The Agent is written by Leigh Steinberg, St. Martin’s Press, New York, and Mr. Steinberg is one of the top sports agents in the business. He got his start representing a friend Steve Bartkowski of Atlanta Falcons. From the modest start of one client his agency grew and developed to be represented by the movie with Tome Cruise called Jerry Maguire had a lot of Mr. Steinberg in it. Anyone looking at sports salaries now days can see that representing an athlete is a very lucrative business. But it has not always the case, salaries were much lower and so were TV contracts. Over the years the pie has gotten bigger and everyone can have a slice. As Mr. Steinberg relates the secret to being successful is representing the potential superstars of the industry, if you represent them, others will check you out. Mr. Steinberg believed and believes the athlete should have a sound foundation, care about his community ( part of the salary go to a start a foundation dealing with whatever the athlete cares about) and think about life after sports. There are very few 40 year old athletes in professional sports.

In the book The Agent, Mr. Steinberg talks about some the of the big names in professional sports as well as the owners. Which owners he liked dealing and why, as The Agent is in the middle. He wants to help the team, but have his client be paid at a premium number. The owner prior to the large TV contracts had only limited money to work with, perhaps owning the team was a secondary aspect to their lives. As owners of the team, one of the many perks is inviting people to your box to watch the game while you lobby them for something that will help your bottom line. To be an agent there is a lot of travelling involved – many frequent fling points will be received.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, similar to the agent, the company may start off with a big client, but that does not sustain only going expenses. The best agents are the ones very well prepared to be able to talk to owners and GMs in order to gain the type of contact the athlete demands. The agent will be interested in all aspects of the game, and get to know people in all the sports arenas, as well they need to relate and talk to the athlete and their support networks. Reputations take a long time to build but a short time to destroy. They must know the rules and expect the competition to badmouth them. Unless the company represents hundreds of people, there is little direct public investment in sport agencies, but the stories are interesting to sports fans.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions