Money Players

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

• Lester Munson with a great tribute to the late Gene Upshaw. Munson gives a very thorough breakdown of how Upshaw fought for and gained free agency rights for NFL players. You have to wonder what benefits NFL players would have today without the work of Gene Upshaw.
   
• On Ball Don’t Lie, Rod Benson wonders if his blogging might be part of the reason he hasn’t been signed by an NBA team. With more and more professional athletes starting their own blogs, one has to wonder if blogs help or hurt them. Some might say that Gilbert Arenas has both hurt and helped himself a ton with his NBA.com blog.
  
  
• More on Jameer Nelson’s “Building Magic” team building event. We have no idea if this will translate to wins, but this definitely shows that Jameer Nelson is a leader, through and through.
  
  
• According to bankruptcy papers, Michael Vick is losing $12K per month. Michael is going through tough times now, but he’ll have a chance to rebuild his life in the near future. Hopefully he’ll come out and be willing teach young up and coming athletes about the mistakes he has made, so that they won’t make the same mistakes in the future.
  
  
• According to NCAA President, Myles Brand, "NCAA amateurism regulations preclude individuals from receiving cash or the equivalent thereof (e.g. trust fund), as an award for participation in competition at any time, even if such an award is permitted under the rules governing an amateur non-collegiate event in which the individual participates."  The NCAA has dug its heels in on the amateur issue and shows no signs of relenting. Interestingly, the International Olympic Committee, which for many decades insisted that the amateurism was a core belief, dramatically relaxed its amateur rules. In 1974, the word "amateurism" was removed from the Olympic Charter, which eventually paved the way for the participation of athletes who received compensation, either through playing or endorsements. Regulating amateur athletes in a marketplace that places a high value on elite student-athletes is becoming increasingly difficult. The NCAA is in a tough situation. What do you think the NCAA and its membership should do? 
  
  
• Speaking of Brand, the Indianapolis Star gives us a report on Dr. Brand’s NCAA salary.  With an annual salary of $971,000, the NCAA President makes more than every public university president in the country. But he also makes less than ever major sports commissioner in the country. His job has similar requirements to both of those groups, so his salary being in between the two might be right on point.
  
  
• Brand was also in the Huffington Post this past week talking about the topic of pay for play in college sports.  In response, Brian Grummell of AOL’s Fanhouse gives us his take on the topic.  The comments section on Brand’s Huffington piece are also worth taking a close look at.
  
  
• The New York Times investigates if endorsement opportunities disappear for Olympic athletes that are injured before they have a chance to perform.
  
  
• Speaking of the Olympics, CNBC’s Darren Rovell has been doing an excellent job of covering the business side of the Olympics. We highly recommend rummaging through his blog archives over the last couple of weeks to soak up all of the information you can. You can start with this post on the most marketable non-team sport athletes following the Olympics.
  
  
• Check back Thursday for another set of must read Money Players Links.

-Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes, written by our own Marc Isenberg.

 

 

Sex, Lies & NFL interrogations

According to NFL draft prospect Jerod Mayo, an NFL team asked him: "When's the last time you cheated on your girlfriend?" The logical follow up question by this Javert-type had to then be, "And when did you stop beating her?"

I understand the need for NFL teams to do background checks on draft prospects, but this question assumes guilt. Mayo handled the situation very well: "They didn't even ask me, 'Did you cheat on your girlfriend?' I told them I didn't cheat on my girlfriend."

This reminds me of the great story then-free agent Jayson Williams told about how the Chicago Bulls put him through several hours of psychological testing and questioning. The Bulls then signed the ultimate headcase, Dennis Rodman. On the other hand, Rodman never shot anyone to death, so perhaps Jerry Krause knew what he was doing. 

Rethinking Sean Taylor

A phenomenal story in the Washington Post on the complex life and tragic death of Washington Redskin Sean Taylor. He was the product of a father who pushed Sean to great athletic accomplishments and a skeptical, distrustful mother. I am not a psychologist, but I do think the path to the NFL is paved with nasty bumps and hairpin turns; and the ones who can put pedal to the medal without crashing are the ones who make it. From an emotional standpoint, it's not always the most healthy environment, even if a career in professional sports represents the dream of many young kids. Ultimately, the same qualities that it takes to become an NFL player are typically not the same qualities it takes to live a happy, fulfilled life.

From the Washington Post article:

[Taylor] had a code by which he lived and played. Taylor was uninterested in the fame that came with being an NFL star. He turned away the media because he felt reporters would only build up athletes to tear them down. He rejected commercial endorsements because he had no interest in fame.

[Former Redskin defensive coordinator Gregg] Williams said that if a teammate showed fear on the field or an opponent dared challenge his fire, Taylor would fly into rages...[Williams] had spent so much of his coaching career trying to "manufacture toughness" in his players, he said, and here was one who came ready-made with all the ferocity the game demanded. 

