First, the allegations. The NY Post broke the story this past week that “IMG quietly agreed to steer clients looking for investment advice to Stanford Financial Group, potentially exposing them to millions of dollars in losses resulting from the financial firm’s alleged fraud.” Additionally, the story states that Stanford also held talks about a consulting deal with Octagon, during which it inquired about a “financial management deal,” according to a source with knowledge of those discussions. “Basically, they wanted assurances that Octagon would park its clients’ money with them if they did a deal,” this source said. The story continues:

According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, IMG and Stanford have a quid-pro-quo agreement under which Stanford Financial paid IMG a low to mid-seven-figure consulting fee in exchange for IMG advising its clients – which include golfers Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Anthony Kim, Camillo Villegas, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and others – to have their money managed by Stanford. The backroom bargaining has exposed IMG to charges of double-dealing, and is raising questions about where the firm’s allegiances lay: with Stanford Financial or its athlete clients.

It is alleged that in return, IMG advised Stanford on where and how to spend its sponsorship money, especially in regards to golf tournaments.

This scandal is not the first time IMG has made the news for arguably dubious practices. Several years ago, Ernie Els lambasted the firm (he since left) for circulating his name and a corresponding price tag, without his permission, to corporations–some of which were title sponsors to Tour events–that were looking to set up corporate outings with IMG clients during tournament week. The PGA Tour, as is still the case, regulates against players being paid appearance fees to play in specific tournaments (as opposed to Europe, where appearance fees are kosher), though client or corporate outings independent from the event itself are distinguished.

Tiger’s agent, Mark Steinberg, who has been interviewed on SportsAgentBlog.com and is the senior corporate vice president & global managing director of IMG Golf, vehemently denied the charges, stating flatly that “IMG does not give investment advice to our clients…period.”

Yet evidence suggests otherwise. A 2005 Telegraph story on former tennis great and IMG client Virginia Wade, for instance, suggests that in fact the firm is quite integral in the financial decisions made by its clients.

“Since 1974, Ms. Wade has benefited from financial advice from her management company, International Management Group ‘We are in touch regularly, maybe once a month,’” she said.

In the meantime, it’s business as usual for the Cleveland-based firm, widely considered one of the most dominant players in the management of professional golfers and tennis players, as well as its involvement in the two sports’ various tournaments and media related ventures. Prized client Vijay Singh just entered into a major endorsement deal with Stanford that included sponsorship of his bag, visor and left chest on shirts and sweaters. He says that he will continue to wear the logos, relics to a once distinguished name and company that has since found the wayside, mired in deceit and fraud. And both Camilo Villegas and Morgan Pressel have ongoing deals as well. Finally, Tour commissioner Tim Finchem stated that the Stanford St. Jude Championship on June 11-14 in Memphis, Tenn. will be played – with or without its title sponsor (the PGA Tour has a rainy day pot of about $200 million it can dip into for such emergency situations, i.e. if Stanford backs out or cannot continue its sponsorship). However, as one senior Golfweek writer wrote, Stanford also is affiliated with IMG’s prized client, , with a three-year founding sponsorship of AT&T National, a Tiger Woods Foundation event.

Chances are that Camp Tiger is looking none too kindly on this whole sordid affair, and that IMG will get an earful. From IMG’s standpoint, that will hopefully be the end of it. But if more murky details emerge, things could get worse for the mega firm before they get better. And if push comes to shove, more clients could choose to do what Ernie Els did a long time ago and cut their losses. Or at the very least, ask the company precisely whose interests it is serving.

The 2009 PGA Tour season kicks off this week

There have been a bevy of pieces lately that have touched upon both the declining endorsement money available to professional golfers in the current economic environment, as well as the issue of players sloughing off their unwritten-albeit-sacred corporate schmoozing duties. Lewine Mair wrote on ESPN.com about Colin Montgomerie and how he is one of the players who apparently ‘gets it.’

