working in minor league baseball or doing sales and marketing in any sports capacity is very rewarding. i did it for five seasons. don’t get me wrong, i respect the hell out of people that stick with it. at the end of the day, you work 100 hour weeks getting paid pennies on the dollar. sad state of affairs. i think the sports front office staffers should unionize for better wages.

Visit sportsjobs.com and read it regularly for a month, and this is what you’ll find: copious commission sales jobs, a handful of sponsorship jobs at mid-level colleges, and bundles and bundles of unpaid internships with teams of every stripe.

The jobs that are out there either don’t pay or are really just sales positions not a lot different from selling shoes or boat motors or securities. They aren’t sexy. On the other hand, the reason the agent business continues to attract new certificates is because it IS sexy — very, very sexy — on the surface, at least. Of course, if you don’t negotiate a contract for a player in three years (and those years pass very quickly, while you’re paying four figures a year just for the right to recruit players), you’re back to Square One, having to re-certify and wondering where all your money went.

If you’re looking to find a solid job in sports — especially the football world — either be related to someone in the industry (check out the last names of members of teams’ coaching staffs and front offices), or get a degree and be willing to work for free or just above the poverty level for 5-10 years with no guarantee it will ever take you anywhere.

It’s still all about paying dues. I think it’s important that people not expect that there is a shortcut, and a little irresponsible for people to think there’s a glut of fat jobs waiting out there for the taking.