Over a year ago, I did a special spotlight on female agent, Kristen Kuliga. It took FOX Business a lot longer to realize the great strides that Ms. Kuliga has made in the sports agent industry. While Kuliga is no longer the only woman NFLPA certified agent to negotiate contracts for active NFL players, she is still a prime example of a person in a minority class who breaks the stereotype that a successful agent must be a man between 40 and 50 years of age.
Worthwhile knowledge that Fox Business provides includes the fact that Kuliga is the daughter of an athletic director. Things that the report could have left out are references to her being like a long island iced tea: If Kuliga were a cocktail, she would be a Long Island iced tea: five parts hard liquor with one part sweet mix. It might appear innocent, but you realize how strong it is after drinking it. Can’t beat mainstream journalism. Another thing that the journalist does is make agen, Tony Agone, out to look like a real ass.
When another agent, Tony Agone, says his daughter was thinking about becoming a sports agent, he told her “no way.”
“It’s tough,” Agone says. “Not a lot of women make it. You have to be really hard-headed to make it in this industry, plus she would make a lot more money as a [veterinarian].”
I wonder what my recent panelist at UF Sports Law Symposium, Kristine Rosendahl, would have said about that comment. Moreover, I wonder what Tony Agnone (with an N after the G) of Eastern Athletic Services thinks about FOX butchering his name a couple of times.
Anyway, Kristen is fully back into the business of representing athletes. In 2004, she sold her company, K Sports & Entertainment to Paid Inc, but recently bought back the rights to her company and has never looked back since.
FOX Business had a short Q and A with Kuliga. Here are my two favorite discussions:
FOX Business: If you “knew then what you know now,” what advice would you give yourself?
Kuliga:To be more strategic and conservative in some of the players I invested time and money into for training and representation.
FOX Business: In your opinion what is the biggest advancement women have made in business in the last decade and what is the biggest obstacle women must overcome in the next 10 years.
Kuliga: In the sports business, there are a lot more women that work at teams and in the sports marketing end of the business. I believe this has a lot to do with Title IX and women playing sports and therefore becoming interested in a career in sports and assertively going after these opportunities. Next biggest obstacle is for more women to become agents in representing athletes for their contracts with teams and more women working in management for teams.
