Gary Rivlin - Becoming a Sports Agent

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition February 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rivlin, Gary, author.

Title: Becoming a sports agent / Gary Rivlin.

Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster, 2021. | Series: Masters at work | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020032865 (print) | LCCN 2020032866 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501167973 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501167980 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: Sports agents--United States. | Sports agents--Vocational guidance--United States. Classification: LCC GV734.5 .R58 2021 (print) | LCC GV734.5 (ebook) | DDC 796.04/4068--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032865

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032866

ISBN 978-1-5011-6797-3

ISBN 978-1-5011-6798-0 (ebook)

T O D AISY , O LIVER, AND S ILAS

N FL agent Tory Dandy stepped onto the field under an overcast sky. He wore the sports agents uniform: untucked dress shirt, jeans, and sneakers. In a few hours, the New York Jets would host the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan. Dandy, a fit thirty-nine-year-old black man, scanned the field. Three of the thirty-five NFL players he represented were there, warming up for that nights game. He took a deep breath and steeled himself for the evening ahead.

Though it was only two weeks into the 2019 NFL season, Dandy had already flown more flights than most of us log in a year. He was exhausted and sick. Living the dream, he said sarcastically.

Dandy had gone over his itinerary on the ride from his hotel in midtown Manhattan to the stadium. He spent Labor Day at home in Charlotte, North Carolina, but the next day was on a plane to Minneapolis, where a veteran player, unhappy with his current agent, had asked for a meeting. From there it was a short flight to Chicago to see one clients season opener, a Thursday night game pitting the Bears against the Green Bay Packers, and then a longer one to Tampa Bay to see another clients opener that Sunday. The following Monday he flew to New Orleans to see the Saints play the Houston TexansI had five guys playing in that game, he saidand then to Boston, where he met another veteran unhappy with his representation. After a couple of days back in Charlotte, Dandy was on a flight to New York on Saturday morning to kick off a kind of football double-header: the Giants were playing the Buffalo Bills that Sunday at MetLife, and the Jets were hosting the Browns the next day at the same stadium.

Dandy had felt a tickle in his throat on Saturday morning. By the time the Uber driver dropped him off at the New Jersey home of a rookie linebacker for the Giants named Oshane Ximines, Dandys throat was raw and his body ached. But clients play through pain, and so he would do the same. There was lunch with a Giants veteran he had only recently taken on as a client and then two more meetings, one at the home of a third member of the Giants and another at the Jersey City hotel where the Bills were staying. It wasnt until after 9:00 p.m. that he got back to his hotel room, where he chugged some throat medicine and collapsed. He still had two games to attend and get-togethers with the two Jets and one Brown he represented who were playing on Monday Night Football.

There were moments, Dandy confessed, when he dreamed of taking the next plane homebut then he did what might be called agent math. Dandy meets face-to-face with each of his clients at least once during the season. Forget how it would look to his clients; going home early would mean makeup trips that would spill into the second half of the seasonand November and December were generally reserved for visiting with the families of college players he hoped to sign after the end of the NCAA season. Signing two or three promising draftees each year is essential to a thriving practice, especially in a league where the average pro career lasts 3.3 years. Recruiting is a never-ending part of my life, Dandy said.

And, apparently, a never-ending headache.

We were just past the worst of the Holland Tunnel traffic when Dandys phone rang. It was Jimmy Sexton, a senior partner at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the talent-agency behemoth that has employed Dandy since 2016. Sexton is a legend in the industry, a large, loud-talking southern dealmaker whose client list includes Julio Jones, once the leagues best wide receiver, and Philip Rivers, sixth on the NFLs all-time career passing touchdown leaders list. Sexton was calling from Memphis to talk about a promising collegian both he and Dandy thought would be signing with CAA at the end of the season (NCAA rules dictate that a player cant commit to an agent until after his or her final game). Now the player and his family were ghosting them. Sexton, who speaks in a booming, swampy voice, was phoning Dandy with the latest. Apparently, the family had hired a lawyer.

Getting a lawyer without letting me know! Theres definitely some bullshit going on, Sexton bellowed. Dandy had more bad news for his colleague: he had looked at the recruits Twitter account. The player was following Drew Rosenhaus and David Mulugheta, two of the NFLs higher-profile agents. Sexton repeated himself: Definitely some bullshit going on. Dandy promised he would find out what he could and hung up just before we reached the stadium.

Dandy had been at MetLife the day before, and between hacking coughs and slugs of water, he guided the Uber driver to the drop-off point. After checking in with security, we walked through a tunnel and onto the field. Kickoff was more than two hours away, but already the sidelines were thick with photographers. Odell Beckham Jr., a star on the Giants until he was traded to the Browns during the off-season, was making his first appearance in the stadium that had been his home for the previous five years, and they were there to capture the moment. Already there were fans in the stands holding up signs that were critical of Beckham, who was warming up on the field, a broad smile on his face. Adding to the sizzle of that nights game was that these were the new-and-improved Browns. Beckham, one of the NFLs more electrifying receivers, was being paired with Baker Mayfield, the number-one pick in the 2018 draft. The Browns also had the number-four pick in 2018, which they used to choose defensive standout Denzel Ward, whom Dandy represented. Ward, a cornerback, wasnt nearly as high-profile a player as either Beckham or Mayfield, but he had made the Pro Bowl as a rookie. Ward was in the second year of a four-year, $29 million contract that Dandy negotiated. A big game on national TV would give Dandy another talking point when he was ready to haggle over Wards next deal.