The saddest part of Taylor's tragic death is that he won't get the opportunity to see his baby girl grow up in a world far different from the one he experienced. And the public won't get to see a hardened NFL Pro Bowler soften as he gradually learned to navigate the contradictory, confusing worlds he inhabited.

Like many pro athletes, he Taylor did have another side:

[The] player who trusted few adults loved children. There was an innocence to children, friends and family think he believed, a special warmth that had yet to be spoiled by adults...When Rene Garcia [Jackie's father] showed up with his daughter to clean out Taylor's Ashburn townhouse in December, sources say he was stunned to see neighbors pouring from their homes to tell stories of the football star who came out into the street to play with the children, who was invited to their birthday parties, said he would come and then actually did.

Super Bowl Media Daze

Today is Super Bowl media day, which is mostly an opportunity for a few fringe members of the media to ask stupid questions or propose marriage. Tough call for Tom Brady: A wedding-dress wearing stalker or Giselle? CNNSI.com features the all-time dumbest Super Bowl questions.

Appearing on ESPN's Outside the Lines, six-time Super Bowl participant Don Beebe offered some great insights.

On Green Bay coach Mike Holmgren preparing team for the off-the-field distractions:

"Coach Holmgren said, 'I have two players who want to address to the football team. The first is Don Beebe and he will tell you what to do during Super Bowl Week. And the next is Jim McMahon. He's going to tell you want not to do.'"

On the high cost of taking care of friends and family:

"Me and my wife sat down and figured out how much we invested on the six Super Bowls and it was over $300,000 in tickets, meals, hotel rooms and all that stuff. Tickets aren't cheap. The most I ever got was 48 tickets for Super Bowl XXVIII."

Less Michael Vick, more Baron Davis

Today the Sports Talk Nation is fixated on Michael Vick and his prison sentencing. I'm over Vick. He will pay his debt to society and hopefully come out a better person. If NFL commissioner Roger Goodell thinks Vick deserves another opportunity to play in the NFL again, great. (Whether he will have the ability to come back after a two, probably three-year layoff is another story.) While Vick couldn't sever his ties to his past, there are many other professional athletes who recognize that there are many positive ways to stay true to their communities. Baron Davis, whom I've known since his Crossroads High School (Santa Monica) and UCLA days, gets it. Baron is quoted in the SacBee:

"When you come from where I came from and you come into a lot of money, then a lot of people come out of the woodwork. Those weren't the best people to have around. When you're young, you allow that to happen. You feel a sense of guilt for your success. But you also want to help change people that you feel have potential and talent. But those people are there for a reason, and that's to really become takers.

"I've just become more well-rounded as far as what I want out of life. Coming into the league, it was really all about basketball and it was all about being real and keeping it real with my friends from my neighborhood. I just kind of walled myself off from the rest of the world and from challenging myself to be more than just a basketball player.

"I was just so caught up into going back to my community and going back to my neighborhood and doing as much as I could there that I wasn't allowing myself to soak up all my resources or utilize all my resources. A lot of times, you just get tunnel vision. When you're in the league, sometimes you have people around that just make you feel good. Now, I've opened myself up to having those friends in my life that challenge me every day and force me to be more."

The meaning of life and death

Reading accounts of the life and tragic death of Sean Taylor is both heartwarming and depressing. From a troubled, violent and dangerous past, emerged a thoughtful, caring family man, teammate and friend. A real team leader. Taylor had so much to live for -- a baby daughter, a career in the NFL -- yet he died so unnecessarily.

Death is never an easy subject. Not only do we have a young, professional athlete cut down in his absolute prime, we're dealing with many other related issues (fame, money, violence, race). Perhaps Taylor's murder is a senseless, random tragedy. Mike Wilbon offers a very different view, first offered in a WashPost.com chat:

I know how I feel about Taylor, and this latest news isn’t surprising in the least, not to me. Whether this incident is or isn’t random, Taylor grew up in a violent world, embraced it, claimed it, loved to run in it and refused to divorce himself from it. He ain’t the first and won’t be the last. We have no idea what happened, or if what we know now will be revised later. It’s sad, yes, but hardly surprising.

Chris Mottram, who blogs Mr. Irrelevant, reacted to Wilbon's comments: "Sure, Taylor’s had some troubles in the past, but that’s like suggesting the slutty girl from high school deserved to be raped."

If you want to believe Sean Taylor's murder was completely senseless and random, that's fine. There's nothing that will bring Taylor back, so there's not much value in playing Monday morning quarterback (or Tues, Wed, Thur, etc. for that matter). Just reduce the talking points to: "It was a senseless tragedy." And, "God had other plans for this young man." On the other hand, if you believe there's a pattern here, this might be an opportunity to have an important, constructive dialog. Wilbon's initial chatter was probably a bit raw, but in the more measured world of column writing (a craft he happens to still be very good at) he expanded on his views. He also points out some of the similaries to Len Bias's tragic death.

