never know, like that's a random story, but it's happened, like we just literally just connected a couple of hours ago and now he's on the podcast, so you just it wasn't playing right. But the thing about it is a you have to always be ready for sure, because you were ready to give an interview.
I mean, my girlfriends like you.
Gotta always be ready, and you just always got a network and meet people, because he could have just not even answered that text message and then he would have never been on the podcast.
And listen with having a few I'm like, am I qualified less?
Guy Hervart But that's the But that's the good thing about the podcast too, is that it's a broad range of people, from young people to old people, from sports to music to banking to investments to real estate, because we want to cover every aspect of finance and we want to talk to every every people too.
But like I was telling actually Allen when I spoke to him on the phone, that for a guy like last week our guests last week right when he actually Derek Ferguson when he told us that he learned from our podcast. And this is a guy that went to Harvard Warden. He's Diddy's right hand man, he ran Revolte all of this stuff that's crazy, but people like him
listen to the podcast. Then we got people that just came home from jail that listened to the podcast, right, And it's really for all of us and everywhere in between. So it's like it's it's dope to see that our message is touching so many people. And yeah, that's why we try to have as many different kind of guests that can relate to different type of people, because you know, we're not just talking to one group of people, We're talking to everybody.
I think Fernando was saying that to us as well. Shout out to Fernando, Lord of the Slumps. He was just like, you know what, the beauty of it is that it's like alphabet too, like whatever topic you want, like we're pretty much covering that based on finance and everybody.
The reception has been just like incredible.
So like when he's saying, like literally people coming home with jail and listening and that's like we've seen those messages. So like shout out to everybody who's been sending messages in dming because we see them in They're uplifting, Like it keeps us going, like there's a reason that you know, shout He's up at two in the morning, three in the morning, and I'm up at five thirty mornings because like we know how important this message that we're delivering is.
So thank you to everybody for real.
No, absolutely, and I'm thank you for coming on. I literally had intentions on inviting you. I'm gonna do something for my players this week in DC. It's the last week in OTAs we're gonna come to DC. The NFLPA is there. I always want to introduce them to businessmen and things of that nature. So on Saturday, we're doing a seminar for a couple of hours before we go to the baseball game. And basically it's having professionals. It's a guy from real estate, a mortgage company, pounting taxes.
I want my clients to be educated. I think that's the thing. And I think that's what's so powerful about this podcast is you guys say yes. Like last week he was like, Man, I learned something from your podcast. That's crazy thinking about what he does. However, just because you do something and a certain segretation doesn't mean you
know everything about this. So it's it's so diverse and you haven't on so many different people on So I would be honest if you guys would come down and come and hang out with us and you know, talking to my clients, because I think, you know, the biggest thing is that with professionally with these guys is that you know, finances becomes this you know, whitewash term. And talking to them and understanding them and understanding you know what I'm saying, what we're going through as young black
men growing up in America. It's like, man, I understand, like you you know what I'm saying. Like we talked about the going out and stuff like that. I get that, Like you know, it's the question is how much do you need to do it and that kind of stuff. So the biggest thing with me is that look for guys that look like me, that can relate to me, that could be beneficial. Like I want them to come on. I want you guys to come in on and say hey, listen and they'll watch your podcast. I think that they'll
learn something and everybody will get better. And I think that's where you benefit and that's where you grow, and that's where that that spaces.
As Mommy and Mass says, glad ration is better than competition. So yes, that's important. You know, we need to do that more and I think we started to do that more. But you know, it's more beneficial to have allies and enemies.
Absolutely, so we.
Could we could work with each other and help each other and help society. So do you have any initiatives how can the people reach you with social media?
With your my Instagram, I guess is see underscore Coy. Company's name is Paramount Sports Entertainment. We have offices in Charlotte, Norfolk and now in New York where I'm at. But yes, I underscore c c O. I underscore. My Twitter is Chris Underscore Coy. I always respond to people, so if you have any questions about the sports side or want
to get into the agent business, we want to. I know I kind of talk fast some times, so if you want me to reiterate some of the things we talked about today, or if you want to just ask a question or listen. If you have a new cousin that's gonna be a top player, man, look, get some quarterbacks, get some cornerbacks, all that stuff.
Tell your notifications on man, they will, they will definitely in your DM as It's dope because like a lot of young black men, they aspired to be athletes or rappers, but they don't know like this is part of the business too. So like, for sure, there's gonna be a lot of questions I'm sure coming in with for sure.
I think that's what you look for as a young man, right, you look for someone you can look up to. And with social media, like I always talk about the negative things and people potentially having little self esteem watching timbercent of someone's life on social media and comparing it to the hundred psent in their lives, like people do that all the time. But also it's connecting. It's like, man, this black dude's doing this I could do that, man. He came from a similar I was raised by you
know what I'm saying. I was raised by single mother. My dad was out there in the streets. Like I literally was raised by a single mom and a great stepfather at some point in time in my life. But it's literally a story that could be inspirational. And you know, you watch things and everybody everyone you meet, successful people, they talk to you about their come up and that kind of stuff, and that's always what people want to
talk about. It how they came. And you know, when you get to that point, it's just like requires you to reach back and teach one. And I respect what you guys are doing with the young people and all comes talk to them.
That would be great. Yeah, that's why I said.
We say that too to the kids, like when they see it, they can inspire to be it for sure. So like when they see somebody like you in your field, like they definitely believe that, Yo, I can do this absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, come doing it. Come beat me, Come beat me, Come be my competition, Come join me.
Let's work together exactly.
Let's dominate this thing for sure.
Man, Let's do it all right. So Troy, some housekeeping items before we wrap up. Yeah, you have to merch onsetverliability liabilities.
You know, that's our most popular shore.
But we got new mercher up on the website leisure dot com.
So check that out. We got a you know, some coffee mugs, We got some phone cases, so yeah, check that out.
Support that we got our Patreon at patreon dot com, Backslash and Leisure, where you know, we put out extra content and we get to have some real conversations with some.
Of our followers.
Unedited versions and unedited edited versions of our episodes.
That's import Not to cut you off, but that's important. The versions that you hear on iTunes and YouTube are edited obviously because we take some parts out right. We try to keep it under like an hour. But the unedited version is only on Patreon.
Only on Patreon for sure, and we have some some real, like powerful conversations. The other day, one of our patrons, Sanna twenty one years old, was telling us how she
listened to the podcast. She's twenty one, and her and her mom went and got life insurance because what they heard us saying, we were just like powerful, Oh my gosh, like wow, like the power of just telling a story like I told the story when you know, when I was twenty six with Shot, was like, yo, you should get life insurance and I'm like, I'll just get it because you're my guy, Like I want to support you. But they heard that story and was like it's important.
And you know, some of our posts that we put up are very intentional so that people are aware of those things. So shout out to Shianna and some of our new patrons we have Vicki, Charles, Tony and Junior.
And some of our old ones that you know we stay in contact with.
Cody obviously is one of our biggest supporters, so shout out to them. We're going to keep doing, you know, putting that unlimited, unlimited content out and if you want, if you want to support Patreon, feel free. It's no force, it's totally by choice, but it helps us do things like that. So like the studio, obviously the background is different because we're able to move the studio and we're able to travel to different places because of that. So
thank you for your support. Continue to support. We're gonna continue to give for free, all right.
So yeah, and oh yeah, also the merch is up and also our book tip oh YouTube, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel, like and subscribely.
The comment. YouTube is very important to us.
As I said, we actually we put bonus content on YouTube as well, and we're gonna we have more different type of stuff that's unrelated to the podcast, but still in along the lines of what we do. Have to videos and things of that nature. So subscribe to our YouTube channel. And we are So we did the we did the event. I'm gonna say it right now. We did the event in Brooklyn and that was a huge success. So we're traveling. We're taking this show on the road
Network event meeting and greet. I think I think next stop is Atlantam. We're gonna do something big in Atlanta and it's gonna be something big.
And d m B too.
Shout out the DMV Toronto, Canada, Houston, Texas. We're gonna got a few stops to make. So yeah, so thank you for your support and feel free to email us d m US any opportunities in your city. Colleges, we we we like the college. Then we're going to a couple of colleges just just fall.
Yeah.
We got yeah, we got we got some stuff in the works where we're going to be on some some campuses EU I l too.
Yeah, No, I think that this should be great and I think it'll be a good opening for like what Brandon was trying to talk about about creating a class for people that want to get so like this is kind of like a great likefer in between.
When we spoke, he was like, I'm like, yo, I'm doing it at the elementary level and the middle school level, and he's doing it.
At the college level. So we're gonna start.
You're gonna see a lot more collaborative stuff between us and our guests.
For sure, that's a fact.
And yeah, So my book tip of the week is Ted Turner's biography Ted turn If anybody is not familiar, brilliant businessman. He started tn T, CBS, turn the Sports, He owned the Atlanta Braves, CNN, he owned the Falcons.
Too, right, No, he doesn't own the Falcons.
I believe that Arthur in terms of Atlanta, the city's that whole.
He's then unofficial.
I love that it was a lot all over the place in Atlanta. But it's a good book. It's actually a good book.
He talks about his life story is the upos and downs being an entrepreneur, how he almost went broke like a bunch of different times.
Man, I need to read that. I need that because those are the things that really keep you going.
Yeah, exactly me Personally, I like to read biographies a lot because I like to hear other people, like first hand experience of like how did they do it? Because it's not always you know, peaches, and it's never that, like you know, it's always stuff that you would never expect, like,
oh damn, he almost went broke. He's on his third marriage. Like, it's all kinds of stuff that's forks in the road, but it keeps you motivated because it's never going to be just, you know, perfect every single day, and if.
It is, you wouldn't appreciate it. So like why would you want you want it to be, like you're gonna embrace that.
Sunny days wouldn't be special if it wasn't for rain.
True in the words why Can't move to Southern California and the words of Curtis Jackson, So yes, thank you for rocking with us episode twenty two in the books, We will see you next week this episode.
You appreciate it, bro Thanks Oh welcome to alumni.
Now, Alumni, I'm not.
Gonna go buy a T shirt.
I'll put the Brooklyn thing just out there. I'll put the energy. And we got.
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