What do Deion Sanders, Michael Crabtree and Dez Bryant all have in common? Aside from the fact that they’ve all eaten dinner at chateau de Primetime, they’re all clients of super agent Eugene Parker.

What do Mike Jenkins, Chris Houston, and Shawn Springs all have in common? They’ve all fired super agent Eugene Parker.

Actually, Maximum Sports Management, which is comprised of Parker and Roosevelt Barnes, has been fired more than 15 times since 2005.

You all set, fellas? How come these dudes keep leaving you?

By most accounts, Parker and Barnes work tirelessly for their players. Their client list coupled with their long and distinguished career is more than enough proof that they do a lot right (I mean, at the very least Parker knows how to dress for success). Still, when guys have been fired by that many clients in that short a timeframe, it’s obvious they’re doing a few things wrong as well.

Unless you interview all of those players, along with Parker and Barnes, you won’t get a clear picture of what led to those firings. Athletes get rid of their agents for all kinds of reasons. Some logical, some ridiculous (shouts to Andre Smith). In either case, the firing indicates that for some reason, the athlete and the agent weren’t a match.

Parker and Barnes aren’t the only hyper-successful agents bleeding clients though.

Creative Artists Agency is widely regarded as the most dominant force in the game. Their client list is bananas. They represent Peyton and Eli Manning, Adrian Peterson, Mario Williams, Patrick Willis, and Antonio Gates among many others. They’ve got a team of agents who are superstars in their own right and every year the draft classes they land are the envy of the industry. Needless to say, the bank accounts of the agents over there aren’t in danger of being overdrawn.

With everything they’ve got going for them, every NFL athlete should jump at the opportunity to have CAA represent them, right? Perhaps, but any athlete interested in being represented by Condon and Co. should probably ask this question:

CAA, with so much going for you, how in the world do you get kicked to the curb so often?

Since 2005, the agents that work at CAA have been fired more than any other group in the industry. They’ve been axed by at least 20 of their athletes in that time, including Thomas Jones, Michael Clayton, Will Allen, Roy Williams, Marc Colombo, Antrel Rolle, and Julius Jones.

For an early first round guy, even with those firings, you’d be out of your mind not to consider them. For guys falling out of the second round, you might want to give another agency some thought.

At CAA, you’d be buried on a depth chart stacked with 1st rounders. You have to realize that no matter how many times an agent tells you you’re his top priority and he’ll do everything in his power to keep you happy, he’s about his business. The guys over at CAA aren’t any different. If you sign with them and they have ten players who earn them more dough than you, you can’t really be salty when you end up on the b-list.

You know how it goes; it’s like the girl who’s only dated athletes but tells you she’s not with you because you’re on the squad. “I’d be with you if you worked at a gas station baby.” C’mon son! You have to know, as soon as that ACL pops she’ll be wearing your teammate’s jersey. Don’t fall for the okie-doke. Like any agent, she’s going to do what’s best for her. So to circle back to the original question – shouldn’t every NFL athlete jump at the opportunity to have CAA represent them – in the words of Borat, maybe “not so much for you.”

Let’s be clear. I’m not picking on these guys. Lots of agents have been fired by a higher percentage of their players than the folks at CAA and Maximum. The fact that these two firms had more clients fire them than most agents ever get hired by, is more a testament to their position atop the industry than an indictment on their ability to hold their clients down. Both agencies are strong options for elite NFL prospects.

Having said that, the ultimate goal is to get athletes to realize that even the sexiest agencies out there have issues that need to be analyzed carefully. Athletes would be wise to dig as deep as possible into the backgrounds of the agents pursuing them before signing an SRA.

And players, take my word for it, just asking the agent why they got fired doesn’t fly. Newsflash, these guys make a living being slick and a lot of them will sell you a dream if you let them. Just keep in mind, everyone’s going to spin the story to fit their own needs. At the very least, make sure you get both sides.

