Study Hall: How to Become a Sports Agent with Chris Coy

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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 a test, like what do you have to do?

Like?

What are you studying?

So the NFL requires that you have a post secondary degree. The NBA, I think, is just an undergrad In 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 p A and go do your research on that process. So what the NFL requires Do 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

The NFL is a.

Standard you know, there's nineteen NFL players, there's standardized contracts, so you really know negotiating to sticks. Then you are actual legal jargon. So I heard that, it was like, cool, I'll just go get a master's. And actually at the time, it was a master's in 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 undergrad and then post secondary post secondary degree, whether that be a law degree.

Or anything in that.

Okay, and then but then you have to.

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, that's just the qualifications in order to take the test. And then there's a 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 get an old the book to Washington, d C. So that's where the nfl PA is, NFL Player Association is down and down down in d C. 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

So what's on what's in the exam?

Like what understanding the contracts, like Brandon saying, Randham 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 jargons, things.

That have gone on and the 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 addition to that player benefits, because that's what you are as an agent.

You're supposed to be a fiducial.

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 to find out?

So I had been reading the CBA since I told you I was fourteen. Yeah, I'm sorry I used the term jargon, I guess. Yeah, the Collective Bargain Agreement. 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 Collective Bargaining Agreement at fourteen.

Yes, I was literally yeah, I mean literally like mom, Mom, when I determined that I want to.

Do something, I'm just focused on that one thing.

But the average person that may not be reading the Collective Bargaining at.

Fourteen, Okay, I mean yeah, that's definitely skimming it for sure. I had no. I definitely was.

Ready for that test because I remember writing 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 or even out of college has a four year degree, because that's what you need, right, a four year degree. 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, go to grad school. Yes, you 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 with that. And it has to do you have a degree in anything that the way that the rules.

Are set up right now, then 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 game business. They don't say law, and it'so 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 helping players or 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 TIPEDDF

I thought it was that team from Washington, Washington Reskans. Yeah, I'm not mistaken. It was the Dallas Cowboys. 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 Deon Sander's agent, and yeah, row Woodson, he had a number of guys, and he was kind of like the four or five or four our black agent in business, if that makes sense.

All right, all right, so okay, so now we know how to become an agent. Yes, 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 take the test.

You have to take the test. But it's like it was. I hadn't been stunning for a while, but I had. While I also.

Took the series six and sixty three.

It was harder than that, and it was harder than I thought the seven was gonna be when I was studying for that. So those are those are pretty decent. People failed, Like there's some lawyers that fail all the time. I think the 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 decent amount of student loans and I went to kind of keep them in determent. So I ended up going to school part time, and while I 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

Of those things I do for some of my clients. Some of the 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 you saw where you ahead it and said, you know what, I'm gonna 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 a 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,

Point where you're you don't need a good regular job. So it was 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

Yes, all right?

How were we do that?

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'd 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

Shout out to P and C and cry Sid 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.

I focused on one thing. It was 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 bisiness And it was literally a gift from God.

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 encounter 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 and you actually say what you want. A lot of time 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,

Spoke some things into existence and they opinion, absolutely it is. I literally talked to hundreds of people that came to the bank.

You know, I think has 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 seen you know some guys that are making really good money. And it was like, man, you know, I really liked 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 to 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, You're 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 clients, 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, came 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 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 gonna do anything like it's gonna 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 were.

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 there to lock up, we sat.

In there and by for an hour, hour and a half and it was just like, man, this dude is gonna do.

And I didn't know he was gonna be an NFL player at that time, but I just follow him throughout his career and then when it was time from the Vega's eighty decisions, 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 necessarily have the necessary experience. So that's where a partnership situation happened. And then I end 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 hopeing, I don't get that too far ahead of myself. You're paying for the costs from the training so the minute they declared 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 I.

IMG Academy's one EXOS is one of the bigger ones. There's one name Performance Compound ASPI.

That's another one. Like there's a number of different fifteen thousands for the week, No, fifteen thousand dollars throughout that right, So it's a eight week.

So you 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 to 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 a first round it could be for a receiver or a running back the top. 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 signing the things that needsure. 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 back.

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 course 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 it 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 pay I'm only capping it 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

But the smaller agency that don't.

Necessarily have the same bankroll, if that makes a bank take a little bit, so for sure.

So but the thing about it is that you're not.

