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On To The Next One: Ben Tate

The NFL has become a league of teams that choose to run the ball by committee – rarely will a team rest all of its running success on one running back.  This has allowed many “second options” to gain prominence, including Ben Tate of the Houston Texans.

Tate was selected by the Texans in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft after he had a successful campaign at Auburn University.  He suffered a broken right ankle in his rookie year, but bounced back in 2011 to gain just shy of 1,000 yards on the ground.  The Texans are again relying on Tate to produce for the team.

Unfortunately for C. Lamont Smith of All Pro Sports & Entertainment (APSE), Tate is no longer a client.  According to Neil Stratton at InsideTheLeague.com, Tate recently left APSE for Athletes First.  As our 2010 NFL Draft Pick/Agent Selection Master List shows, Tate was an APSE client when he was drafted, but as Stratton explains, Tate was actually signed to Allegiant Athletic Agency (a3) prior to the Draft.  So Tate is on to his third agency before he signs his second NFL contract.

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.