So last night, Barry Bonds finally hit home run number 756 and since it seems that much of the sports world had been waiting with bated breath, I figured the issue might be worth delving into; more particularly to consider what his agent will (or won’t) be getting from the record. Typically the eclipsing of such a hallowed record would garner endorsement upon endorsement or commercial after commercial, ultimately meaning big commission dollars for an agent with at least half a brain. It’s no mystery that companies want nothing more than to attach themselves and their products to a hot name and there are few things hotter or more ‘Now’ as ESPN would say, than a record breaker.
In Bonds’ case however, not only is the typical fanfare that comes with breaking such a record not there, but I doubt that Barry is expecting the dollars that most record breakers would be ‘entitled’ to. That being said, there’s also the matter of Jeff Borris (with the Beverly Hills Sports Council), who happens to be Bonds’ agent. It seems to me that though Borris is no doubt earning a fair amount in commission from Barry’s ‘modest’ $15.5 million salary for this year, a lot is being left on the table as a result of his client’s record breaking efforts being marred by steroid controversy. Some believe that the matter of steroids doesn’t influence potential endorsers, but as the Associated Press wrote a couple weeks back, that’s far from the truth in Barry’s case. A part of me believes that if the issue were something other than steroids/performance enhancing drugs and had nothing to do with how well one plays the game of baseball, once last night came about and number 756 was hit, endorsers would be flocking in; even if they’d turned their backs on Barry in the time leading up to the record. This would be a similar situation to that of Kobe Bryant who was promptly scooped up by Nike once everybody realized that his trial and ordeal did not at all hinder his ability to score points; that is of course after Adidas dropped him like a bad habit during the soap opera.
Unfortunately it seems that while this whole steroid mess has already hurt both Bonds and (of course) Borris, with endorsers on the run since 2005, this monumental record that would have meant so much for the endorsement potential of any other player (and thus commission potential for their agent) is set to garner little more than a pat on the back for Bonds. That being said, I won’t be so naive as to say that there will be absolutely no endorsers who meet Borris at the bargaining table. So in an attempt to dance around the whole steroid issue and the matter of whether or not the record means less if it’s held by an alleged steroid user; I’ve got to wonder how Jeff Borris feels about the matter of endorsements and commission now that the record is broken and the ‘all but guaranteed’ dollars most likely won’t be coming his or his client’s way as would typically be expected.
-Samyr Laine
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