“Although Montgomerie took a dive down the world rankings in 2008, he has had none of the negative financial repercussions off the course that might have hurt a lesser character. Far from fading from the public’s view, this charismatic and often controversial soul is better placed than ever to comply with sponsor requests to promote their wares and keep guests entertained. [Said Montgomerie] ‘The days when a player could go out for a pro-am and not talk to any of his partners — something which used to happen — have long since gone. Especially in the current economic climate, you have got to be prepared to give more of yourself, not just for your own sake but for the sake of the Tour as a whole.’“

Monty’s comments came not too long after Finchem’s awkward web video, where he more or less pleaded with players to add at least one event to their rota in ‘09, and oh yeah, to also be a bit more amenable to pro-am requests and partners:

“We’re asking every player to add a tournament or two to their historical schedule to assist the tournaments that historically have weak fields,” Finchem said in the video, which was obtained by the Sports Business Journal. “We have a lot of title sponsors this year that are up for renewal. We have to put our best foot forward in terms of presenting our competitions.”

Hmmm, it seems that these guys are good, but not so good that they don’t need a swift reminder to remember where those fat checks are coming from? Then again, since when do “independent contractors” take orders? The time for a Players Association in golf, with bona fide collective bargaining powers, has never been more urgent, especially with the idea floating around that eventually players will be forced to play every single PGA Tour event at least once in a given four year period.

And then there are the truly appalling stories that remind you that while some PGA Tour veterans probably won’t be hurting for cash in this current climate, the vast majority of professional golfers–the mini-Tour, Monday qualifying group–are truly living tournament to tournament. Gary Wolstenholme, for example, once the face of British amateur golf, now needs all the financial backing he can get in his quest to make the European Senior Tour. In the meantime, he’s settling for sandwiches from the pro shop and looking to give lessons.

That said, deals are still getting done, especially for the bigger name players, whose brand is well settled and recession proof, more or less. Wilson recently extended its relationship with Padraig Harrington, for example. And James Achenbach’s piece reported that “any player advancing through Q-School — no matter how obscure or unknown he may be — can parlay endorsement money from equipment manufacturers and other commercial businesses into a minimum of $150,000 to $200,000 a year.” Golf Digest just came out with its Top 50 earners, for example. These guys (and gals) are still very, very well paid, at least the ones with measurable Q ratings.

Still, even the bright lights of the PGA Tour may not always be a financial safe haven, especially if the economy doesn’t make a noticeable turnaround in 2009. The Tour already slimmed down its fall ‘09 schedule, although such headlines probably caused more people than not to realize the existence of such a schedule in the first place. But the move is the beginning of a slippery slope, especially given how many sponsors are auto or financial services related. Golf eagerly awaits Tiger’s return in the spring, which will give the sport and its slumping television ratings a sorely needed shot in the arm (well, at least the events he actually plays in). But long term, the Tour needs far, far more if it is to continue to realize the rate of growth and the relatively obscene mountains of corporate money the Tiger Era began to usher in starting over a decade ago.

Loosened corporate marketing budgets, coupled with more gregarious and receptive players, are required for the Tour’s ultimate longevity, especially if it wants to keep those ‘casual’ fans that Tiger brought to the table and that have expanded golf’s marketing demographic exponentially. Remember, there’s always the siren song of the “Race to Dubai” looming overseas, subsidized by bottomless Sheikh oil wealth that has American pros salivating. But ironically, such a conscious effort to renew the U.S. tour’s appeal and vigor will have to come from some of the very pros who are the least affected by the economic drawdown–the Mickelson’s, Kim’s, Villegas’ and Garcia’s for instance. Even Tiger, perhaps. Well, let’s not go overboard.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson’s decision on Friday to uphold a District Court order temporarily restraining the League’s suspension of five players (Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Minnesota Vikings and Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith of the New Orleans Saints) for allegedly violating its drug policy surprised many observers who expected that a federal court especially was likely to interpret the matter under the bright-line language of the CBA and hold in favor of the League. Numerous apparent discrepancies in the League’s handling of the matter, however–including possibly withholding material information from players relating to the supplement at hand, StarCaps, a weight-loss substance containing the banned diuretic bumetanide; supposedly failing to respond to players’ inquires about the supplement through its supplement/drug hotline; and finally waiting months (the samples in question were from this summer) to announce the results of the tests and then implementing the corresponding suspensions late in the season, thereby implicating salaries and the playoff push–have apparently made the case a bit murkier than it first appeared. Judge Magnuson stated that he will need “more time to fully and carefully consider all of the briefs, arguments, and cases put before him,” and some pundits expect that the case will not fully be completed until early next year–possibly even after the Super Bowl.

Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com nicely lays out the hurdle the players will have to clear in the coming days/weeks/months in order for the Court to completely dismiss their suspensions and fines:

Typically in matters of this nature, the plaintiffs must prove that they will suffer “irreparable harm” if the defendant isn’t blocked from doing whatever it is that the defendant plans to do. The defendant in such cases usually responds by arguing that, since the plaintiffs can later recover a monetary award to compensate them for their lost wages and other damages, their available remedies are adequate and ”equitable relief” (e.g., telling a party that it can’t do something that it wants to do) isn’t appropriate.

In other words, the NFL will argue in this case that, because the players can later recover cash money from the league if it turns out that the suspensions violated their legal rights, there’s no need to stop the league from suspending them.

In this type of case, however, where NFL players have only so many seasons during which they can play NFL football and where that lost 25 percent of one season will never return, the argument in favor of a finding of irreparable harm might be stronger than most cases involving actions to be taken against employees.

The real battleground in this case could be the requirement that, in order to obtain an injunction pending the outcome of the litigation, the players must prove that they have a strong likelihood of eventually winning the case. The NFL surely is arguing strenuously that the legal theories advanced by the players are not valid, because the only potential legal claim that can be made in this case is that the NFL violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement and/or the steroids policy.

Regardless of the outcome, the lawsuits in question (both the above-named players and the union are suing the NFL) present serious questions about the implementation of the League’s drug policy. Moreover, the fact that the cards have been stacked against the players from the get-go, and that the League felt reasonably sure that it could waltz into Federal Court and have its way (it still may), is indicative of just how much control the NFLPA lost to the League in regards to disciplinary measures during their negotiations (the steroids policy, while not part of the CBA, was also the product of collective bargaining). As columnist Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune pointed out this week:

“Any union worth its salt would have hung tough in negotiations to create a disciplinary panel — one representative from management, one from the players and a neutral party — to decide these matters.

Gene Upshaw never fought that fight in his time as union chief. He ceded the authority to the commissioner, and now the players find themselves with Roger Goodell running amok and robbing their paychecks at every turn.”

Finally, given the NFLPA’s own lawsuit against the NFL in the matter, tensions are now even higher between the two sides in regards to their impending CBA negotiations. Goodell has seemingly had a good time flaunting his disciplinary authority so far, and his objective to polish up the League’s image is probably a virtuous one. That said, draconian hubris has a way of unfolding over time. Friday’s decision could be just the start.

Salcer, who runs Icy Luck, Inc. out of Manhattan Beach, CA, represents Marian Gaborik, the uber-talented albeit injury prone right winger for the Minnesota Wild who will be an unrestricted free agent next July. The speedy Slovak is a fan favorite–most Minnesotans are more apt to remember his historic, five goal performance against the N.Y. Rangers last December, for instance, than the maddening bouts of inconsistency that always seem to come around playoff time. Moreover, Gaborik has yet to finish a full-season without some injury of note. He now sits in the final year of a three-year, $19 million deal, that pays him $7.5m this season.

That said, Gaborik correctly feels he should command top dollar. His upside especially still places him among other elite names in the NHL. However, thus far he and Salcer have rejected multiple offers from the Wild. Contract talks that the team had hoped would be done by the end of the preseason have now officially stalled, and relations between the two sides have gone from bad to awkward. Gaborik now sits on the injured reserve thanks to a conveniently cryptic and allegedly lingering “lower-body injury”. Meanwhile, the Wild has skated to one of the best records in the league even in his absence, utilizing as always a trapping style of play arguably ill-suited to someone of Gaborik’s flash anyway. And Salcer, who bit his tongue early on while bloggers and sports writers in the Twin Cities began to bash his client for reportedly turning down some fairly generous offers, seemingly had enough when he lashed out last week in local papers. While it had been reported that the Wild offered a variety of proposals, ranging from six to 10 years for more than $8.5 million annually, Salcer dismissed such talk as exaggerated. “Unfortunately, Marian has been absorbing a character assassination on the premise of misinformation that has circulated like gospel,” Salcer said. “The offers that have been thrown at the wall of 10 years, $85 million, $90 million and $100 million are wrong, as are what I now hear — seven years, $70 million and eight years, $80 million. They’re also wrong. When and if they do get offered, something certainly may happen.”

What seems clear to many pundits is that Gaborik has no intention of staying in Minnesota, and moreover that he feels he can command more money elsewhere. Rumors of a trade to Montreal sound credible to some, though knowing that Minnesota will be loathe to lose him for nothing next summer, the bargaining power doesn’t seem to rest with Wild GM Doug Risebrough. That said, is Gaborik worth top five money? If Salcer has indeed priced his stud out of the market like some analysts think he has, then it may be harder to get the free market to bite, especially as Gaborik sloughs away on the IR. Others opine that it is inevitable that someone will decide to overpay eventually, especially as the year unwinds.

Either way, Salcer isn’t backing down–from bloggers, the media, or even the Wild itself–and if he lands his man a new deal making him one of the highest paid players in the NHL, his mission will be complete. In the meantime, you can bet that he will continue scouring the print media and listening intently to the public airways for further “misinformation,” because well, that’s just the type of guy he is. Salcer got started in the business, for example, in the early 1980s after meeting and befriending several L.A. King players in his apartment complex. He was mortified to learn how paltry players’ salaries, pensions and medical benefits were, and his anger eventually lead to the uncovering of a league-wide scandal that implicated former NHLPA boss Alan Eagleson, who stepped down in disgrace in 1992 and later served prison time for fraud. “I was hearing horror story after horror story. I watched players’ salaries go up maybe 5% every year and we never knew who was making what. They’d say eight guys were making X amount and 72 were making the median, but nobody knew who was making what. [Eagleson] said to players, ‘You’re making more money than your parents. Don’t rock the boat.’ I felt if I was going to continue as an agent, there would have to be dramatic changes.” An investigation turned up that Eagleson was making under the table deals with close personal friends John Ziegler, then NHL president, and Chicago Blackhawk owner Bill Wirtz, then chairman of the league’s board of governors, suppressing salaries by giving up free agency in labor agreements and by advocating a merger of the World Hockey Association and the NHL, thus curtailing the bidding that had driven salaries up.

Flash forward and Salcer is now credited with many things modern players take for granted: agents can no longer represent players and coaches or club executives, players’ salaries have skyrocketed, the pension fund is well endowed by events such as the World Cup, and players are kept up to date about NHLPA finances. So when Salcer gets miffed, like he was this past week on behalf of his client, Gaborik, people pay attention. Sounds like the Duke.

Rapidly vanishing lines of credit are not only taking their toll on inflated asset prices and the global financial markets in general, but also in the willingness of companies to not only underwrite sporting events, but also to market their brands through athletes. During financial stress, marketing budgets are historically one of the first to get slashed, and this current slowdown is no exception. One of the sports which will be hit the hardest in the coming months and year(s) will be golf. Sports Business Journal (SBJ) reported several weeks ago, for instance, that “golf is unusually dependent on revenue from the financial category, with about 25 percent of network ad time coming from that area. Plus, nearly one-third of all events sanctioned by the PGA Tour are sponsored by banks, investment firms, credit card distributors or financial consultancies, putting golf at the biggest risk from the crisis.”

From a player agent’s perspective, this crisis will be most visible in terms of endorsements. SBJ’s latest piece on the matter–”Golf endorsements pinched by economy”–highlights the dour sentiments of several of the game’s most prominent player managers:

Andrew Witlieb – Goal Marketing (Jim Furyk): “I’ve been doing this for 15 or 16 years and this is the worst year yet. You look next year you’ll see the fewest new deals you’ll ever see.”

Mac Barnhardt – Crown Sports Management (Davis Love III, Boo Weekley): “Dollars are coming down a little bit. I think you’re going to have to get more regional and more creative (with prospective endorsement deals). I think it’s going to get tough.”

John Mascatello – SFX Golf (John Daly): “Getting the long-term commitments will be tricky because there is some instability right now.”

Andrew “Chubby” Chandler – ISM (Lee Westwood) : “The knock-on affect of American banks is hitting everywhere.”

Chandler’s quote, which is part of a sit-down of sorts that can be seen on video at CNN, makes the point as well that the “global” slowdown has had a seemingly less drastic effect on Middle Eastern and Asian economies. This is one reason why many U.S. players are allegedly thinking about “jumping ship,” so to speak, over to the European Tour next year, at least in a limited capacity, in an effort to diversify the reach of their brand, as well as to play courses with a more player (and fan?) friendly setup (i.e. less penal rough). Among those committed to more events overseas include Vijay Singh and Robert Allenby of IMG, although rumor has it that Phil Mickelson (repped by Steve Loy, President of Gaylord Sports) is seriously mulling the prospect over, as is Camillo Villegas, who shares an agent at IMG with Sergio Garcia. For that matter, expect to see the latest IMG acquisition, Anthony Kim, explore more options internationally.

