The following guest contribution is provided by Hardik Sanghavi, who graduated from DePaul University in 2016 with a major in finance and minor in accounting. During his time at DePaul, Hardik interned with ESPN Chicago and Priority Sports & Entertainment. He now works as a Commercial Underwriter in the Insurance Industry and writes for Overthecap.com. You can follow him on twitter at @hardiks94.
It was recently announced that NFLPA Executive Director DeMaruice Smith was re-elected to serve the role for an additional 3 years, with the possibility of the role extending to 5 years. The selection committee, the group behind the unanimous vote to retain Smith, consists of 11 members of the NFLPA Executive Committee plus the 3 longest-serving player reps. These committee members include active and retired players, such as Richard Sherman and Matt Hasselbeck, respectively.
This year’s election process was far more seamless compared to the last election in March 2015, when there were 8 other candidates competing against Smith. After players complained about the cumbersome process of vetting through 9 different candidates, NFLPA President Eric Winston and the NFLPA Board of Player Reps worked to create a more efficient process. The old process allowed for a “public-office” running such that player reps could nominate as many candidates as they wanted to run against Smith. However, the new rules prevented Smith from facing outside competition, unless one of the players from the executive committee had voted against retaining Smith. If that had been the case, then the NFLPA would have hired a search firm to find the most qualified candidates to compete against Smith.
Now that the union has secured its leader for at least the next 3 years, preparations for the next collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiation will hopefully continue. With players winning big on health and safety benefits in the last CBA deal, it will be important for the union to fight for players to have a larger piece of the economic pie. Requiring teams to tie compensation to cap percentage on longer term deals will be one of many items worth negotiating for.
Notable Deals
In notable deals, CAA had a huge month with $276M negotiated in extensions for Matt Stafford, DeAndre Hopkins, and Stephen Tuitt. The mega-agency’s Contract Under Management figure will continue to grow with Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Zack Martin all expected to have new deals in the near future. Below are other notable deals over the last month:
Entrants/Exits
Agent movement over the last month was very active due to the roster cut downs in early September. 80 Agents became inactive (0 clients on a roster) while the industry saw 7 new agents gain a client onto a roster.
Notable Player-Agent Changes
SportsTrust Advisors, an Atlanta based agency led by Pat Dye, had a big month as they added Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix and Nick O’Leary to their client roster. Clinton-Dix has two years remaining on his rookie deal while O’Leary will be a Restricted Free Agent in March. The addition of both players brings the agency’s active client count to 39. Below are other notable player-agent changes over the last month.
Lastly, to cap off this month’s Agent Client Report, below is an updated snapshot of the Agent Industry: *Please note Contract Numbers are based off New Money.*
Industry Snapshot (9.26.17)
- Players Under Contract with Representation: 2253 (includes players on NFI/PUP)
- Active Agents: 472 (minimum of 1 active client)
- Active Agencies: 296
Top Ten Agencies by Contracts Under Management
- CAA: $3.21B Contracts Under Management; 169 Clients
- Top Agents:
- Todd France: 66 clients (39 co-repped)
- Tom Condon: 48 clients (22 co-repped)
- James Sexton: 46 clients (30 co-repped)
- Top Agents:
- Athletes First: $2.00B Contracts Under Management; 126 Clients
- Top Agents:
- David Mulugheta: 25 clients (7 co-repped)
- Joe Panos: 23 clients (2 co-repped)
- Andrew Kessler: 20 clients (9 co-repped)
- David Dunn: 19 clients (4 co-repped)
- Top Agents:
- Rosenhaus Sports: $1.16B Contracts Under Management; 98 Clients
- Top Agent:
- Drew Rosenhaus: 97 clients (6 co-repped)
- Top Agent:
- Lagardere Unlimited: $1.06B Contracts Under Management; 68 Clients
- Top Agents:
- Joel Segal: 58 clients (21 co-repped)
- Chafie Fields: 21 clients (12 co-repped)
- Top Agents:
- Sportstars: $966.83M Contracts Under Management; 132 Clients
- Top Agents:
- Brian Mackler: 46 clients (49 co-repped)
- Jared Fox: 41 clients (36 co-repped)
- Jonathan Perzley: 35 clients (33 co-repped)
- Alan Herman: 31 clients (29 co-repped)
- David Butz: 30 clients (9 co-repped)
- James Ivler: 25 clients (25 co-repped)
- Top Agents:
- Rep 1 Sports Group: $595.21M Contracts Under Management; 54 Clients
- Top Agents
- Ryan Tollner: 24 clients (3 co-repped)
- Chase Callahan: 22 clients (3 co-repped)
- Top Agents
- Independent Sports & Entertainment: $567.21M Contracts Under Management; 46 Clients
- Top Agents:
- Doug Hendrickson: 30 clients (14 co-repped)
- C.J. Laboy: 17 clients (14 co-repped)
- Top Agents:
- Select Sports Group: $552.23M Contracts Under Management; 81 Clients
- Top Agents:
- Jeffrey Nalley: 32 clients (15-co-repped)
- Erik Burkhardt: 25 clients (9 co-repped)
- Top Agents:
- SportsTrust Advisors: $541.03M Contracts Under Management; 39 Clients
- Top Agents:
- Patrick Dye: 26 clients (3 co-repped)
- William Johnson: 13 clients (2 co-repped)
- Top Agents:
- Priority Sports & Entertainment: $358.32M Contracts Under Management; 59 Clients
- Top Agents:
- Mike McCartney: 26 Clients
- Kenny Zuckerman: 14 Clients
- Top Agents:
