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Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (5/22/09)

Darren Heitner — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:00:27 +0000

I am back up in lovely Gainesville, FL. No matter if you are in Miami, Gainesville, or anywhere else in the state, you better get used to summer weather. Blistering heat until 2-3 p.m., then at least a couple of hours of thunderstorms. Such is life. I am back to taking classes and working very hard on our current clients, plus our prospects in both baseball and basketball. Last week I went to open tryouts for the new Lingerie Football League. It was fun to watch and definitely is an interesting concept with a novel compensation structure for its players. Hey, if it grows to be large enough, perhaps some of the hard hitting ladies will need some good representation. Here are some stories I missed over the past week:

Football

Largest increase in 3 years. And I predict a new CBA will be signed before the start of next season [Final adjustment increases salary cap].
Sheldon Brown deserves more money, but who told him to sign a 9-year deal when he was 25-years-old? [The Early Extension of Young Players' Contracts].
The guy has made a lot of money for his clients.. [Drew Rosenhaus, good or evil for the NFL??].
My man, Kevin Sullivan, gives his advice to the Vick Camp [The PR campaign: A four-point plan for Vick].
And Adam Ostrow of Mashable.com has some ideas of his own [Can Social Media Help Repair Michael Vick’s Image?].

Basketball

King James makes roughly $25 million a year from endorsements alone (including a nice deal with Bubblicious) [NBA AM: LeBron James Staying Put].
Shaq is serious about a career in broadcasting [IT'S ALL SHAQ-ADEMIC].

Sports Business

What do you think about Danica Patrick’s new Twitter campaign? [Danica Patrick, Twitter, and Sponorships].

An Unfair Double Standard In The NFL?

Darren Heitner — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:00:55 +0000

Yesterday, Drew Rosenhaus tweeted, “Why is there so much controversy when a player who out-performs his contract asks for a increased deal? NFL teams release players everyday who have several years left on their contracts. It’s an unfair double standard that teams can cut players before they finish their deal.” There is an easy answer to that question. The majority of Americans think that athletes are overpaid for the services they provide; however, they are more than happy to spend the money to watch those games live or pay for that extra-large HD TV that will get a lot of use each Sunday. So most fans don’t care when an athlete gets cut by a professional team. It’s just a part of the game. If that same athlete asks to be compensated fairly when his performance exceeds the amount that he is paid, boo that man!

This is something that we, as agents, must accept. Our clients will never be glorified for requesting or demanding a renegotiation of their contracts, but if they so deserve an increase in salary, then a little bit of criticism from the media and/or their organizations may be worth it. So for the Lito Sheppards and Sheldon Browns, keep your heads up high.