“You’d be stupid not to join [the European tour],” said Allenby. “Some tournaments over [in the U.S.] get a bit monotonous, with the thick rough. I miss the fairway by two feet and I’m screwed. My body hasn’t been handling it very well, particularly my tennis elbow. The other thing is to freshen my mind up.”

Moreover, The Guardian’s Lawrence Donnegan opined that the U.S. based credit crunch may also play a role in players’ scheduling:

“With the credit crunch affecting many American financial institutions the long-term prospects for sponsorship of golf in the US are gloomy, in stark contrast to the opportunities enjoyed by the European tour. The latter has a long tradition of staging events in the Middle East and Asia, where next year will see the start of the European tour’s “Road to Dubai” series which culminates in an end-of-season tournament in the Emirates where the players will be competing for a $20m prize fund – the biggest in the history of the game.”

While a law student in 1993 at St. Louis University, Ben Dogra, now 43, interned for free with Jim Steiner of SFX Football (then SMG). Dogra would later call Steiner his mentor, but in time, some began to wonder who was teaching what to whom. By 2006, Dogra and Steiner sold SFX Football (which was generating an estimated $7 million in revenue at the time) for roughly $30 million to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where they joined Tom Condon and his partner Ken Kremer (of then-IMG Football) while bringing 57 NFL clients as well as their eight employees (CAA Football now has a staff of 15, including those who handle player endorsements). The deal raised eyebrows throughout the industry by bringing together the largest and most star-studded football client rosters, creating what SportsBusiness Journal called “the most dominant player representation practice in the business.” By this time, Steiner was in the backseat, so to speak, as an associate of Dogra’s, and it was Dogra and Condon who were set to become the division’s principals. The results have been staggering. Dogra and Condon represent about 130 players, including 4 of the first 8 picks from last April’s draft, and 6 of the top 21. They have also represented four of the past five first-overall choices and 48 first-round picks since 2001, eclipsing any competitor. Recently, they were named #1 (Condon) and #6 (Dogra), respectively, in SBJ’s list of the Top 20 most influential agents in sports.

There was a time, however, when some wondered whether their merger would be a problem, especially with the various fiascos that took place at SFX when “mega-agents” in the same sport were paired together under the same roof. However, Dogra and Condon’s yin and yang like balance has thus far yielded solid chemistry, and much admiration from the industry as a whole. Said Denny Thum, the Kansas City Chiefs’ executive vice president: “Tom (an NFL guard for 12 seasons and a former president of the NFLPA) is the football guy and can carry on the conversation from the football standpoint. Ben is the numbers guy and…without question has a memory like a steel trap.” And Howard Nuchow, co-head of CAA Sports, reiterated the same premise: “They are definitely different and combined they can take care of anything. Tom seems to be way instinctive and his instincts are off the charts. And Ben is really cerebral and thinks about things a lot before deciding what to do.”

Born in New Delhi, but raised predominately in northern Virginia from age six on, Dogra yearned for “an NFL career.” But due to his size and lack of skill, he quickly settled on another route into the league. After graduating from George Mason, he started law school in St. Louis, due primarily to its proximity to two sports agencies. One of said agencies was Steiner’s and SMG, which rejected Dogra at first but later took him on after much pleading. Dogra worked his way from the bottom up, quickly earning a reputation as an above average recruiter who connected well with his players and especially with their families. Will he ever eclipse Condon as #1? With Condon’s name being tossed around on the shortlist of those who might replace the late Gene Upshaw as NFLPA executive director, it is not inconceivable. But Dogra has prided himself on flying under the radar, so to speak, leaving the limelight and chest pounding to flashier personalities. If he is indeed “the best football agent attracting the least attention” and wants to keep it that way, then he is indeed in quite a dilemma. A dilemma he probably dreamt about as an intern.

