A sports agent is a person who procures and negotiates employment and endorsement deals for a player. In return, the agent receives a commission that is usually between four and ten percent of the contract, although this figure varies.
Roles
In addition to finding incoming sources, agents often handle public relations matters for their clients. In some large sports agencies, such as IMG and Octagon, agents deal with all aspects of a client's finances, from investment to filing taxes.
Sports agents may be relied upon by their clients for guidance in all business aspects of life, and sometimes even more broadly. For example, hockey agents start recruiting clients as young as 15, allowing the agent to guide the athlete's career before the NHL draft, which happens usually at 18 years of age. Many sports agents have a major in law background, mainly to help understand the large and complicated legal matter in contracts.
Some agents are part of large companies and some are on their own. The number of clients an individual agent can handle and how many his or her employing agency can handle in total are interdependent variables.
Notable sports agents
American Football
- Tom Condon:An American football agent, whose clients include Peyton Manning, Tony Romo,Matt Leinart, Tim Couch, Marvin Harrison, LaDainian Tomlinson, Tony Gonzalez, Steve Hutchinson, Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Chad Pennington, Alex Smith, Marc Bulger, Chris Simms, Byron Leftwich, Mathias Kiwanuka, Brady Quinn, and Adrian Peterson.
- Jason Fletcher: former player turned agent, partners with Fletcher Smith, his firm represents and negotiated deals for high profile athletes Antonio Cromartie, Charles Rogers, Adam Jones, Jamar Fletcher, Antwaan Randle El, Donovan McNabb, Gaines Adams, Lofa Tatupu, Kelvin Hayden, Darryl Tapp.
- Eugene E. Parker: American football agent, who negotiated the highest signing bonuses in NFL history for Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders the real-life inspiration for the flamboyant character "Rod Tidwell" in the film Jerry Maguire. He also negotiated the largest rookie contract signing bonus for Larry Fitzgerald.
- Charles C. Pyle: American football agent representing Red Grange and Wildcat Wilson; founder of first American Football League (1926).
- Drew Rosenhaus: American football agent, quickly becoming notorious for signing high profile athletes and making high demands. High-profile clients include Plaxico Burress, Terrell Owens, Anquan Boldin, and Santana Moss. Often represents players from his alma mater , the University of Miami. The real-life inspiration for the character of Bob Sugar in the film Jerry Maguire .
- Jimmy Sexton: American football agent who represents a variety of professional players and both college and professional football coaches. His client list includes college coaches Frank Beamer, Phillip Fulmer, Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Tommy Tuberville, as well as Bill Parcells.
- Leigh Steinberg: American football agent and sports business pioneer. His clients include Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon and Ben Roethlisberger. He is the real-life inspiration for the fictional sports agent Jerry Maguire in the film of the same name (he has a cameo appearance in that movie).
Australian Football
- Ricky Nixon: former player who was the AFL's first full time player manager
Baseball
- Scott Boras: American baseball agent, who has represented and negotiated deals for some of the biggest names in baseball, such as Alex Rodriguez. He is regarded as one of the most powerful agents in the MLB.
- Bo McKinnis: American baseball agent, whose clients include 2007 number 1 draft pick, David Price.
- Matt Sosnick: Most notable client is Dontrelle Willis. Sosnick is subject of the book License to Deal by Jerry Crasnick.
- Jeff Moorad: former baseball sports agent and former partner of Leigh Steinberg, now baseball executive and owner at San Diego Padres.
- Greg Genske: baseball agent and successor to the sports agency business once run by Jeff Moorad (baseball) and Leigh Steinberg (football).
- Randy Hendricks: pioneer in sports agency, partnered with his brother, Allan, they sold their firm to SFX (now Live Nation) and bought it back again.
Basketball
- Bill Duffy: American basketball agent whose clients include, Rajon Rondo, Brandon Jennings, Yao Ming and Steve Nash
- David Falk: Basketball agent; American. His clients have included Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Allen Iverson, and Dikembe Mutombo. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was generally considered one of the most influential player agents in the NBA, but is now semi-retired.