But I try to stressed to the players, like when that guy signs eight of you, he's going to 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 to you. But you're not going to be serviced by a guy that recruited you.

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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 your that's your responsibility to pay for it. Right now, you're hoping that he gets drafted highly. Right. The agents cut is.

Three percent pond 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 guys go to 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.

That agent's like, man, I will never go between my money.

So when when y'all in the green room during the you get invited to the draft, 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

Like, what are the emotions as you sit in that green room, because I remember it is I'm getting uncomfortable right now said about you.

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 going to go by by this time he and that did happened. 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 effects. So what end 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, man, I know we talked to these teams in the twenties. Let's see what they talking about.

So let me ask you this. Let's get back to the tol 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, four year, seven million dollars and over the course of that, I'll make your 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 internet or he's just taking it out of a 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 gonna give a major upfront out pouring depending 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

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 SRAH, you sign a sign he signed 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

You said you said something about after twenty one then not guaranteed.

That was only an 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 kiss would be, or if they cut you because your skill, 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 cup.

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. Y, I don't. I don't.

I'm not. I'm not one to name any names. I'm not one.

I'm gonna 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 contract 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 their 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, or agents have done for years, is they pay current some of their current clients.

To go recruit for you recruit. Hey, talk to your teammate. If you're unhapy with his agent, I'll give you something on the side.

So it's it's dirty in the capacity, but the idea of it is that it's agents fighting against agents. It's they're just trying to give out the better deal. Because you gotta take con sideration. If you've signed a guy on an SRA for you know, when you first sawn him and you put up that upfront investment, may try to go on a second country. He 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 so like plays 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 businesses that agents have 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, gonna give this guy a loan or yeah,

That kind of thing.

So it's because those guys aren't regulated by the NFL fund, by the NFL PA.

We're regulated.

So if we do get caught doing something like that, we can lose our license. It could be bard, there could 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. For sure, Yeah, for sure, and but I mean it's there.

But you got to also take siteration 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 cassey And I mean, I, like I said, I have eight clients in the NFL currently and I'm you know, continue to try to earners.

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And so it's like my mom asks me, Yes, She's like, well, they're out here recruiting your guys or the second contract guys, or why don't you go out that. That's really just not my I would shign 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 touch with them.

Yeah, I'm glad you said that because the NFL, you know, the average cont the average career is very sure.

Yeah.

So my thing, my question to you is do you have aspirations of going to Major League Baseball or 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 vicerecy 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, if 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 and 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 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 seasoned agent where you're meeting clients every single you're getting new players every single year. How do you recruit players?

Now?

Like what's your progress?

So now I have relationship ships 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

But how do you reach a player?

Social media is key to success for a lot of guys. So you sliding DM.

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 knows than I got. Yes, But when I was able to get a meeting, I was like, all right, cool. At least I felt 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, No, no, I'm not really that god that's gonna be like yo, clean, let me holler 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 made an uncle or

So it's so 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

So they have they put the Rooney rule in place for the owners, but there's nothing in place for the agencies.

Ori general managers, right, yeah. So that's 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 in 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 all 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 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 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

Like I said, I've had some couple of draft picks.

Got a guy who's coming up on a major second contract, h 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 back 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, Rich Paul and Mavacarta 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 I anybody's not familiar. Rich Paul is Lebron's agent. He's also Anthony Davis's agent.

Yeah, he's on a couple of Sports Illustrated today because they know that this is his summer, this is the most important.

He's on the cover. 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

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 think 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 businessmens that we've ever seen. I think he 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.

In coming athlete. 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. NFL tougher. You know 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 a agent that assigned two black quarterbacks back or over just over the black to 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 because they have the biggest contract and they have the most FaceTime.

So what about barb receiver. It's like Odell Beckham.

Odell Beckham has he's not black, So yeah, I mean, yeah, everybody has his agent. Yeah, they just that 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 we're 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 are unless they're like a point called like cal Lowry. Yeah, we're not gonna talk about what happened.

He got black, right. I just knew he I just knew he just drank. The thing about it.

I knew it was hard to shoot behind the backboard, so I was just like, there's no who else could do it.

But Kyle Lari shot the Philly Toronto.

Now, I mean I think it's to Toronto.

But they clapped when Katie got hurt. I don't like that.

No, Yeah, you know it's always gonna be bad Apple.

Yeah, there's not a bunch of them. I heard them claps here in New York. It was not fortunate. It was fortunate.

We've seen Drake almost crying. So took it home Drake album. 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 Tomes Square and not get recognized at all. That kind of leads to a couple

For sure.

Where the NBA players they might do it, they might not, but they don't they seven feet tall. They already know who they are, absolutely sure. And then also just from a failed standpoint of like doing 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. It together when it comes to receivers.

So I have a cornerback who's probably one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. I would say his name is James Bradberry plays for the Panthers recruit I mean he literally guarded all the top guys. I mean, you got to take the seneration. He three times ago or six times between six times he turned Mike, Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Mike Thomas and does really good jobs all of them. And everyone talks about this game again Tulio

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 rams And I respect Jenner 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 Outsinka. He did something today where he 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

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 Aja Green and not even someone say a j Green in Cincinnati, but like Julio Jones, like 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

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.

Keith to leave is another one who's a great cornerback there just then 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's it's a me me. It's like philosophy exactly exactly.

Controversy said shock value solve for sure, and you could be a great player, but if you don't really open your mouth, yeah, nobody.

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,

Yeah, for sure.

And like you said, I think he used the term. The rest of the guys they have helmet, Yes, absolutely.

So, yeah, we were talking about the clubs and things that, like with the NFL, they want you know, we all want to check pretty women and we want to be seen. So a lot of times with the you'll find the NFL players, of baseball players or anybody else has the biggest change 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's 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

So how do you feel I have a feel pressure. Your clients are rich then 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 with players. They have the hardest locker room from a worker's 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 same time they're competing on and off the field. So if he goes and buy a new billion.

I got it good. 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 million 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 of 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 sold that seventeen and eighteen guys are, you know, making millions of dollars on major second contract.

It depends.

Let's 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 above.

Yes, are making millions of dollars, so like your stars.

So the 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 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

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 to live up to his expectations. So being an NFL player is a gift and a curse because everyone around you thinks you're making

Requested that's seventeen out of fifty three is yeah, like that, And I guess depending on the financial structure of the team, it could be less. Right 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 like that's due to his performance, of course, And Robert Craft cuts them in on deals like he know he's getting his money.

But it's a situation that nectually come.

From under the table, actstarily 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.

It's like, hey, I help you out this, Like some.

Owners are really really good from an owner's perspcative 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.

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 this big deals. But when you come back and see the real deals, 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 looks 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 have to get you a quarterback. Yeah, because for sure 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 you get the 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's like, we're gonna continue to do we have to do. Kyler Murray literally was like, dang, they had Josh Rose for a year. They drafted Calli 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 went, they also had one of the best defenses and the alls, and like the Bears that year they went, they had Rex Grossen, you know, yeah, yeah, for sure, But I'm talking about that the other Bears and the Bears, Yeah.

Levy 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 the 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 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, it was the nfls they're I think they're at forty five percent and I think the end of the league team is at fifty five percent.

If I'm not saying they're in the process of redoing this this.

New c yeah, because they 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 on the back end.

The NBA did the deal with TNT in ESPN with twenty four billion. Yeah, nfls, 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.

So the NFL. But it's interesting because the NFL is the most profitable league. Yeah, 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. It need to be three year guaranteed 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 payout, because that's really what is what

Well, second year he's just terrible.

The third year's 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. Yeah, 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 still young. Yeah, he's the Heighstan Trophy, he's a number one overall pen and 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 I was like, wait, should we even start this guy now?

So they got some decisions.

And now Vince is down in Miami with Josh Rosen, but rant on his perode potentially. So it's going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out. But needless to say it's gonna be I don't think the CBA is going to be I hope.

I think that they're making progress.

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 gonna say before So Dame Dash's cousin forgot his name, but Vince Young had sued him. You know, you know about this.

I heard I think I heard someone.

So 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 guys money, but he was loaning no money at like crazy fifty interest forty five ors 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 is 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 tiking, 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 can paid them nine months potentially, and they had that three months of law or whatever. They have that four months and other than like OTA's are making to coming and now they have the player performance when they get a piece of that. But for the most part, that ninety eight percent of the income is gonna come from that base salary during the season.

King one 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 may. 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've 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 it gets the regular savings account and live off. Like I always tell guys like, hey, listen, you're 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

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