Returning to his hometown in Cleveland, Fleming enrolled in a JD/MBA program at Case Western, and also sought any opportunity he could to meet people associated with IMG, the mega-agency conveniently headquartered nearby. Fleming’s informal networking eventually lead to a summer internship with the company in 1996, and he quickly proved his metal. Given the task of cold-calling companies to help secure a presenting sponsor for a women’s tennis tournament, Fleming called a contact of his at Procter & Gamble. Next thing he knew, he was sitting down at a table in Los Angeles helping to hammer out the deal’s details. Fleming later said that the experience convinced him of his potential to succeed in the industry. More importantly, however, it convinced some higher-ups at IMG to hire him after the summer was over. This kid produced, they reasoned. “The common thread for everyone who works in this industry is a willingness to hustle, a willingness to do whatever you have to do,” Fleming later said.

Fleming is now the Vice-President of Tennis at IMG, working with both Venus and Serena Williams, as well as acting as the primary agent for the likes of James Blake (whom he signed to the company when Blake was a rising star coming out of Harvard) and Alexandra Stevenson. In the past he has worked with Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles, Mark Philippoussis and Pete Sampras as his clients. But it’s Blake who is perhaps Fleming’s most prized client, if not for Blake’s own courageous come back story, but also for his willingness to trust his gut when Fleming first began to recruit him. “All agents are working as hard as they can for your best interests, but some seem to know you a little better,” Blake confided. “I couldn’t have chosen a better agent than [Carlos]. He’s legitimately one of my best friends. He works hard, but he also works very honestly, and that’s something I appreciate.”

Like any enduring and successful agent, however, Fleming is constantly eyeing the future. That’s why Blake’s match Monday night in the U.S. Open against the 19-year old Donald Young, the former junior phenom and now up-and-coming professional, had to have been bittersweet. Young was once with IMG, a company that landed him lucrative deals with Nike and Head before he could even legally drive a car, and that fostered and nurtured a relationship with his family for all of his teenage years, helping them to relocate even so that they could be nearby the IMG-managed Tennis in Motion National Tennis Academy in Atlanta. But Young signed with Octagon last January, which in the world of tennis representation is like the Red Sox getting one from the Yankees. He has the look and the charisma (and the game?) to help maintain the game’s reach to valuable U.S. demographics in a sagging market always on the lookout for the next big (marketable) thing (i.e., a la Andre Agassi). IMG Tennis will survive without Young, obviously, but the loss was surely a blow to Fleming and his entire division. Time to start hustling again?

Thomas hit the internet to try and learn all that he could about becoming a sports agent. He quickly discovered the Portland, OR-based Sports Marketing Worldwide (SMWW), founded by Lynn Lashbrook, formerly of Sports Management Group (SMG), and whose clients include Brian Dawkins, Pro Bowl safety for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Mark Fields, former first-round pick by the New Orleans Saints. Lashbrook’s SMWW offered online classes for $1,450, and since Thomas wouldn’t have to quit his full-time job while taking the required eight weeks of courses (additionally, Lashbrook requires SMWW’s agents, who are deemed by the firm to be independent contractors, to keep their regular jobs), he decided to become a licensed sports agent.

Thomas is now a full-fledged “agent adviser” for SMWW, and currently has one client in the NFL, second-year Eagles linebacker Akeem Jordan. But he has helped numerous other players negotiate contracts with CFL and Arena League teams, including Walton. That said, he’s only been paid commission on Jordan’s contract. By choice. “I don’t feel right about taking money from guys unless they get to the NFL,” Thomas explained. “That’s what they came to me for, and unless they get there they’re not making enough money to afford to pay someone like me.”

Thomas draws a parallel between working with athletes, and listening to and instructing his congregation. He says that he uses the “same patient, personal approach,” in each case, and moreover that “rather than treating phone conversations [with athletes] as transactions,” he asks “about his clients’ personal lives, gets to know their families and learns to sense their moods.”

“It was pretty obvious right away that he wasn’t like a lot of other agents I’ve heard about,” said Jordan, who signed with the Eagles as a rookie free agent last year after recording six career interceptions at James Madison. “Some of my close friends have agents who call and talk to them about business, just business. Albert calls and wants to know what I’m doing, how my workout went that morning. We have a very good relationship.”

This month, Thomas is paying particular attention to various NFL team training camps, monitoring which teams have needs that arise due to injury or other roster movement. He has a list of unsigned clients waiting for their break in the NFL. It’s the notion of advising precisely this type of client, actually, rather than the highly recruited and anticipated stud, that Thomas relishes. Because it’s that athlete, that kid, who needs the most attention, and the most encouragement. Just like any good parent would support their child when times are tough, Thomas wants to be there for his clients. “If you want me to represent your child, I’m going to treat him the way I would want my child to be treated. I understand that part of it.”

Take Hugh Dodson, for instance. Dodson had been chief operating officer and chief financial officer of The Gersh Agency in Beverly Hills for eight years. Always a forward thinker, it was Dodson who convinced agency founder Phil Gersh not only that the agency needed to add sports to its repertoire, but ultimately that sports and entertainment were in fact synonymous. Dodson imagined a concept that the industry now takes for granted: the athlete who “crosses over” into entertainment via book deals, television, movies and endorsements.

In March of 2006, Gersh became the first talent agency to have in-house sports. CAA followed three weeks later, with William Morris to soon follow. “I felt that if [Gersh] didn’t diversify, we were going to lose market shares and business. I looked at a cooperate model and pushed to get in sports,” Dodson recalls. But just as Dodson was pushing this new found outlook, he was also wondering when would be the right time to try out his ideas on his own terms. It was thus with “excitement and fear” that Dodson opened Paragon Sports Agency this past March. While Paragon specializes in sports, and right now specifically football, Dodson plans to add a talent division sometime this year (whenever the SAG contract, which expired June 30, is settled), as well as baseball, basketball and coaching. Steve Feldman, whom Dodson had brought into Gersh, joined him at Paragon as executive vice president of the football division, bringing with him 28 NFL players from the former Steve Feldman & Associates, including New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison and Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson, and gross annual client contracts exceeding $50 million. Dodson’s vision for Paragon is firmly rooted in the notion of sports and entertainment together. “I believe that there are so many inspirational stories to be told from an athlete’s or coach’s perspective that there needed to be an agency that integrates top players and coaches with writers and directors to develop positive stories across all media platforms; film, television, books and online,” he says.

Dodson’s path into the industry is as interesting as it was divergent. He grew up in Texas and worked for five years after high school before attending the University of Texas-El Paso. He later transferred to Arizona State, where got a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance in 1987. After graduation, Dodson moved to Los Angeles and worked as a financial analyst in the syndicated television and theatrical marketing divisions for MGM, and then Disney. In the years ahead he became involved with four start-up business: Electric Ideas (entertainment advertising), D*REZ (digital visual effects), CCI (motion picture creative services), and Gersh Sports. “I’ve always had this entrepreneurial bent,” he admits. “What makes sense for the company and what kind of strategic planning is needed, are questions I look at.” And while there’s no way to predict the future, Dodson seems confident in his approach thus far. Leaving Gersh was a risk, but it was a risk he had to take to be happy. “Steve [Feldman] and I have worked together for two years and know from experience that this model works well and we look forward to building a strong foundation of support for our clients.”

On the eve of this year’s Open I’ve assembled a few preview stories to get you ready for Royal Birkdale, which last hosted the tournament in 1998 and saw Mark O’Meara take home the Claret Jug after outdueling something named Brian Watts. John Hawkins states the obvious: the Jug is up for grabs without Tiger. Larry Dorman argues that “the case can be made that Royal Birkdale is in the same league, strategically if not aesthetically, with the other regular courses in the [British Open] rotation.” Jason Sobel writes that “returning to Royal Birkdale for the first Open Championship at the venue since 1998, [Justin] Rose has experienced the ups and downs of a roller-coaster career, from precocious teen to slumping pro to world-class talent.” Sobel also takes stock of the field. Defending champion Paddy Harrington is listed at 75% full strength. Kenny Perry is the hottest player in the world right now (he won again this past weekend at the John Deere, his third title of 2008), but he’s getting his Scott Hoch on by passing on the Open, which of course has won him more criticism and scrutiny than he probably deserves. If you believe Sergio Garcia, only those pesky golf gods prevented him from winning at Carnasty last year. So is this finally the year when Sergio gets rid of that stupid monkey? Finally, Hugh MacDonald from The Scottish Herald writes not to bet on the Brits.

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Just because Tiger’s rehabbing until 2009 doesn’t mean that we can’t keep talking about records that he’s destined to break. Forbes, for instance, recently wrote that Tiger is set to become history’s first billionaire athlete around 2011. “Woods is on track to pass $1 billion in career earnings by 2010. Becoming a billionaire – that is, having a net worth above $1 billion – will take slightly longer (one year), since a sizable chunk of Woods’ prize and endorsement money is eaten up by taxes and management fees – we estimated 45 percent. We also credited Woods with annualized investment returns of 8 percent,” the magazine wrote. “It will be an unprecedented occurrence. There are plenty of billionaires who have excelled at sports, like Switzerland’s richest man and champion sailor Ernesto Bertarelli. But there are no billionaires who accumulated their fortune by playing sports.”

By the way Tiger, in case you get bored chatting with “Steiney” on your cell, changing Sam, or curling 50 lb dumbells all day long, PGATour.com laid out a nice itinerary of things to keep you busy for the rest of the “season.” Although playing co-captain to Zinger in the Ryder Cup at (yawn) Valhalla isn’t one of them.

And speaking of Tiger, it looks like the always cheeky British press is finding a way to work him into literally every pre-tournament question. But maybe they have a point. After all, isn’t the tournament destined to be less exciting sans El Tigre?

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Interestingly, one group not necessarily upset over Tiger’s absence at Royal Birkdale this week are the British betting agencies, which see an increase in ‘punter’ activity when Woods stays home from a tournament.

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Weeks ago I listed my Top Ten recent grads in need of an agent. One of them was Florida St.’s Jonas Blixt, whom I speculated (along with Danish sensation Joel Sjoholm of Georgia St.) probably had more professional upside than anyone else on the list. Swedish golf to this point has pretty much been synonymous with Jesper Parnevik and that funny hat of his, but Gaylord Sports Management, which officially signed Blixt following his 4-0 sayonara to amateur golf at the Palmer Cup in June, is betting that Blixt will change that. Ben Harrison will handle Blixt’s account at Gaylord, and he secured Blixt’s professional debut this past weekend at the annual British Open tuneup at Loch Lomond. Blixt says that he will next play the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational July 21-27, after which he will “pursue his options on the U.S. and European tours.”

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Speaking of playing in Europe, with the Tour’s “Race To Dubai” promotion starting in 2009 (somewhat equivalent to the FedEx Cup), playing overseas never seemed more attractive (not to mention lucrative–paychecks are nominated in Euros)

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With Tiger sidelined, who’s the new favorite to win this season’s FedEx Cup? It may very well be Anthony Kim, whose win at Tiger’s tournament at Congressional (Kim’s second of the season) prompted an immediate congratulatory call from The Great One himself. But is “A.K.” good enough to be the next Tiger? There are some similarities, and Thomas Bonk remarks that “the The Woods-Kim link is inescapable,” so much so that even Mark O’Meara has somewhat taken the young phenom under his wing, much like he did with a certain someone ten or so years ago. Kim, like Woods, is decked out in Nike’s Swoosh (and plays their equipment). And he also ditched former agent Rocky Hambric to join Team Tiger and IMG, though Clarke Jones (not Mark Steinberg) runs his account. But his penchant for big belt buckles puts him more in line with Tiger’s arch nemesis, Rory Sabbatini, and his accuracy of the tee (combined with prodigious length) is certainly a foreign concept to Woods. Moreover, until Kim actually lands a major (I like him in the PGA next month) or two or ten, let’s hold off on the comparison, shall we?

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It seems the latest fad among golf pundits is to bash Phil Mickelson, especially since he gave his critics new fodder following “3-wood-gate” at the U.S. Open and that series of chunked chips on Saturday that every hack watching at home silently (or perhaps loudly) chuckled over. That said, Phil to me is more likeable than ever, and perhaps that’s due to the fact that I’m seeing more of him off of the golf course in various television spots. Tim Rosaforte breaks down about Phil’s “acting chops,”and even mentions that Phil will be on Entourage this fall?? Finally, Lawrence Donegan asks who exactly is the real Phil Mickelson?

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Michelle Wie and Stacy Lewis don’t have a lot in common, writes Beth Ann Baldry, except that both of them of in the midst of trying to earn an LPGA card for 2009 without going to Q-School.

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Which story is uglier, Brett Favre’s divorce from Ted Thompson and Green Bay, or John Daly’s divorce from Butch Harmon? I don’t like going after agents, but someone needs to tell Daly to STFU, and to me Bud Martin over at SFX is as good a person as any.

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