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All right, guys, welcome back to eyl Hometown Hero.
Yeah, a special Hometown he edition.
This is a special Hometown Heroes.
You know, we did a hometowl Hero edition in Houston, shout out to Eastown, but we're gonna take it where we're from, Greenberg, New York.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the town for real.
For sure for Greenberg, New York. Very special place.
So we've actually already had two guests from our hometown radio.
Shout out to Valve Valencia.
That was a great episode and we had Simon also one.
Of the partners in Curlfest.
So yeah, we were lucky enough to have two people that we already grew up and went to high school with. So now we got the o G from our neighborhood big dog, mister, mister Greg Barnett. So first and foremost, thank you for joining us.
Man, Well, thanks for having me man Pleasures on mine. You know, you guys what, I'm excited first podcast I did, so I'm doing so you know, let's get it done.
So yeah, as you guys know, you know, we talk about sports entertainment a lot. That's kind of the whole theme of the show, and well not the whole theme of the show, but a major part of the show is the backstories of sports entertainment. So this this interview right here is right up Alley. Greg is an NFL agent. He does a lot of other things as well. He's an entrepreneur, he's a family man. He's involved in AAU basketball villa estate investory.
It was a lot used to actually be a school teacher. Well yeah, you enjoyed. Also Jamaican too, So.
Okay, I don't know how all Jamaicans ended up in Greenberg, right right.
Right, I was born in the States with the whole family, everybody in everybody Jamaican. I got married at Jamaica too.
Shout out at Jamaica, man, Jamaica. So le guard there. That's the agency that you're.
With, right, correct.
And you got some some some some high profile clients. You got Cayl Fuller who was a pre Pro Bowl last.
Year Pro Bowler last year Cal Fuller justin.
Houston, Sean Jones, you had Percy Harvin, the legend.
He was a client of yours.
So retired now, yeah, for sure.
So we're gonna talk about a lot of different things in this episode.
We're gonna talk about, you know, the journey, uh from being an NFL agent and.
How you got there.
But before we start, I wanted to kind of give a little backstory and I think it's interesting. So you started as a school teacher, correct, and but you always had a passion for sports. So how did you transition from being a school teacher to an NFL agent?
Like most people went and put that correct?
Well, it's interesting because when I started school teaching, I was doing an internship at the same time with a guy by the name of Mike Harris out of Philadelphia and it was a sports marketing front, and I did. I used to, you know, follow him around, drive up to Philly from Baltimore, following him around. He was dealing with clients back then, and basically he introduced me to Joe Siegel, who at that time, you know, was a high profile agent. And basically I started off with Joe
Siegel while I was still teaching. I started off as a consult with him and basically worked my way all the way up to senior vice president and partner in the front.
Yeah, so you started out and if it's that, and a lot of times people get the misconception, right, they say that those who can't teach.
Those who can't teach, No, those who can't do teach teachers who can't teach, teach gam exactly.
We've heard that plenty of times.
But you said that you created your multi marketing like firm their gym, right that you have from that position.
Well, yeah, the gym was Athletic Advantages, which is down here in Atlanta. And while I started when I was a pe teacher, I always thought of like I enjoyed it, But of course I didn't enjoy working fas I ain't there were things about the PE that I ain't like. I ain't like, you know, helping kids with lockers and problems, so much like that. So I said, how can I still do this and enjoy it? So when I got the opportunity, I created my own sports performance gym down
here in Atlanta called Athletic Advantage. And what that does is it trains athletes. It's you know, you could train like a pro from the younger youngest age of six all the way up to pro athletes. I opened it up here in Atlanta because also what I noticed was a lot of my Atlanta's a hotbed to athletes in the off season, so when they came, when they come here, they look for somewhere to train. So a lot of my guys was coming here and asked me, Hey, I
need to work out for two weeks. I'm here, this, that, and the other. So that's where I came up with the idea, let me just open up my own gym, hire some trainers, and my guys can just train in my gym.
Yeah.
So I mean, like, that's that's like super inspiring because a lot of times people think, like, oo, that's just gym class.
That's the gym class.
Meanwhile, like you're actually plotting something in your head that's bigger. I think one of the great advantage is that we don't get to take homework home, right, we don't have to worry about these statement the tests, and we get to have fun. Like our job is just to make sure that the kids have fun and they learn. But like you said, there's a lot of things that you know,
we don't like to do. But that's good though, because most teachers think like this is it your mindset was like, I'm thinking bigger, you.
Know, and and and I was telling, as I was telling Rashad earlier, I have a little saying I go by, find a job you love to do, and you'll never work a day in your life. That's from me doing the uh being a sports agent. I but it was also the same concept when I was a pe teacher. I loved what I was doing. I loved going to work every day.
So what was the process of actually opening up a gym Because a lot of times people have aspirations to do things, but they don't even know the blueprints. So you just you know, you had a background in sports, obviously.
Had a background in sport, basically you look for a spot, you know, and basically I had to come up because I struggled with different concepts. I don't know if I wanted to do where everybody was paying for memberships to get into the gym, or kind of like the barbershops salon syndrome, where you know, you hire a couple of trainers and they pay you gym rent and they just charged whatever they want to change charge. They have access
to the gym twenty four hours. So I kind of did a mix a couple of When I first opened up, I had a couple of trainers who was paying rent, but then I also had guys who I just hired to teacher classes. So you know, I had most of the younger athletes six elementary and middle school. They were paying for packages, so they paid for classes, and I would have I hired uh trainers who basically trained that also had trainers who was renting space that had their
own clients to come in. So it's just going back and forth seen which one was more profitable. So you know, different areas is gonna work for different people.
