Joel Segal of BEST/Lagardere Unlimited, appears to be the man for the job. Segal represents the likes of Chris Johnson, Reggie Bush, and Michael Vick. So I guess we will have to be on the lookout for Moss on Television. Who knows, maybe he will end up on Dancing With the Stars like other NFL notables, Chad Ochocinco, Emmitt Smith, Warren Sapp, and Lawrence Taylor. Moss is going into his final season with the New England Patriots, and he does not believe that he will be offered an extension. We will also have to pay attention and see how well (hopefully) he negotiates his next contract.

On another note, here is a list of some other athletes who at one point or another, have represented themselves: Dave Stieb, Mike Singletary, Daunte Culpepper, Ricky Williams (we know how that turned out), Curt Schilling, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Greenwell, Ray Allen, Danny Ainge, David Wells, Tom Seaver, Hakeem Olajuwon, Alan Trammell, and Steve Largent. Also, the late NFLPA President Gene Upshaw used to negotiate his own contracts when he played with the Oakland Raiders.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @DouglasVinci

On To The Next One (Kind Of): Randy Moss from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

30 percent of the sales of Tebow’s jersey have come from the state of Florida, where Tebow grew up and starred at the University of Florida.

That’s no surprise, considering the large fan base he had already built up while at the University of Florida. With the addition of Tebow, the Denver Broncos are also the #1 selling team right now on NFLShop.com

With the celebrity status and star struck fans, Tim Tebow really wants to prove himself as more than just a name on a jersey. Even after his controversial Pro Life, Pro Family commercial had aired during the Super Bowl, he still received endorsement deals with EA Sports and Nike. Although he is endorsing EA Sports and Nike, Tebow has declined other endorsement offers, including some worth more than $1Million. Why would he turn down this much money? The answer is simple; he wants to focus solely on playing football.

You can see from his hyped up change in his throwing motion, the declining of other endorsement deals, and his proven work ethic, that he is driven to become a successful quarterback in the NFL. However, I am sure that there are going to be plenty of accepted endorsement deals in the near future. Over the next few months, we will see the steps Tim Tebow will take leading up the first pre-season game on August 15, against the Bengals in Cincinnati.

Did You Get Your Tim Tebow Jersey Yet? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

I began the week by making a profile sheet for one of our clients so that it can be given to team officials overseas. It is our hope that we can find him a team to play on this season. The profile sheet basically involved finding career stats for the player, compiling video for the player, and writing a short blurb on his recent accomplishments. I was not involved in the video portion, but did compile the stats and write the blurb.

I was also involved with getting a company NCAA pool going for employees/clients via Facebook. I friended a lot of clients and invited them to join the pool. Many of our clients were happy to join. After yesterday’s games, it is impossible to know what’s going to happen. So far after the first day, Darren is in first, but I’m only one game behind.

I also completed various other tasks. One of our advisee’s had a question regarding whether composite or two part bats will be legal next season in the NCAA or whether single part bats will only be allowed. I emailed the NCAA individual associated with bat questions. So far I have not received a response. If anyone does know the answer, I’d be happy to hear it. We also received a message from a high schooler looking for an international team to play on this summer before entering college. I did some research and emailed some individuals, but really did not find a good answer for the player. It appears he might be too old for the opportunities that do exist for summer international play.

But despite not being successful on these two questions, I did have some success this week. I managed to get two of our clients endorsement deals with some product companies. Darren had given me a list of companies to contact regarding endorsements. I emailed many of these companies explaining who I was, what we had to offer, and why they should go with our clients. I received a response from a company and also an agreement. I passed the information along to Darren so he could look it over. I acted as sort of a liaison between Darren and the individual from the company as they negotiated the terms. In addition, I also got to look over the contract and give my input on what I thought. It was a great opportunity, as I got to finally put some of my law school skills to work in the sports industry. I had taken a contracts drafting class, which greatly familiarized me with the different parts of the contract. I am also currently taking a Sales class which helped me asses the warranties section. Hopefully my insight was helpful.

In addition to this company, I also might have set up a deal with another product company for a different client. They weren’t able to offer much in ways of compensation, but did offer product. The company was willing to send a sample product for our client to try out before we decide to make a deal. This is important, because you don’t want to sign a product deal for a client and then have the client not be comfortable in the product. Hopefully this deal also turns into something beneficial for our client.

Besides these developments, I also did my usual updates for college players and also helped out a fellow intern with the updates for our high school player watch list. Without giving any names, we did have two college players have tremendous offensive weekends last weekend. Most of the players on our list are having great seasons and hopefully some of them decide to sign with our company.

In closing, I had quite a busy week last week, but it was an exciting week. I finally got involved in a deal for our clients and saw first hand what goes into creating relationships with companies. This experience will help as I try to get my foot further in the door in this industry. Until my next post, have a great week.

An Intern(al) Look At Becoming a Sports Agent from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Besides the competition, I also worked on numerous tasks for Dynasty this week. Darren has been putting in work to sign a top NFL prospect for marketing purposes. Along with the other interns, our task was to design a marketing plan in order to show the prospect exactly what Dynasty had to offer him in terms of marketing. My part involved a lot of research relating to competition and why, despite competition, Dynasty was the best option for the player.

In addition to the marketing plan, I contacted several companies regarding sponsorships for our clients. I also contacted other companies specifically to work out endorsement deals for three of our bigger baseball clients. I received responses back from a few of these companies. The response I received was quite normal, the standard “we’ll take a look at what you have given us, make a decision and get back to you as soon as we can.” Other companies have not responded yet. For some of these companies, they had no contact information for individuals that would be helpful to me, so I had to send emails to their generic email accounts. For those that don’t respond to me, my next step is to call the phone number listed and ask for someone in the marketing department.

The best advice I can give on this matter is to keep pressing to find the correct contact person and then just made an honest proposal. The worst they can do is say “no.” The best is that you get a great deal for your client. At the very least, maybe you make a contact that you can use in the future. With the economy still recovering from recession, it won’t be easy to find sponsorship deals for clients. However, if you at least make contact, when the time is right for the company to start spending money on sponsorships again, you might be at the top of their list.

In addition to these tasks, I did my regular tracking of college baseball players. There are a few guys on the list having stellar seasons and hopefully they make the right decision to go with Dynasty. One note on this assignment, I have one or two high school players to track as well as college players and I find it is incredibly hard sometimes to find stats for these kids. This week I did manage to contact one of the player’s coaches. He was very receptive and quick to respond with stats. He had no problem with me contacting him weekly to get stats on the player. If all coaches were this receptive to agent interns, it would be great.

I am ending this week working on two other side projects. I am researching a few prospects that were passed along to Darren as referrals to see if any have draft potential. I am also putting together a compilation of stats, highlights and a biography for one of our players to be sent to someone with ties to Japan. Hopefully it works out and our player can start a new chapter to his career.

So until next week, Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone.

An Intern(al) Look At Becoming A Sports Agent from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

To be honest, I kind of did a lot of thinking in this offseason and I wanted to go back to playing golf because I loved playing golf again. It had nothing to do with not even wanting sponsorships or if there wasn’t availability there. I just used to love playing golf, I used to love going out to the course everyday and some of that stuff can kind of get in the way. This year, I wanted my focus to be golf, and golf only and just not even worry about that other stuff.

His father, Mike Moore, echoed his sons sentiment in a recent ESPN article, “It’s not about money — it wasn’t going into the year and it isn’t now,” Mike Moore added. “It’s about aligning himself with products that befit his game. … He has a way that he enjoys looking and a way that he enjoys playing the game. He’s a very unique individual and he feels it’s important to be true to himself.”  Unique is right. Moore, at various times throughout the season, has sported a headband, flashy v-neck sweaters with ties and puma shoes (just like a pair people where on the streets) but with golf spikes attached – all items purchased by Moore.

So was it worth it? Moore’s answer would be an astounding yes. Moore finished this season with personal bests of a 70.46 scoring average, just over $2.2 million in earnings and his first PGA Tour victory.  Furthermore, that $2.2 million in earnings is over $1 million more than he earned in his previous season on tour. So to all pf Moore’s naysayers who bashed his decision to forgo $300-500K, he quips “less is Moore.”

Moore For Me from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

My colleague Douglas Sanders with The Sports Link introduced me to the new service, which strives to make it easier for athletes to connect with their fans by providing “text only once, but update fans everywhere” convenience.  If an athlete sends a text message to MogoTXT, MogoTXT can automatically forward that message to the athlete’s fans on MogoTXT, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and all other websites.

Terrell Owens, Shane Battier, Chris “Beanie” Wells, Santonio Holmes, Jordan Farmar, and even Mr. Holdout, Michael Crabtree, are on board, along with many more athletes and rising journalists.  Some entities use the service more than others.  T.O. is updating the world on his life almost every second of the day…Beanie Wells, not so much.

