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Retirement Sports Agents

Who Is Winning In Overtime?

Overtime MagazineRemember back on December 1, 2006, when I discussed Ryan McNeil’s Overtime (OT) Magazine, and how he should get credit for his success off the field (he never made it in the NFL)? Even if you were a reader of SportsAgentBlog.com back then, I doubt you remember the post. So let me remind you about a few things I said:

OT Magazine claims to be the first and only magazine specifically geared towards athletes. The magazine hopes to focus on the important business and lifestyle interests of past, present and future professional athletes. Non-athletes can subscribe to the magazine for $29.95 per year.

”What you are doing is very important,” retired football player Mike Siani recently wrote in a letter to OT Magazine, “because many of us former athletes flounder once our athletic careers are over.”

Well it looks like McNeil’s OT Magazine is floundering itself. Instead of being concerned about athletes and their ability to manage the millions of dollars that they make as professionals, he should have been worried about the solvency of his own company. According to MediaBistro.com via Deadspin,

[McNeil’s] company owes considerably more than $100,000 to former magazine staff, freelancers and vendors. [$100,000] wouldn’t even cover the loans [McNeil’s] taken out.

Quite an example that McNeil is displaying for the athletes that read his magazine (if the allegations are true). Lawsuits are flying all over the place, but according to McNeil, OT will continue to publish on a bimonthly schedule. After taking a glimpse at their bustling blog, I cannot imagine much is going on behind the scenes.

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.