You had you had some some teams like high school teams.
Oh yeah, a lot of local high school teams in Lanta when I first opened up for the first couple of years and still do. Uh football, lacrosse, baseball, soccer, had some tennis players every sport, some some book like the whole teams were coming in book sessions and some might just be individual.
How big is sports in it because we're from New York, so you know, growing up, you know we in the sports, but it's not like how it is, especially football.
In the South. It's not like well in the South, it's like Jesus Christ and football that's is in the South. Like Friday nights, that's where you are. You're at a high school football game Saturday, you tailgating. You either at the University of Georgia game Georgia Tech, or you're front of the TV watching SEC football. This is SEC Land,
and the Sundays everything shuts down. You either at a ball watching NFL game, or you're at the Stayum or people just just go to the Mercedes Benz stay here, just tailgate and have a TV out there.
So it's huge.
It's huge.
So I'm glad you said that about the SEC because I just made me think about something. So it's a hot topic in the news lately that California just passed a bill it's not official yet, but it's on its way to become an official in a couple of years where they're going to allow athletes to get endorsed dorsement. So we talked about the s C double A before. As far as you know, they don't allow you to get endorsements. They don't allow you.
To you know, they want to make all the money themselves.
Yeah, So what's your what's your as an NFL agent? Right right, what's your what's what's your take on the n C double A And like, how do you think that's going to turn out in the future. They can't keep that forever. Like it's a model that's not fixed.
It broken.
I mean, it's been working this far. A hope they can break it, you know what I mean, that's what I'm hoping because they're getting rich. The guys that they're they're they're millionaires and they're they're making all the money off these athletes. And they say, Okay, they're getting a free education. But that's that's not enough. You know, you go in. I remember I never forget watching the segment the Fab five on thirty thirty now, jen Jehu.
That was a solid one.
Yeah, Jalen Road is talking about you. I'm sitting there trying to get food, but you know, my jersey is in the bookstore selling. But yeah, I got to borrow money to go get a sandwich. You know what I mean? That that hit hard?
You know, Yeah, not for sure, So.
I hope it changes, you know, I think it will.
So like for you, for for your clients that that you recruit. Uh how how how do you see it affect them as far as being n C double Because what people don't fully understand, especially for big time college football, is that it's a real job. Like it's not like you just going to school and just a recreational sport.
It's a real job. It's hard for people to.
Fully understand that if they haven't been through it themselves, right, Like how strenuous?
Can you tell? Like how strenuous?
Because like I said, you're recruiting college kids, so you know how strenuous is it?
And hard is it for a big time college.
Football player to manage going to sports, family, school all that.
It's so hard. And you talk to these guys and it's interesting because sometimes you see a guy that's just foregoing his eligibility to enter the league. And he might only be ranked, you know, projected to go maybe fifth, sixth, seventh round something like that. But he's leaving because he can't handle college anymore. It's just strange. It's like, you know, you're up five o'clock in the morning. They own you. They basically own you. They do the schedule for you.
They own you. If you don't love football, you're not going to last in college football. You got you have to love it. And you talk to these players. And I remember talking to a college coach two years ago and I was like, you know, why is such and such leaving? He said, Man, any chance these guys get they leave, you know what I mean. It's just a lot on them, you know what I mean. So, and that window is so small that you can earn that
money in the NFL. So you want to go while you know you still got you know, you don't have too much dread on the times, you know what I mean.
So what's the process like?
Right, So in order to to to be to get it, to get a client, right, are you with coaches first or do you have to know the family?
Like, what's the process of getting them. Every situation is different. I might have a college coach that might you know, uh, be able to recommend me, you know, to somebody I know, to somebody that you know, they know needs my services. It might be somebody I have a pre existent relationship with, just you know, from my home town or something like that. But most of the time you got to reach out to the kid or his family.
And that's after they've declared eligibility.
No, you're allowed to talk to a player as soon as he gets in college. But each state, in each school has individual law laws, so you know, every every situation is different. You know, you got some states and some schools that say you can not talk to them at all but a certain time of the year, you know what I mean. Some schools let you talk to them. The problem is you cannot, you know, provide any benefit for them in school. So you know, you can't take
them out the launch dinner or anything like that. You know, it would be it's like the Reggie Bush deal when you considered an inducement for your right. You can't buy that you care.
All, all right.
So yeah, so in the next segment, we're gonna go over some details at the NFL and a lot of things that I'm even actually curious to know about, and the nitty gritty of contracts and things of that nature. All right, So we gotta talk about the beginning too, because you know, like I said, this is hometown Heroes ed Year and we all come from the same place. But a lot of times people we like to give hope to people that sometimes you know, don't have hope, right.
A lot of times, especially where we come from, it's like you think that you get a union job, and that's like that's it, that's like hitting the lottery, right, especially you know, coming from a public school system, a lot of times it's not it's not the best, right. But me and you have a similar situation where we actually went to public school, then we went to private school as well, so we saw both sides of the coin. We was lucky enough, you know, through athletics and then
you know, going to college stuff like that. But you actually have a very interesting story because when you were in public school that we came from, you were in an alternative class.
Right, special short where they used to go.
So like, how did that, how did that? How did that affect you? Because you know a lot of times. You know, it's like I said, for people might not understand it, but you know there's a lot of stigma that comes with that.
Right So for now, it's like to be an.
Entrepreneur and to be an NFL agent and to come from special education like humble beginnings.