Call the NFLPA and ask questions about your prospective agents. How many times has agent X been fired? How many times has he been brought up on disciplinary charges and why?

Ask the agent every one of these questions, record the answers, then ask some more.

Knowledge is power and the devil is in the details. You can never have enough information on the people who will be handling the business side of your career.

Don’t listen to me though, take it from Hov, who’s earned a few bucks in his career:

Men lie. Women lie. Numbers don’t.

Michael Crabtree may have shot himself in the foot when he decided to hold out these past four weeks of the season. The reason for this is that Crabtree pretty much lost all leverage when the 49ers started the season hot. After their winning streak, Eugene Parker knew he had to act quickly and get his client signed. His contract is a rather interesting one and is full of quirky clauses.

Here’s the deal:

• Crabtree signed a 6-year/$32 million contrac.
  • The 6th year is optional based on performance.
  • If a certain amount of stats are reached, the contract will turn to a 5 year/$28 million deal.
  • Discretionary Salary Advance – The 49ers pay Crabtree with the ability to get the cash back (minus the bonuses) in the event of a holdout, suspension, etc.
  • Diva Clause – some cash is tied to this clause which says that if Crabtree does not attend all mandatory functions and does not attend about 90 percent of the Niners’ voluntary events, San Fran can void all escalators tied to the clause.

I like to look at this contract as a “You Should Have Signed Earlier” contract. The reason for this is that many news sources say that the deal offered to Crabtree after the draft did not have any of this special language in it. It was a simple contract.

Sometimes when you roll the dice and take a risk such as the one Crabtree took, you lose. While Crabtree will get paid, he is definitely walking on eggshells in the Bay Area.

When Crabtree eventually signed with the San Francisco 49ers and held a press conference, Parker was nowhere to be found.  Perhaps it is because there is no way to justify such a long holdout when your client accepts an offer that was on the table months ago.

So the Crabtree saga is done…for now.  Time will tell if the 49ers wasted a 1st round pick or not.  But what about this Dez Bryant story?  You know, the Oklahoma State football player who was ruled ineligible for this past weekend’s game (and possibly the entire season) after lying to the NCAA about going to Deion Sanders’ house and training at his facility?  Yeah, he even wrote about it on his Facebook page.

Deion has been training players for the NFL through his company, Prime U.  Pushing cars looks like a big part of the program.

Okay so Dez Bryant gets busted for talking with Deion Sanders…where does Parker come into the picture?  As the Tulsa World reported,

[Deion] Sanders resides in the Dallas area and is associated with sports agent Eugene Parker. As an NFL player, Sanders was Parker’s client. [Dez] Bryant admitted to participating in a training session with Sanders at a Dallas-area gym and to having dinner at Sanders’ home.

Oy vey.  Are we looking too far into the connection, or is there credence to all of this?  Apparently Sanders had a strong hand in Crabtree’s holdout, so perhaps Deion is an intricate part of Parker’s arsenal.  Crabtree, like Bryant also worked out at Prime U.  For now, Parker’s name is not involved in the Dez Bryant issue; however, I am sure that the last thing the agent wants at this point is his name in the media because of any possible connection.  At least Sanders is going to bat for his former agent.

“Eugene has nothing to do with this,” Sanders said in a telephone interview. “Eugene don’t do that. He’s never been in this situation.”

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.

Texas Tech has come out of the NCAA gates softer than expected this season, as they have a record of 2-2 at this point. Last season the team compiled 11 wins and produced star wide out Michael Crabtree, who has yet to officially begin his NFL career after being a hot commodity in the previous draft when the 49ers attempted to sign him. Crabtree and a couple of his former teammates have been glimmering in the spotlight, but not for the right reasons.

The 2-2 Texas Tech squad expected to re-live the glorious season they had last year, but after being defeated by Houston in their last game, players have demonstrated signs of frustration through their Twitter accounts. Marlon Williams posted his reaction on his account after losing the game against Houston and it goes as follows: “WTF I can’t believe what happened man my senior season isn’t goin anything like what I busted my azz for …. New week now F$&@.” Also, Brandon Carter, a senior offensive lineman, had similar comments on his twitter account that have been deleted after fueling some interesting stories. All in all, the frustrations and use of Twitter to exemplify those feelings have resulted in Brandon Carter, a Texas Tech leader, losing his captaincy and also the ability to play next week against New Mexico. Coach Mike Leach has decided that the suspension is appropriate and has banned the team from using Twitter in the future. Leach was noted earlier in July making statements about the detrimental use of Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook and concluded with the statement that he really doesn’t even send emails. A bit ironic for a school with the word TECH in it’s title.

Not only 49ers faithful, but a lot of readers of SportsAgentBlog.com, are getting crabby with Eugene Parker.  Fans of the game of football cannot stand seeing one of the best wide-receivers in the 2009 NFL Draft class miss the first week of the season, and possibly the remaining fifteen games on the schedule.  A couple of days ago, I had heard that Michael Crabtree holding out until next draft was actually likely to happen, but then when the 49ers knocked off the Cardinals, which did not bode well for my Pick ‘Em score, Crabtree started to show some anxiety.

Yesterday was Crabtree’s birthday, which is probably a strong reason for him leaving the Bay Area.  I would not look too far into it and surmise that his leaving has anything to do with him completely breaking off conversation with the 49ers.

The clock continues to tick, and Crabtree remains far away from competitive football.  Each game Crabtree misses will likely change the 49ers offer to the disgruntled wide-out.  Why pay a player the same amount you were going to pay him before the season, if he is only going to play a fraction of the regular season games?

He left school early, so I guess he can at least tell himself that if he stayed another year at Texas Tech, he would not be making any money, anyway.  At least now, with his student-athlete tag removed, Crabtree can take as much money as he wants from any interested party (I’d bet that Eugene Parker is on that list).

Rookie holdouts are nothing new to the sports world. Every year we see a few or more rookies being advised by their agent/advisor to hold out of camp until a fair contract is signed. Before I jump to support any side, I’d like to present some important points-of-view.

From the athlete side: Professional sports are not just a game, but a business, too. Just like a worker wants his fair pay before starting a new job, so too does the athlete.

From the team/fans side: Although it is a business as well as a game, holding out of camp will pose a threat to the success of the athlete’s career; it will be like starting school late and missing tons of work and valuable information.

USA Today posted a great article about all of the remaining rookie holdouts and how their absence hurts them and the team. Here are those players:

• Aaron Curry, LB, Seattle Seahawks (4th overall pick)

• Andre Smith, T, Cincinnati Bengals (6th overall pick)

• Eugene Monroe, T, Jacksonville Jaguars (8th overall pick)

• B.J. Raji, DL, Green Bay Packers (9th overall pick)

• Michael Crabtree, WR, San Francisco 49ers (10th overall pick)

• Aaron Maybin, DE, Buffalo Bills (11th overall pick)

• Malcolm Jenkins, DB, New Orleans Saints (14th overall pick)

As we have all seen in the past, some “holdout” rookies have had tougher times getting starting jobs, playing to their best ability, and overall adapting to the fast-paced National Football League.

• JaMarcus Russell, one of the most hyped quarterbacks in recent years, was drafted 1st overall and has only played 19 games in his three year professional career. (Russell held out)
• Brady Quinn was drafted in the first round of his draft and has only played in 4 games in his three years in the NFL. (Quinn held out)
• Matt Ryan was drafted 3rd overall in the ‘08 NFL Draft and DID NOT hold out. He started 16 games in 2008 and has become one of the most successful quarterbacks in the NFL.
• Joe Flacco was drafted 18th overall in ‘08 and DID NOT hold out. Flacco also started 16 games in 2008 and has given the Baltimore Ravens great success on the field.

