IntroductionIt didn''t seem so wrong. It seemed as though I worked my whole life to get where I am, and at the same time, when it was presented to me, it was like this was the time I could start to get back some of the fruits of my labor. --Paul Palmer, former star college football running back, regarding cash payments of more than $5,000 he received while a college senior from sports agent Norby WaltersThis epigraph has remained in our text through multiple editions. Its continued relevance is underscored by the irony that, in a recent court ruling, a judge pegged the minimum dollar figure for college athletes to receive from licensing revenues at $5,000. This book, meanwhile, focuses on the evolving sports agent industry, the issues affecting it, and how to improve and regulate it. Key issues and problems associated with sports agents are visible at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Whatever the concerns that lie at the center of the sports agent storm, it is a business that captures the attention of many. For years, the dominant sports agent images were the fictional Jerry Maguire and Arli$$; more recently it has been the faceless mega-agencies that have resulted from the consolidations discussed in Chapter 3.
Today''s most intriguing image may be entertainment mogul, now sports agent, Shawn Carter, known professionally as Jay Z, sitting next to his latest celebrity athlete recruit at a sporting event. Whatever the image, the business is complex, and the line between what helps a client and what hurts a client can often be thin. The widely rebroadcast 2005 press conference featuring sports agent Drew Rosenhaus speaking on behalf of client Terrell Owens after Owens was suspended from the National Football League''s Philadelphia Eagles, for conduct detrimental to the team, remains illustrative. With Owens in the background, Rosenhaus stood at the microphones responding to seemingly every query regarding the suspension with the response "Next question?" Many observers expressed concern about the strategy the agent employed and its impact on the already tarnished image of his client. Others wondered whether the apparent grandstanding was more of an agent''s ego-trip than an earnest attempt to advance his client''s interests. While there is no way to know for sure, not long after the incident Rosenhaus penned a book entitled Next Question: An NFL Super Agent''s Proven Game Plan for Business Success . Several years after the book''s publication, however, Owens fired Rosenhaus due to other conflicts, and at the time of this writing Owens is suing him on several grounds (discussed in Chapter 5). Although it generated considerable attention, the Rosenhaus microphone event is a relatively mild example of an agent taking action that arguably is not in his or her client''s best interests.
At the extremes, agent misconduct and malfeasance, ranging from mismanagement and misappropriation of athlete clients'' assets to disparagement of other agents in order to gain a competitive advantage, fuel perceptions of an industry composed of individuals too willing to compromise ethics and competent representation for financial gain. Agent impropriety overlaps with the reality of many newly or prospectively rich individuals not receiving the counseling they require to duplicate success on the field with success off the field. Although concerns involving the athlete representation business loom large at the professional level, they remain at the collegiate level as well. It is there that, no matter how mature they may be, young men often succumb to the corrupt actions of seasoned professionals. Paul Palmer''s dilemma, noted above, remains with us today. He is not alone in having received payments that violate National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules and, now, state and federal laws. Other student athletes have received inducements such as interest-free loans, automobiles, clothes, concert tickets, airline tickets, insurance policies, and dates with models. In 2000, an Auburn University basketball star admitted to taking $2,500 from Nate Cebrun, a "runner" for a sports agent.
The student athlete, Chris Porter, said that he used the money to pay his mother''s mortgage. The interaction with Porter was not Cebrun''s first controversial contact with student athletes. In 1994, Cebrun, acting on behalf of certain agents, arranged a shopping spree for Florida State student athletes. A more recent illustration of alleged improper student athlete/agent interaction involved the benefits allegedly bestowed upon running back and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush during his collegiate career. In 2006, allegations surfaced that Bush and his family had accepted payments and benefits from marketing agents attempting to entice Bush to sign a representation agreement with them. According to media reports, Bush and his family accepted gifts, money, and other benefits totaling more than $100,000 from two marketing firms while Bush was still playing football for the University of Southern California (USC). Bush''s family allegedly failed to pay rent of $54,000 during a year in which they lived in a house owned by the agent, Michael Michaels, with whom Bush did not sign a representation agreement. Bush''s family allegedly agreed to repay Michaels after Bush turned professional.
Media reports also alleged that Mike Ornstein, head of the agency selected by Bush to provide marketing services, provided the athlete and his family with gifts that included money for hotel, airfare, and car-related expenses. The NCAA ultimately sanctioned USC. Amid these allegations, it was also revealed that Bush had a summer internship with Ornstein''s marketing firm. In the end, with his professional career underway, Bush decided to return his Heisman Trophy. The incidents involving Palmer, Cebrun, student athletes from Florida State, and Bush are points along a continuum that more recently includes financial scandals associated with University of Miami athletes and books by the likes of former agent Josh Luchs. Many will also have in mind the improprieties surrounding NFL star Cam Newton during his days as a student athlete at Auburn. An illustration from the mid-1990s involving former NFL running back Greg Hill reveals why some athletes take benefits from agents. In responding to the controversy involving agents, Hill stated, "The guys accepting pay or the guys who want to take pay, that mainly falls on .
the NCAA. I think that''s [their] fault because of the strict restrictions on how long guys work and how much [financial aid] guys get. Many families are too poor to give that child money. My mom couldn''t give me any money. Sometimes your team has functions where you have to dress up. Some guys don''t have suits. I didn''t have a suit. I had to wear jeans all of the time.
" The views expressed by Hill are not unique. From the student athletes'' perspective, rules perceived as unfair and irrelevant to their life circumstances fail to deter problematic or possibly illegal involvement within the underground economy of college sport. In the broadest stroke, recent student athlete lawsuits against the NCAA and athletes'' efforts to unionize reflect the desire by many student athletes to receive greater compensation either directly or indirectly. There is also an attitude expressed by some college athletes that playing the sport on the way to the pros is the very reason why they are in college. A tweet by Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, who helped lead his team to the inaugural College Football Playoff championship in 2015, is indicative of this view: "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL. We ain''t come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS." These reflections on the part of Jones, which came even before he was a starter, are nothing new. As Stephon Marbury, a former National Basketball Association (NBA) and Georgia Tech star, told the New York Times , "When I signed to go to Georgia Tech, we were on ESPN twenty times, instantly.
When you make the tournament they just give you money. And then they say a coach can''t buy you a winter coat, even if you grew up in the hood and you don''t have one." Former college basketball star Eldridge Hudson summarized the attitude of at least some athletes in a Time magazine cover story more than two decades ago: "Once you get out on the floor, it''s a job, and you expect to get paid. If a kid is busting his ass on the court, if somebody wants to buy a car, let him have it." Commenting on Reggie Bush''s alleged acceptance of unauthorized gifts, one commentator expressed similar views: "Almost all the incentives in big-time college sports point toward cheating. First, there''s the perception, probably more or less accurate, that everybody else is doing it so you have to do it just to keep up. Second, winning is enormously lucrative for everyone involved except the players, who happen to have the biggest influence over who wins and who loses. If you get a multimillion-dollar producer to work for you without pay, it''s a fantastic deal even if you have to slip him a few thousand bucks from time to time.
" This is the focus of many of the cases discussed herein. The amateurism foundations that college sports were designed around are no longer taken for granted. As a result, greater compensation flowing to student athletes is not the anathema it was once thought to be. This was brought to light broadly in a feature piece in the Atlantic , "The Shame of College Sports," by historian Taylor Branch. Branch argued strongly that college athletes should be paid. An affidavit submitted by NFL linebacker Johnny Rutledge focusing on payments he received during his collegiate career at the University of Florida illustrates the improper transactions between student athletes and.