Like how did how did that? Did that motivate you.
Or it motivated me? I mean I hated it. You know, I hated being in special ed. You know, you got picked on sometimes, not really too much because you know, that was a pretty big but you know it's funny at one Lands, you know, everybody else was switching classes, but I was in one class switching death. You know, I was in there switching death. You know, everybody from Woodlands in that Greenberg area know about the crump classes. Yeah, there you go.
You know what I mean.
And you know I played sports. I played varsity sports, basketball, football, ran track and everything.
But being a.
Special and having an I E. P. Was so interesting And it's funny. I still have those ips at my house. It's on a file. And I remember when they used to you know, it used to have your goals and used to say things like junior college or self employment. Things like that those teachers never projected. I was going to go to school, you know, college driver, you know what I mean. But I left there at that time when a lot of athletes left Woodlands and went to
a couple of different private schools. Stepping that, Harvey Hackley, Me and a couple of other guys. We went to Harvey which was up in Katona, New York. You know it was a you know it was okay, uh, prestigious private school. And from there I went on to another prep school. After that, I did a postgraduate year which a lot of people don't know at Milford Academy on Milford, Connecticut.
From there's where I got my offer to play a full scholarship to play football at Morgan State University, which is HBCU down in Baltimore, Maryland, which I love the Bears. The bear I'm Morgan made as they said.
You know what I mean.
Another Morgan alone had Valencia.
Valencia shout out.
Yeah.
I think he posted on Twitter. She had this whole postal. She had this wild love my HBCU campaign. Okay, yeah, I seen it on your feet, Yeah.
Shout out to shout out to Baltimore.
Man.
I got you know what We actually have a lot of similarities because you know who else had an I E.
P at Woodlands truly.
Right little right right, and you went to college and ball right, and I went to private school.
Right.
You went to prep school right right.
Same route, same round, we follow the same right.
So you know, I'm self motivated. I always knew where I belong and what I can do. I just needed a chance, you know what I mean. That wasn't going to let anything hold me down, you know what I mean. And that's one thing I really passed on to my two sons right now. You know, you know, don't you can do whatever you want to do, you know what I mean. Don't let them classify you or anything that especially as I looked at and remember my mom calling it a dumping hole for black students.
That's what the disproportionately they're placed in there right now. It's real because it's like a black hole. And a lot of times once you get placed in that in that category, it's like you lose you lose self esteem, confidence. But me personally, I never looked at like that. I just I just always knew that I wasn't interested in learning the way that I was being taught. So I think that that's probably why I got classified as IE people.
That's interesting now because it's like obviously people know I'm not dumb, like they know, they know I'm intelligent. It's just that, you know, at that point in time in my life, I just wasn't interested in being taught the way that they was teaching. And you you both of you guys, and we weren't an educate choice still educated.
You just realize I'm the only one that graduated from lands Man.
But no, but but it's it's it's it's a real conversation though, because it's like, you know, we don't we don't fully appreciate like blessings that we have. And it's like me and you were fortunate enough to go to private school and prep school, but what if we didn't get that opportunity, Like you know what I'm saying, what if we would have stayed and who knows.
How life would have been different? You know what I'm saying.
There's so many kids that are bright, like look at your NFL agent, I'm doing, I'm in business, I'm a podcast. And it's like obviously we both had i EPs exactly, you know what I'm saying, so we're looking for a couple of those teachers.
I just can't.
I know they're alive.
I just you know, I just want to talk with them, you know, Yeah, thank you.
It's a real conversation. So I'm glad we actually even had that conversation because we got a highlight. You know, that's what's wrong with the system. But also we just got to get motivation. Just because somebody classifies you as something that that's just that's their opinion of you.
I think what you guys are doing, like and I have done, it's inspiring and it's inspiring right. It gives kids hop Like, look, I know these dudes, they from my community and kids everywhere, like, yo, I can do it.
This classification doesn't limit me to who I have to be in the future. So that's good.
So what was your experience, HPC.
I know you're big on HBCUs and it's actually a thing of a lot of people talking about athletes now just start going to HBCUs, Like, I don't know if that's well, listen, because of the funding, what's your what's your thoughts.
Like about my experience or about well, my experience it was different. I'm Gonna. It was different, but I loved it. I love being around my own I had enough. It was the best time of my life to this day. You know, going from from white Plans from Greenberg, New York, down to Morgan State University and just growing into a man man, you know what I mean, everything living off campus and just getting around on my own. I just I enjoyed it and just being around your own people.
You know, it was just so much fun, you know what I mean. And I don't think it's anything different from going to thing less from going to the University of Mountland. You know what I mean. I don't see what some schools are for more than a HBCU. So what I know that Stephen A.
Smith is doing a campaign now where he's trying to get people to come back to h HBCUs. What are your thoughts, right, top level athletes, it's gonna be very gun Yeah, No, top level athletes Zion Zims for example, actually choosing a school like a more than State or Howard over a Duke.
Okay, that's gonna be hard to happen right away. Basketball, you can pick three guys, three to five guys this high school seniors. This may be about three stars, four stars. That's like, you know how they rank you the totalest five star. It's gonna be hard to get five star athletes. As McDonald's all Americans to go to an HBCU.
We already know that.
But they're schools that these guys are picking over HBCUs. That's not any better athletically or academically. You know, I'm not gonna throw any schools under the bus, But if you go to a colonial school or those type of schools, why not go to HBCU. You know a lot of those, a lot of HBCUs are beating those schools. Football is gonna be harder because you know you're gonna it's more of a team sport where you need a lot of
pieces to be successful. But you know, I have a lot of guys, high school guys that work at work out there in my gym, and you know they're up there when I hear their their offerers are from like Georgia, Southern Firman, Wafford, Tennessee, Chattanooga. I'm like, you know, those type schools are equal to HBCUs. Go look at HBCUU. You will have the time of your life here. I
mean everything from the everything from the female. I mean, but you know, and like I tell my sons, you know, if they're blessed enough to go make pro money doing something, that's that's just a blessing. But other than that, go to HBCU. Get yourself some friends. You're talking about that the other day. Get get yourself some friends, you know, Get yourself a group. He's he's majoring in accounting, he's majoring in engineer, he's majoring in whatever it may be.
Form yourself for group. And when y'all get out of there, get yourself a business. Start a business. I mean, same thing Puffy there. Puffy put a lot, a lot of his guys on from Howard.
You know.
You know, I'm hearing about the story of the former mayor here in Atlanta, Cassine Reed. He went to Howard, you know when he got an office here, a lot of his same friends, you know, he put on so you know, get to click together and go for it. That's what That's what I'm you.
Know, hoping for.
That's what you did too. In Baltimore. You was actually had a production company. He was doing promotions, jo promotion, and he was throwing parties, right we started.
As I actually I was I was still a student and myself and two other of my classmates we started a company called Living Life Entertainment. We was throwing hoo homecoming parties, shows, we did shows, we did that was that was what we did. We was a promotion company and we did that from probably about ninety six to about about two thousand and two thousand and one. So is that your first dive into the business world. Yes. Obviously I always say you study education, right and health science.
So yeah, that's where I learned how to hustle. When I say hustle, you know legally, I mean, everybody when they hear hustling, they think of a negative connotation. Hustle is somebody who could get money on any type of level. Yeah, And that's when we started, we college students. But shoot, sometimes I was getting my refund checked, you know what I mean, and go throwing that, throwing a party with that, you know what I mean. But that's where I learned
my business. I got my business foundation from and we learned and there was a lot of losses with that, you know what I mean. So we learned from that. So that was interesting.
That's dope. That's dope.
So all right, So now with the NFL, Right, so we're gonna talk about the nitty gritty. But I had a couple of things that I always had questions about. When you hit a franchise tag, Okay, what does that mean?
Franchise tag? Each team can choose one player that's gonna they can franchise tag. That one player is usually gonna be one of the top players on their team that's getting ready to be a free agent. When they franchise him, they got to own his right. They own him and the contract is guaranteed for that whole year, but you have to pay him an average of the top five
salaries of his position. But while agents don't like it and players don't like it, because if he's the top player, is about time for him to hit that big contract where he can get that big sign of ball. He's a multi year contract, so it really holds him up. That is something that's in favor for the teamanchise.
I think one of the most famous ones, and I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm a I'm a Washington fan and this happened with Kirk Cousins.
Okay, right, where they had to franchise him twice, right, can you.
Can fis the franchisees a player twice?
Right?
And so like the last time, it was like either we're going to sign this guy to a long term deal and give him thirty million, which he never was worth it, but oh, we're.
Gonna have to let him go and they and now he's the viks. Correct.
Yeah, so that so it's two years that you can do it.
You can do it two years in a row.
Correct.
Okay, So it is the average of five the top five salaries of your at quarterback if you in that case with Kirk Cousins. Okay, And it's the cap number. It's not the actual what they make. It's the cap number. And that's what a lot of people know. It's the cap. It's still high enough high money. But what the cap number is basically what your amount is that the team gets charged per year year contract per that year.
If they go over the cap, they get penalized for that. You can't go over the gap because like in basketball, you can go over.
The baseball you got the luxury. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like Yankees, they just went paid years off for the next thirty years. They just say we're going over our cap, so football.
You can't go over to gather, right, Okay, So all right? So and then all NFL eight rookies have four year contracts.
Four year contracts. The first if your first round. The team owns the option the fifth for the fifth year. So basically, if your first year your if your first round, first round, there there's a chance you could possibly be there for seven years. You got your four years, they optioned the fifth. They franchised after that.
So all right.
So one thing I was always curious about because a lot of time fans from the outside, they don't fully understand how this thing works. Right, So like a Zeke Elliott, right, who I think he was in his third year and then he he sits out, but they always do it the year before the fourth year, right, and.
Well this case, I mean.
Third, right, right?
Third? Sure?
But yeah, so how does that work as far as like a player sitting out an entire season, Like I think Le'Veon Bell did that?
Right? Did that last year?
Yeah?
Like as an agent, would you ever recommend your client do that? Or how would you feel if your client did that?
Each each situation is different, each situation. Some you're not going to lose. Some of you're not going to win, you know what I mean. Some you gonna have to play that year. You know, Le'Veon sat out of here. But however, he lost money. You know, he lost money.
So there's been some recent comments where we watch the NBA off season where players are kind of dictating where they want to go, and now they's talk of the NFL.
Put your thoughts on that, right, because we got like, even's good.
I think it's good. I mean I think you know, I don't think the player. You know, you don't want to every time you get in an argument with the coach, trade me. But you know, right now the owners have too much power. I mean, I'm hoping this new CBA it's more a player friendly, you know what I mean. So I like the fact that you know you'll be able to trade or demand the trade if you're good enough you know, to go on to another situation.
So one thing we was talking about off came also is a lot of time people don't fully understand like if you're a top player, I think, like top ten draft pick, you can have a Lloyd's of London insurance contract, right, and they kind of.
Like, now you're talking about when you're in college.
College.
Yeah yeah, well actually you can get Lloyds of London if you're.
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Acted probably in the first two to three rounds you can get. They'll carry you in college, yes, okay, and so that and that's like, and what the this is an insurance policy, whereas if you get hurt during that senior year, you're gonna get that money. Now, I haven't known of anybody who has cashed out on any of those yet they got a couple of different from what I because that's not my feel I don't sell insurance
or anything like that. But from what I understand is two or three different policies, Like there's a loss of value whereas maybe you get hurt in the bowl game and you was projected first round but you dropped a third. But nobody has been paid on any of those policies yet, and it's hard to really say, like to prove that your value was long, because no one actually said you was going to get drafted in the first round or the top ten. So because mel kiper or somebody puts
that on his page, that's not that. I don't know how that's going to stand up in an insurance case. I don't know. That's not my field, so you know what I mean. But I know a lot of the schools are taking these policies out and paying for it for the kids, which is good.
I think the quarterback of USC a few years ago, I forget his name, but he had I know he had a sizeable Lawyers of London contract.
Did he cash out?
Well, he never got he never got.
Hurt, he never got Well, there's a lot of players getting it right now. I haven't heard of any that has cashed out yet.
Though.
Yeah, in terms of like guys like you said, melkypo time and say how much weight do you put in what they're saying.
And when you're looking at an athlete or a potential client, I go to.
Him before I go to them. Now, I usually talk to management. In the NFL, those guys are usually the mal cop not not bad mouth in them or anything like that, but you know, they're there for entertainment most of the time, you know what I mean. So I like to actually talk to the decision makers, those guys who really gives me my ins and outs on you know, who's worth and who's not to go after where certain
guys are projected. So that's who you know. And that's because I've been in the business for eighteen years now, so I have good connections where I can call people and they can help me out with them like that.
So like, how all right, how does draft day work?
That's another thing because you see sometimes people it's like a top ten draft pick and then they drop.
To like thirty.
That's the most stressful day.
And so like what makes somebody rise or.
It's just like they don't know, they'll know probably leading up to the like last the next last couple of days, you know what I mean. I was in the green room a couple of times, you know, and it's stressful. You know, you'd rather just have your client just watch it at home, be honest with you, but you know you sitting there. You know, teams teams lie, they lie, they tell you they're going to draft the guy next thing, you know, they don't, you know what I mean. So
it's stressful. Different things come up off the field, incidents that might hurt a guy and have him drop things. They dig they go dig in. They might like your film, but then they might find something else, all about your drug test that you failed at college. Things like that, you know, your brushes with the law, things like that. They monitor your social media. They might see some things which is social media that they don't like. And those are ways that can always drop you.
And you remember that Nember that happened to the dude from an old miss old miss.
It was like.
His name.
Was projected.
Yeah, so surprised.
Yeah, so all right, So I mean so but you right, as an adult that's lived life, that has a family, there's a wife, and you experienced different things. But to your clients are nineteen and twenty years old, right, So like, how is it working with with you know, young men that our celebrities overnight and have a bunch of money overnight and have people that are like psychologically what is your role? Is it more of like a big brother, a father figure, all of the above.
I don't try to be anybody's father, because I'm not their father. When I ask these guys to hire me, I ask them for their trust. You're hiring me from my expertise and my experience, so you are the boss. But also I want you to respect me. If you're hiring me from my knowledge, respect me. All I can do is tell you what I recommend and the consequences of it's something. If you're gonna listen to me on that, you understand that. So yeah, I would love to be
a big brother type guy. But every situation is different. Some guys don't want that. Some guys just want you to do all business. Some guys I'm closer to, some guys I'm not that close to. So it's different things. Other than the contract that you do, you're helping manage these guys' life. I'm helping him transition from a college athlete to a professional athlete. You might have a case where this guy's living in Atlanta, Georgia his whole life and go to school in the University of Georgia be
gets drafted by the Seattle Seahawks. You know what I mean. Now you're on a whole different part of the country and you got to know how to survive. When I say survived, like, okay, NFL want you to playbook all day long and all that. So who's gonna help you go and find somewhere to stay, Who's gonna help you transport your vehic your vehicles out there? Who's going to help you get set up? And that's what I do.
That's why I'm on the road a lot. I like to be a part of their life as much as they allow me to outside of doing their contracts and getting their endorsements and things like that. So I help them transition from you know, a college student into a professional. Like you said, they're bank accounts in some cases go from one hundred dollars to three four point million overnight. Now I'm not a financial advisor, but in terms of doing everything else, I want to help them adapt today.
So how is it negotiating? All right? So you do contract? How is contract negotiating? Is it easy? Because it's pretty much straightforward right now?
Well, I'll tell you what it is right now. In NFL their first contract, the money is lotted. But also there's the fault language that you got a nego.
What does that mean?
The fault language is ways that they can take away your guarantees from you. So that's something that you got to negotiate. That's something that you have to have in there and make sure that the teams aren't putting things in their easy ways for them to come and take that money from you. You understand that. So you will have a contract and you know, okay, he's gonna if he gets suspended for head on collision whatever whatever it may be, you could take X amount of dollars away
from it. So that's something that can be negotiated. Aunt of money you're gonna get is already there. But the ways that you can lose that money, that's why you need to have a good agent that knows what he's doing.
So how can what's a few ways that you can actually lose? Like, how can you, Oh, you give me.
An example, how I got okay. Let's say, like I said, he's just okay. Maybe you're in jail for over seventy two hours, A big difference. Man, Okay, you get charged with something, you're there and they keep you for over
seventy two others that means it's something different. And in a regular contract, it might just say okay, if he's arrested, he can lose a guarantee, but why not put in there, Okay, such and such an hours because he can he can you know, urinate in the street and get and put it jail and get released on his own recon in two three hours. So is that fair for him to lose all that? And you know, we know something serious if you're there for over seventy jo or something like that.
So there's different ways you gotta look at that and try to get That's something important you said too. A lot of times people see contracts, they seem play it. It's one hundred million, but the signing BoatUS could be sixty nine million. That's the only thing that they're guaranteed in the contract. Well they're signing not necessarily because it's all you know, you have contracts and it's called you know, contracts are guaranteed and something called that size see skill
injury cap. So just because you see that he's getting that that that sign and bo there could be more to that that's guaranteed. There might be Okay, perfect example, you know Antonio Brown, because they had thirty million, people thought that was guaranteed. But as you see, he lost that because it's something he did. He just had to make that first day right, And you see what I'm saying. So everything is not always guaranteed, and sometimes there's things
more guaranteed than others. You really have to read the whole contract for me to tell you. You know, a lot of times I get called, say, yo, is that all guaranteed? That I just saw such and such a sign Like, you know, I don't. I have to read the contract because I mean, these contracts is anywhere from seventeen pages to Bobby forty fifty pages. So there's so many things in there that might you know, trigger you're guaranteed, and some things that might not be guaranteed. So you just don't know.
A few years ago, you had one of the biggest signings in the history, Yeah, the NFL for a defense player, right just in Houston, just in Houston, right with the Chiefs.
Correct said it.
Was the most stressful day of your life. It was. It was, it was.
It was the most stressful negotiation thus far, because there was just you know, going back and forth with the team getting the numbers right. We actually was negotiating from that past October all the way to July fifteenth, which was the last day because he was end up. He had to be enfranchised dad, and it was up into that July. You head up until July fifteenth to negotiate the contract or you would have to play that one year. So you know, we got it done in the twelve hour.
How much? How much was it?
It was one hundred and one total and fifty two guaranteed.
And all right, all right, so you can talk about that deal, right because it's done pretty much, right, So all right, so how does that work? So you got one hundred and one total.
Totally if you play out the whole contract, which would have been for eight years with the same team.
With that team, all he had to do. All he had to do was play. He didn't have to reach Pro Bowl or as long as he all.
Language on that at all. Okay, right, But what you got to realize is sometimes, okay, the first four years is guarantee, which was that's what was considered the whole guarantee, which was the fifty two million. So after that, as you know, they can cut you, which they did with those bigger salaries. Is about to start the hit.
They cut them.
They cut him, they released him in this past here and I negotiated another extension for him. Well another contract firm, which is a two year deal right now, and he's with the Indianapols.
So you had all right, the contract is seventeen to twenty something pages. You said you have a legal department actually reached out.
You have a lawyer that you work with.
Well, I'm not a lawyer. I'm CBA, So I'm a certified contract advisor I have. There's about four of us on our team. I work with a guy by the name of Joe Siegel, who is about far the most powerful man in NFL negotiation business, you know what I mean. So he's a lawyer. We also have another lawyer on our team, and we have two other agents. So we all look at our contracts together. But you know, we so a negotiation. You know, you might have all of
us looking at one contract, circling different things. And you know, when you do a contract, it's not like some people think that you're just at the table talking numbers. You know, contracts is usually done you know via email. They send the offer over, you know, we send it back. You know, this is what we last for. You know, it goes back and forth and then once the numbers get right, then you got a lot. The language has to be right, so there's a lot to it in a negotiation for a contract.
And you spoke about having trust and one of the things in your resume you had a family.
Yeah, you had a series of brothers right.
That had Yep, the Fuller family. I had Corey Fuller, who are represented first out of Virginia Tech. He's a wide receiver. He got drafted in the sixth round two Detroit lines. After that, I had Kyle Fuller, who was the first round cornerback drafted to Chicago Bears. And the last one who's in his third year now four third year, Kendall Fuller who's with the Kansas City Chiefs. And they are older brothers who I did not represent. Vincent Fuller
was a draft pick with the Tennessee Titans. He's retired now he's actually working as a lawyer.
And the four brothers, for all four.
Of them, they're all siblings. All their siblings made it to the NFL.
Wow, So what do you feel about There was a quarterback of the I think the Colts. He just made news because he he did his own contract and actually got someone on the podcast Brandon Copeland negotiated Huh Brisbane yea and Brandon Copeland. He also negotiated his own contract too. He was a guest on the podcast, So what would you What do you think about players not utilizing agents and doing it themselves.
Well, it's a little saying the girls. Anybody who re presence yourself as a lawyer as a fool for a client. I mean, you know, if you have the background and you know it, that's all found and Dandy, I know, he put comments out there in the media that he didn't want an agent BS and BS and on his behalf. Why does his agent have to be BS and you
know this language. I didn't look on his contract, for say, everybody just looks at the numbers, and he was probably you know, I'm not talking about them, but he was probably just gunn help me because they came and offer him something. Because Andrew Luck He's like, oh, I'm taking that. Hey, I don't know whatever whatever it was, And maybe he's looking at like I want to go to get this
if luckis I don't know. I haven't looked at the contract, but I just hope he's protected, protected because there are ways that he can lose. I don't know what his guarantees was or anything like that, and that's why we earned our keep. That's where we earn number. But you know too, each is all if you don't want to use an agent, you know what I.