- Rob Pelinka: American basketball agent and former basketball player at University of Michigan, whose clients include Kobe Bryant and Carlos Boozer.
- Arn Tellem: American basketball agent, whose clients include Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal, Pau Gasol, and Joe Johnson. His clients' total salaries in 2007-2008 season add up to more than $210 million, making him number 1 in total client salaries in the NBA.
- Aaron Goodwin: American basketball agent known for representing LeBron James and his record $90,000,000 Nike deal before being terminated for agent Leon Rose. Goodwin now also represents Candace Parker, the 2008 WNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year.
European Basketball
- Craig McKenzie: American basketball agent who represents some of the biggest American names in European basketball. McKenzie negotiated a record contract for Marcus Brown in 2005 with CSKA Moscow a million dollar contract in 2007 for Mire Chatman and a multi-million dollar contract for J.R. Bremer with Triumph Lyubertsy in 2008.
Association Football (Soccer)
- Paul Stretford: English football (soccer) agent representing England and Manchester United football player Wayne Rooney. He set up Triple S Sports Entertainment Group in 2009 after leaving Proactive Sports, which he originally set up.
- Pini Zahavi: Israeli football agent, widely regarded as the most powerful and successful football agent ever. He is famed for his deals involving the transfers of Yakubu and Rio Ferdinand.
- Milan Calasan: controversial Montenegrin football agent. His organisation Mondialvas represented, amongst others, French footballer Christian Karembeu and manager Arsène Wenger and Nikola Zigic.
- Claes Elefalk: Swedish agent representing Fredrik Ljungberg, Pontus Farnerud and Nils-Eric Johansson, plus several NHL ice hockey players.
Golf and Tennis
- Mark McCormack: American golf agent, and the principal originator of the modern sports agency industry. First client was Arnold Palmer. Founded International Management Group.
Ice hockey
- Ritch Winter, ice hockey agent with over 70 clients. Helped bring down former National Hockey League Players Association Executive Director & ice hockey agent Alan Eagleson on fraud charges.
- Gilles Lupien, former NHL defenceman, current Canadian ice hockey agent. Clients include Roberto Luongo.
- Colleen Howe president of Power Play International and Power Play Publications managing the hockey careers and business interests of Gordie Howe, Marty Howe and Mark Howe.
Horse race
- Camilo Marin: Jockeys' agent who represented notable riders Laffit Pincay, Jr., Braulio Baeza, Jorge Velasquez and Manuel Ycaza.
Large Corporate Agencies
There have been some efforts to transform the sports agency business from an individual, entrepreneurial business, to more of a corporate structure. These experiments have met with varying degrees of longevity and success.
- IMG - International Management Group a successful corporate agency established by entrepreneur Mark McCormack, originally with a specialization of golf and tennis. After the death of McCormack the company was acquired by private equity group Forstmann Little.
- Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn ("SMD")- a multi-sport agency sold in October, 1999 for reported $120 million to Canadian financial firm. Defections of principals and litigation followed. Originally led by entrepreneurial agents Leigh Steinberg and Jeff Moorad.
- Assante Corporation - Canadian public company that acquired the Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn agency, then acquired other agencies in unsuccessful effort to build multi-sport corporate agency.
- SFX Entertainment (now Live Nation a publicly traded company) - in 1998 SFX agreed to pay up to $150 million in cash, stock and bonuses for F.A.M.E., the sports agency run by David Falk, the agent for basketball stars Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing. SFX also acquired two other major sports agencies, Arn Tellem's agency: Tellem & Associates, and the baseball-oriented firm run by Randy Hendricks and Allan Hendricks. SFX would later reverse course and sell off the pieces of its large sports agency business.
- Creative Artists Agency: "CAA" - acquired various pieces of the sports agency business of SFX (see above), starting with professional football.
- Wasserman Media Group: acquired Arn Tellem's basketball agency from SFX.
- Octagon Worldwide - sports agency business that is part of conglomerate Interpublic Group.
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