Former sports agent comes clean

[Sports Guy]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/magazine/10/12/agent/index.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin

[Icterus galbula]

Great article, lots of interesting stories.

My avatar behooves me to post this hilarious tidbit:



If you were a good player at UCLA, I made a run at you. I tried to get can't-miss NFL left tackle prospect Jonathan Ogden as a client, but he wouldn't take my money. He did, however, go with me to a Janet Jackson concert. My girlfriend got two tickets, and I told her, "Sorry, I need those tickets for J.O. He's a big Janet Jackson fan." Instead of going to the concert with my girlfriend, I went with a 6'9" guy who weighed more than 300 pounds and who screamed "Janet!" the whole night like a teenage girl.

[Birds of B'more]

Very good read. And it confirms what I always expected...that while agents can be pretty sleazy in the way they recruit college players, the players and their families aren't exactly innocent victims in this. I certainly don't blame the kids for taking the money, I probably would too. But to take an agent's money time and time again with the expectation that you will be his client, only to ditch him at the very end is pretty low. Same goes for trying to extort money out of an agent for a friend or teammate....someone who probably has no shot at the NFL themselves.

Other things I found interesting:

- Ryan Leaf was the one person who at least paid the guy back after dumping him
- The accusation that Mel Kiper gives higher ratings to players whose agents he's pals with. Wonder how this will impact Mel's credibility. I'm sure if it's true then the scouts and GM's are already wise to it. But I wonder what ESPN is thinking right now?
- And the confirmation about the whole John Blake thing. Not that Blake would steer his players towards a specific agent (I'm sure that's extremely common) but that he would try to get players from other programs to sign with Wichard. Now that's some chutzpah right there.

[Sports Guy]

Very good read. And it confirms what I always expected...that while agents can be pretty sleazy in the way they recruit college players, the players and their families aren't exactly innocent victims in this. I certainly don't blame the kids for taking the money, I probably would too. But to take an agent's money time and time again with the expectation that you will be his client, only to ditch him at the very end is pretty low. Same goes for trying to extort money out of an agent for a friend or teammate....someone who probably has no shot at the NFL themselves.

Other things I found interesting:

- Ryan Leaf was the one person who at least paid the guy back after dumping him
- The accusation that Mel Kiper gives higher ratings to players whose agents he's pals with. Wonder how this will impact Mel's credibility. I'm sure if it's true then the scouts and GM's are already wise to it. But I wonder what ESPN is thinking right now?
- And the confirmation about the whole John Blake thing. Not that Blake would steer his players towards a specific agent (I'm sure that's extremely common) but that he would try to get players from other programs to sign with Wichard. Now that's some chutzpah right there.

Luchs was on Mike and Mike this morning...he said that all he was trying to say about Kiper is that he feels that Mel gets used by certain agents to get clients to sign with them. He said Mel never did anything directly.

Mel responded by saying that its possible he has been used some over the 32 years of doing what he does but that he has lots of good relationships with agents and that he does nothing wrong(which Luchs agreed with).

It just sounds like it is more of a situation where each side likely uses the other, even if it is unintentional.

[Birds of B'more]

Luchs was on Mike and Mike this morning...he said that all he was trying to say about Kiper is that he feels that Mel gets used by certain agents to get clients to sign with them. He said Mel never did anything directly.

Mel responded by saying that its possible he has been used some over the 32 years of doing what he does but that he has lots of good relationships with agents and that he does nothing wrong(which Luchs agreed with).

It just sounds like it is more of a situation where each side likely uses the other, even if it is unintentional.

That's good to hear. I enjoy watching Mel and respect his opinions a lot, as I'm sure many do. Luchs' article in Sports Illustrated painted a bit of a different picture regarding Mel's relationship with agents (at least to me), so I'm glad all the parties came out and cleared it up.