In addition to providing ease and convenience to athletes, MogoTXT is able to aggregate the fans of an athlete that are located on several different websites into a single large audience to enable the athlete to achieve critical mass much faster for purposes of fan relations, marketing, advertising, etc.  The theory is that the service will empower athletes and their agents to strike better endorsement deals by enhancing athletes’ reach and providing marketing data.

MogoTXT can also facilitate revenue generation for athletes and their selected charities by working with athletes and their agents to feature desirable ads and clickable links to additional content and ads at the bottom of the athletes’ text messages before these messages are displayed on MogoTXT and also distributed to fans on all of the major social networks.

And for the Yao Mings and Kobe Bryants with huge international appeal, MogoTXT can also translate the messages into foreign languages on a near real-time basis.

Best of all, the service is free for its clients and their fans.

Reach Everybody With One Text from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

One of the biggest weekends of the year in Gainesville, FL.  While Tennessee looked pretty weak against UCLA, the Gators should never take them for granted.  HHR looks at arguments for both teams.  Happy Rosh Hashanah to all my Jewish people!  Leigh Steinberg will be on the new Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California Wall of Fame.  How about my client, Pete Parise?  He has appeared in all 5 of the AAA Memphis Redbirds postseason games, racking up 4 saves in the process without giving up a single run.  I’m just a little excited about that.  Here are some stories I missed over the past week:

Baseball

• Another great piece by Doug Glanville.  He is turning out to be an excellent writer [Keeping It Real].

Football

• Tank Black tells his story for the first time [Tanked!].
• A football agent’s life, month by month [The agent cycle].
• Jake Delhomme isn’t losing his endorsement deals anytime soon [He can throw; can he pitch?].
• Put a client on a practice squad before sending him to the Browns? Harsh [Sources: Agents steering players away from Browns].
• The Patriots were the driving force behind the 5-year maximum length of rookie contracts drafted #17-32 overall [Patriots’ role in altered CBA ‘clarified’].

Entertainment

• He’s playing an agent on a show girls love [Interview with Robert Buckley, The New Ladies' Man on 'One Tree Hill'].

Sports Business

• From the geek at the sports network to the cool guy at the business network [Darren Rovell: CNBC’s Multi-Beat, Multi-Platform Game-Changer].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (9/18/09) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Braun is quickly becoming a star and a fan favorite since entering the league in 2007.  He won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2007, and came in third in the voting for the 2008 NL MVP.  Braun has kept his agent Nez Balelo (CAA) busy.  During the 2008 season Balelo negotiated an 8-year contract extension with the Brewers, allowing the potential superstar to earn between $45 and $51 million.  In addition to the recent AirTrain deal, Braun has been involved with several other off-the-field opportunities.  The slugger is currently working to develop his own line of aluminum bats, and is developing his own t-shirt line with Affliction Clothing, a company owned by a pair of his friends.  He also has an endorsement deal with Remington, which allowed him to shoot a viral video with supermodel Marisa Miller.

AirTran has recently been working to increase its presence in the Milwaukee region; General Mitchell International Airport has been made a focus city of the airline.  Part of their marketing push has been via the Milwaukee Brewers.  The company recently brokered a deal with Braun’s team for the naming rights for the right field picnic area.  This seating zone will be called the AirTran Airways Landing Zone for the 2009 season.  The airline also has endorsement deals with Donald Driver, Danica Patrick, and Matt Ryan.

Ryan Braun is Flying High from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Being a casualty of the economy myself, I know how hard it is to find a job, let alone one that pays well. While athletes are still making their millions, we may see in the near future that the size of the contracts decrease. Rule of thumb seems to be contracts get bigger and bigger, but that may all change. The next draft will be that of the NFL draft, and I believe those prospects entering the 2009 NFL draft and the agents representing them will soon realize the dollars may not be there like in the past.

In the ’08 draft we saw number 1 pick Jake Long sign a 5 year $57.75 million contract, making him the richest offensive lineman in the NFL. We also saw Matt Ryan sign a 6 year $72 million contract with $34.75 million in guarantees. Those numbers are staggering in any economy. With the Lions most likely landing the number one pick it will be very interesting what kind of money they are willing to spend. Let’s not forget that Detroit has been hit hard during this economic downturn.

When it’s signing endorsement deals, free agents, draft picks, or in the Yankees and Mets cases filling brand new stadiums, things as we know it in the sporting world has most certainly changed. It’s now just a matter of how long will this last.

Sports and the Economy from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Andrew Moss Of Onyx Sports Group Indicted from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules