Last week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that longtime football agent Jim Steiner retired from being a sports agent. Steiner had amassed a total of thirty-five years representing mostly football players, but also dabbled in the representation of baseball and basketball players early in his career. He had somewhere between 300 and 500 clients throughout his career (I guess you stop counting once you hit the 200 mark), and worked for a total of four companies (Bry & Associates, Sports Management Group, SFX, and most recently Creative Artists Agency) prior to retiring from the business.
Steiner, a St. Louis, Missouri resident had been working at CAA alongside Tom Condon and Ben Dogra. Recently, Memphis, Tennessee-based Jimmy Sexton joined the CAA team. The industry today is much more crowded than it was when Steiner first began representing professional athletes. Everything from recruiting to compensation of the athletes has changed, and likely made it less exciting for the veteran agent.
Steiner plans to remain in St. Louis and hopes to find something new and exciting to get involved in. Throughout his career, Steiner represented some of the best in football, including Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, William “Refrigerator” Perry, and Randall Cunningham.