Now, I ask the players: Is taking a risk of not starting at all or being sub-par worth the money? Yes, you will be getting paid a lot of money to sit on the bench, but it will hit you in 5-6 years when your rookie contract is up and it is time to sign a new one. You will not be seeing those same dollars.

Parker wants a lot more money than the slot value at pick #10.  He feels that Crabtree should have been the first WR taken in the draft (the honor went to Heyward-Bey).  Who needs this contract more, Crabtree, Parker, or the 49ers?  Parker and Crabtree are banking that it’s the 49ers.  According to ProFootballTalk.com,

Per a league source, agent Eugene Parker is telling the 49ers that Crabtree will sit out the season re-enter the draft in 2010, unless the team gives Crabtree what he wants.

I’m calling bluff on that.  Crabtree already has a couple of big endorsements that he won’t want to disappoint.  Plus, what does a year on the sidelines do for his stock?  Stuff like this gives the NFL a stronger argument regarding slotting first round picks like the NBA does.  Should make for an even more interesting Collective Bargaining Agreement discussion in the future.

Apparently there is a big battle between Athletes First and CAA, and both firms are waiting to see what Eugene Parker does with Michael Crabtree’s contract (pick #10).  The agencies with first round picks should be careful not to extend this process too long.  It is okay when a few players hold out of camp, but if practically the entire first round of picks is sitting on the sidelines, we will start hearing more cries for a slotting system like the NBA uses on first round picks.  And NBA agents often do not take a cut on the first contracts of first round picks.  NFL agents would lose a lot of sleep over that idea.

• CAA clients Matthew Stafford, Jason Smith, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Knowshon Moreno, Brian Orakpo, Malcolm Jenkins, Brian Cushing, Josh Freeman, and Jeremy Maclin were selected in the first round.  CAA’s nine first round selections beat their 2008 record of six clients picked up in the first-round.  Most impressive about the nine CAA draft picks this year is that they were all taken between picks 1-19.  Talk about some big commissions!  It must have been interesting to be a member of the CAA crew when it had four of its clients picked in a row (12-15, starting with Moreno and ending with Cushing).
• It looks like Andre Smith might have received a nice boost by switching agents.  For the past few months, Andre was the talk of the town, for all the wrong reasons.  Days before the draft, he switched from GMG Sports to Priority Sports and made his way back into being a top ten pick (going to the Bengals at #6).  Maybe the Bengals had their eyes on him all along.  We will never know, but this will definitely help Priority land clients in the future and will undoubtedly be used against Alvin Keels and GMG Sports.
• Before the draft, I mentioned that CAA had a remote possibility of having 11 of its clients selected in the first round; 9 is nothing to complain about.  I also said that Octagon, BEST, Athletes First, and FAAM had the best chance at being runner-up.  It looks like that honor will go to Athletes First.  The company had 5 clients taken in the first-round: Mark Sanchez, B.J. Raji, Clay Matthews, Donald Brown, and Eric Wood.  Interestingly, Matthews, Brown, and Wood were all taken in a row as well (26-28).
• Third place in first-round selections is a tie between Octagon and FAAM (both had 3 selections).  FAAM was helped by the early selection of Kenny Britt by the Titans at #30.  Six WRs were taken in the first round this year after none were taken in the 1st last year.  Octagon’s Cutty, Pettigrew, and Hood make up the company’s 3 clients selected in the 1st.
• BEST, Maxximum Sports, and BC Sports followed up the pack by having two clients each taken in the 1st.  BEST was happy that Percy did not slip to the 2nd after the failed drug test, BC Sports had both of its clients go back to back (and they both went to the same school – Ole Miss), and Maxximum Sports had both of its guys go top 10 (Tyson Jackson and Michael Crabtree).
• Last, Al Davis loves speed.  Go find next year’s track star and call Oakland’s front office on Monday