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Dissecting Jerry Maguire’s Mission Statement – Part 1

I will bet that at least 95% of people who have come across this blog have seen the movie Jerry Maguire at least once in their lives. In fact, if you have basic cable, you have probably realized that it is on TV every other day. The movie has made many people in my generation interested in becoming a sports agent. The idea that the industry is full of money has given many a false impression of what the business of sports is all about.

But is there anything that we can take from the movie and learn a bit from? Apparently, yes. I have known for a while that Jerry Maguire’s Mission Statement is available on the web. It is the mission statement that Jerry worked all night creating, left a copy in each person’s mailbox before work, and subsequently got fired because of it. Director, Cameron Crowe, could have just created a title page and left the entire document blank (no one would have ever known). Instead, he actually wrote the entire Mission Statement, titled, The things we think and do not say: thoughts of a sports attorney.

I will break down the entire document over the course of this week, leaving you with a couple of highlights from the document every day. I have broken the Mission Statement into 5 sections (based on its length). If you would like to skip this segment and just read the whole document, you may do so by clicking here. Quick thanks to reader Jason Belzer for reminding me about the existence of the statement.

Here are my bullet points from Part 1:

  • “Is there any real satisfaction in a success that exists only when we push the messiness of real human contact from our lives and minds? When we learn not to care enough about the very guy we promised the world to, just to get him to sign. Or to let it bother us that a hockey player’s son is worried about his dad getting that fifth concussion.”
    • New business is important, but not at the expense of the client list that you already possess. You take a fiduciary duty to protect your clients, uphold it.
  • “I have said “later” to most anything that required true sacrifice. Later I will spend a weekend reading real books, not just magazines. Later I will visit my grandmother who is 100 and unable to really know the difference. Later I will visit the clients whose careers are over, but of course I promised to stay in touch. Later later later later. It is too easy to say “later” because we all believe our work to be too important to stop, minute to minute, for something that might interfere with the restless and relentless pursuit of forward motion. Of greater success.”
    • If you want to break into this industry, start applying for internships right now. Stop reading the blog and start perfecting your resume. Start e-mailing/calling companies. If you are an agent and you have promised your client that you would call a team/sponsor on his/her behalf, but have been putting it off, take a second right now and fulfill your obligation. We don’t have time for later.

-Darren Heitner

By Darren Heitner

Darren Adam Heitner, Esq., is a preeminent sports attorney and the founder of Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm specializing in sports law, contract negotiations, intellectual property, and arbitration. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2010 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude, from the University of Florida in 2007, where he was named Valedictorian of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Admitted to practice in the state bars of Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia, as well as multiple federal courts, Darren also serves as a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

As an adjunct professor, Darren imparts his expertise through teaching Sports Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) at the University of Miami School of Law in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law LL.M. program. His scholarly contributions include authoring several books published by the American Bar Association, such as How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, and numerous articles in prominent publications like Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Above the Law. His thought leadership in NIL has earned him recognition as one of the foremost experts by The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, and On3, and he has been lauded as a “power player in NIL deals” by Action Network and a “top sports trademark attorney” by Sportico.

Darren’s passion for sports law led him to establish Sports Agent Blog on December 31, 2005, initially titled “I Want To Be A Sports Agent.” The platform, created as a New Year’s resolution, has grown into a cornerstone of the sports agency community, offering in-depth analysis of industry trends, legal disputes, and agent-player dynamics. His commitment to the field is further evidenced by his representation of numerous athletes and sports agents, as well as his prior role as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington, where he developed and taught a course on Sport Agency Management from 2011 to 2014.

Darren’s contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the University of Florida’s 40 Under 40 Award, the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, and designation as the best lawyer in Fort Lauderdale by Fort Lauderdale Magazine. He remains an active voice in the sports law community, sharing insights through his weekly NIL newsletter and his X posts, engaging a broad audience on legal developments in sports.

5 replies on “Dissecting Jerry Maguire’s Mission Statement – Part 1”

Please tell me that I’m not the only one, that upon saying, “I want to be a sports agent”, I hear the following reply verbatim, time and time again, never fail: “Oh, like Jerry Maguire?”

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