Mean for sure?
All right, So yeah, we got a lot of good gyms on the on the NFL. So in the next time, we're going to talk about correct bit preparing players for the career after sports with some other stuff that you do as well.
So you've been getting to that, all right.
So now in the last segment, we're going to talk about life after football for your client, because that's something that you're really passionate about. Is is like, you know, one thing to be an NFL agent and you know, to work with guys when they're actually in the league. But as famous Sheikh Lops said, you're going to be older a lot longer than you're going to be younger.
To the lock stay from Westchester also for sure for sure, So what does that look like?
Because I know you were talking, that's something that you're real passionate about as far as like you know, helping them out and like even with charities and things of that nature. So like, what's that look like having like the career after football.
Well, right now, because I've been in about you know, sixteen or eighteen years around that time, some of my first guys some are already retired, but you know, some of my bigger guys are now you know, starting to come upon retirement. And like, for example, one guy, Percy Harvin, has hired me. I used to be his agent when he was in the league, and now he's hired me to be his business man. And what's that doing is basically finding businesses for them to start with or to
start up and to get involved with. Not managing their money or anything like that. But like, for example, someone wants to get into cannabis, someone wants to get into real estate, someone wants to invest in tech. So just working as a business manager. When I recruit these guys, I ask them, you know, and I let them know like this is something I love to do. I love to work with athletes, and even when they're done playing, hopefully it'll be an opportunity where I can continue to
work for them. I've gained that trust where they allow me to help them with their businesses, you know, as they're not playing anymore. It might be things simple as just keeping their football camp going in the off season, you know, or something like, you know, creating a golfing event to give back to a charity or something like that. So it's not just always doing things for profit, but also getting their name out there. And I always try to tell my guys, you know, do things for company
while you're maximize your worth while you're playing. Once you're done playing, nobody cares about you, you know, unless you're a Tom Brady type guy. Yeah, thirty seven super Bowls or whatever, you know what I mean. But these companies might not need you when you're done, So do little things. I encourage them to do things to do speaking engagements and things like that for a company, even though it might not be paying anything, that's going to make a
real difference for them. Do that because they'll remember that after you're done playing, and sometimes that could be the difference between you picking a job or a job picking you or career once you're done, you know what I mean. You want to be able to do what you want to do when you're done playing. So that's what I try to set up for them.
So the average NFL career is short lived.
Right, So these athletes could be done playing by twenty five, thirty years old.
Easy.
So what is the toughest thing as far as that transition period that you see with your athletes finding.
Out what they want to do after football, what they want to do for them? You still got two thirds of your life, right what they're trying to give us? What about seventy five eighty five? Right now?
You know?
So what you're going to do and if you've done it twenty five, whether you're rich or not, you know, what are you going to do? Because even if you're rich, that money's gonna run out if you're not doing anything. So hopefully they have a good financial advisor and then they downsize and what they're you know, and they're they're living. You know, you don't, you never need three cars.
But all right, So one thing I was curious about, what's the difference between negotiating contracts for players and negotiating endorsement deals, because that's something that you do as well as far as the agent is concerned, is endorsement.
Negotiating is negotiating. So when you say negotiating a contract, well, what you mean by.
That, like, well, like, as far as all right, friends, So like, all right, the NFL player and gets drafted and you have to negotiate the contract right right, and the guarantee and stuff like that. But then they they know Coca Cola wants to, you know, endorse them. So that's a different I would assume conversation, right, like, how does that more?
Well, you're still selling your client to both you know, you're selling your client to a team. You're selling your client to a brand. A lot of times you got to make sure it's the right fit. But that that goes also with football also. You know, sometimes I guess the difference, but it's very similar because I was going to say, you got a brand like Coca Cola that might say he's the right fit for us. But just that and the third same thing with the Raiders, they
might say he's the right fit for us. So I don't think it's too much different. Now, of course, the contracts are structured much different, and doing an endorsement contract you're not governed by anybody, so of course it's different. It's really just whatever you're a green and greening on in the language and the contract on what that brand is offering.
The endorsement jails are a lot shorter. What is like the average term for an endorsement.
I would say is a lot of that's year by year, you know, in most cases it's year by year, season by season. You know, you know, your average a pair of you know, shoe deal might be for about two years, maybe three years the most, something like that.
Yeah, I remember Iverson had the legendary lifetime.
Lifetime and now Lebron has.
Now Lebron has a lifetime NI those days, you got to be super level there.
You go right right where they know they're going to sell your likeness for years and years after.
I think they just they just built the whole building building for where at the Nike Nike I saw that.
Something like that.
So, all right, speaking about Lebron, So you're a football guy and he played football, and you're a football agent, but you have ties in basketball also AU circuit. I know your son's played AU and you've been around basketball level.
That was actually, yeah, I love it a.
Long time, probably longer than you played the football right all the same time.
Time eight nine years old, seven eight years old, that's you know. But of course I made my living playing football. When I say living, got scholarship So.
As far as AAU is concerned for basketball, when you're talking off camera, like how big it is, and a lot of times people don't fully understand, Like can you just like briefly talk about that, Like what's the influence of AAU on college basketball?
And just a big business right now. It's a big business. And that's where you you know, you heard all the corrupt things that was going on, you know, and the charges or the fence came in and you know, the whole the whole thing with our Adidas and couple of college coaches, you know what I mean. It's such a big bottom line. These brands want kids in their brands. There their big picture is to make money off a
player once they become pro. They need the next Lebron, They need the next Alan Moblinson, like you said, and that's how they make their money. They need the next or under Armour wants the next stuff, the next steph current. So what they do they go out and sponsor AAU teams and they give them a lot of product and pay for them to travel and hopefully that will funnel them to their brand college and it goes from there.
Hopefully at the end of the day, they get that player wearing their shoes, they're going to sell those shoes for X amount of dollars and they.
Make It's like that influence that will live with them.
So like eleven, when we gave you all those niggas, right now you're eighteen, right, and they get directed towards schools too, right, So like they have the a you can't, they're not supposed to.
But that's what's going on.
You you know, because like an Adidas school and then you had Adidas High school.
Now you go to.
Adidas Grassroots exactly the day you signed with Adidas, and they they give.
It's like it's like it's like another person from our town that you may not know be from our town.
Jonathan Well, I know.
Is his dad. I knew of you know, knew we worked out a couple of times the Mets. Yeah, yeah, because he was with the Mets when I used to work out before. Yeah.
I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but obviously he went to Louisville, which is which is Ada school, and now he's Adida is one of the premium athletes.
Yeah, he has his own shoe, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure, so shout to him to send me something from my kids.
For sure? For sure.
So all right, so oh okay, as far as you know picking an agent, right, we're gonna we're gonna end it with this. What what should have Because a lot of guys in the league listen to us, and a lot of aspiring guys, you know, have dreams of going to the league, and even parents and things of that nature. What should somebody look at when they're evaluating picking an agent, Like in your opinion, like, how do you do that?
You want to make sure he's experienced. You don't want to be a guinea pig, you know what I mean. If you blow your knee out, you're gonna go and get surgery by the guy who did three thousand surgeries, or you're gonna go with the guy who just did one surgery. You know what I mean? Now, how does that guy with that one surgery get? You know, known, you got to work on just somebody who was doing a lot and eventually, like you said, get your break. But you don't want to be a guinea pig, that's
number one. So you want to go with somebody with ex experience, expertise, and you want them to have power. You want them to have juice to be able to talk for you in the league. You know, the owners aren't your friend, you know what I mean, So you want to go and do contracts for yourself. They know they love it, They would love that. They love when they hear the mom is working as an agent or he's going to represent themselves because they're gonna take advantage
of you. And then for the most important point, once you get past that, somebody you can relate to and you can trust when you sign with them. You can't trust them at that point yet if you just met them, uh during the recruiting process. So that's going to come with time. But somebody who's that guy you you can you have the least trust issues with and that you have a relationship with. Everybody's different sometimes, I mean, we just don't click some guys out here right off, you know,
and you can feel it sometimes. I mean, so everything's different. Everybody's different. But going you want to look for somebody you can relate to and you can trust.
That's for the most part, that's dope.
Man.
So once again, man, thank you for joining us a special hometown.
Guys in my hometown elementary school when I was getting out of coming out of high school.
For sure, for sure. So it's good to you know, have roma. It's good to have role models and hopefully we could see you to do what you did. You know, give the inspiration to people younger than us and even people older than us. You know, you can never be ashamed to learn from somebody, no matter what age they are. So how can the people contact you? And what's should you have any initiatives or anything going on that you want to make people aware of?
Not right now? You know, right now, you know a couple, couple of business and devins throughout Atlanta, but you know, nothing where I need to promote. Right now, my main focus is being the best NFL agent I can. You know, I'm a family man. You know, I'm you know, uh married with two kids. You know, I didn't mention that before I got eight year old son and a twelve year old son. They have you in sports. And I have a wife, Katrine Us. She works in school system.
She's a media specialist. She loves doing that. So you know, right now that's my focus, being the best you know, husband and I can do and dad and you know, focusing on being an NFL agent and see where it takes me in my upper years. You know, I love working with athletes, you know.
What I mean?
Yeah, for sure, sure choice.
Yeah.
So shout out to everybody on our Patreon that's patreon dot com, Backslash and your Leisure. That's our proud of pay program. We said there are five tiers. You can join any tier. We have new members every week, man, So we just want to give a huge shout out to them. They allow us to come to different cities, come to Atlanta, come to Chicago, go to LA and Houston and have networking events. So shout out to y'all.
Continue to support that, continue to support the merch. We have our tour merch up there now, so check out the new site, the new design site. Shout everybody that was behind that getting that, getting that out. So when we went to Houston, people were asking how we get the EYL Houston toy shirt is now available, So make sure y'all go cop that.
Cop the Chicago one. Yeah man. Keep supporting that.
Yeah yeah, And once again shout out to the to the city of Atlanta. It's always a good time when we're out here, and shout out to the town of Greenberg. That's where we come from. Yeah, very special place, very funny place.
And just know you guys are safe here in Atlanta.
Shout out to Mike Man.
My book.
Tip of the week is Sole Influence, and that talks about grassroots basketball. Just kind of piggyback in all conversation that we had on AAU basketball. And once again, especially for parents a lot of times. You know, I'm a parent myself and my son plays basketball. Now he's talking about he wants to be on AAU teams and things of that nature. So it's a very competitive landscape. But unfortunately it's a lot of corruption like all things, so
you just got to navigate that. And it's also important for athletes to to not just play the game, but to understand that, you know, there's a there's a career after that and the flip side of that. And that's why every player that's coming into the league and all the parents and coaches you need to hilt my man, Greg, so you can set you up right. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. So once again, thank you guys for rocking with us. We'll see you next week.
Peace.
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