Wilbon writes:

The issue of separating yourself from a harmful environment is a recurring theme in the life of black men. It has nothing to do with football, or Sean Taylor or even sports. To frame it as a sports issue is as insulting as it is naive. Most of us, perhaps even the great majority of us who grew up in big urban communities, have to make a decision at some point to hang out or get out.

The kid who becomes a pharmaceutical rep has the same call to make as the lawyer or delivery guy or accountant or sportswriter or football player: Cut off anybody who might do harm, even those who have been friends from the sandbox, or go along to get along.

What we have here is another one of those Rorschach Ink Blot tests, where the meaning of Sean Talyor's murder is ultimately in the eye of the beholder. Sean Taylor, RIP.

--Marc Isenberg

Exorcising the agent demons

San Francisco Chronicle's Tom FitzGerald provides an excellent overview of the sports agent business.

A few points from the article worth highlighting:

"Based on interviews with several established agents, it appears that it's inexperienced agents and their runners who are more apt to cross the line."

Yes, there are agents and athletes who cheat. Shocking. There's also coaches and boosters who cheat. I tend to agree with sports agent Steve Baker who was quoted in the article: "The potential for abuse is there. But, frankly, I think the system self-corrects, and those people are run out of the business."

The problem is agents with few to zero clients care little about NCAA regulations and perhaps even agent laws (which may not apply if he is not operating as an "agent"). Ultimately agent prohibitions can easily have the unintended consequence to help unethical agents gain an advantage over those who respect the rules.

If agent recruiting is anything similar to college recruiting, we know contact between athlete and agent/coach matters. That's why coaches call and text message prospects incessantly. They do whatever is allowed under NCAA rules. And some don't even stop there. Agents are no different in their quest for clients.

Cal coach Jeff Tedford said in the article, "There's nothing (agents) can do for you during the season except get you in trouble." I understand Coach Tedford's frustration. But I think people need to consider reality: everyone likes to talk about their future. Top college football players want to talk about the NFL, just like high school players want to talk about college. I agree in principle that during the season a player should only be focused on his sport and his schoolwork. But if they have time to play Madden football, they will make time to talk to agents.

When Curtis Martin speaks, listen (or read)

Sports Business Journal did a terrific “In-Depth” examination on athlete behavior. The whole thing is worth reading, but the interview with former Jets and Patriots RB and the NFL’s fourth all-time leading rusher, Curtis Martin, stands out. Unfortunately you have to have to subscribe to the Journal or its sister publication, Sports Business Daily, to read the entire interview. Below are a couple of Martin's answers:

On being a role model
I take being a role model very seriously. I take it just as seriously as I take my performance on the field. So in the same way that I prepare for a game, I prepare my life—the way I do things, the way I think—in a manner that is worthy of being a role model. I realize the position I’m in and the influence I have, not only on my teammates, but on guys around the NFL who might look up to me in sort of a big brother way. So being the proper example for kids and fans and colleagues and friends and family is tremendously important.

On the pressure put on pro athletes by families
The type of pressure that friends and family can put on you is unbelievable. One thing that I always try to preach to some of the younger athletes is to get good at saying no. Most of us feel so obligated because we are the only one, probably in our entire generation of our family tree, who has had this kind of success. The whole tree comes after you. When to say no and when to say yes, on top of trying to have a successful career, is overwhelming many times...One of the most difficult parts of being a professional athlete is dealing with that whole tree coming after you, and dealing with the pressure of taking care of not only your own family, but every family that’s even close to you. If you don’t have anyone to help you sift through that process, it’s extremely hard…I think the general public equates wisdom with money, and there’s nothing further from the truth. People wonder, with all the money you make, how could you do something that stupid? I think that more money opens you up to doing something that stupid.

The risks of football

By Marc Isenberg

We can all breath a sigh of relief that Buffalo Bills player Kevin Everett is out of imminent medical danger and he may even walk again. We all hope Everett can recover to lead a somewhat normal life. What happened to him is everyone's worst fear: that someone doing what they love suffers a career-ending (or in this case, a life-threatening) injury.

Society may love the finished product of sausages and football, but most would prefer not to know how these great American staples are made.

Injuries are an inherent part of pushing the limits of human performance, as professional athletes do every day. What happened to Everett last Sunday is everybody's worst fear. Football players may not fully grasp the true risks of playing (perhaps it's better they do not), but it is something that everyone needs to look at.

In capitalism, we compensate for risk. The saying goes: “No risk, no reward.” Think of the converse: In exchange for great risk, athletes deserve to be highly compensated. While many have questioned the NFL for not doing enough to help its retired players, NFL players are compensated for playing a violate sport. (They also receive medical coverage for 5 years after they retire.) Certainly more can and should be done to assist retired players, but at least this issue is being addressed.

At the same time, we should not forget where our NFL beasts come from. They are bred in the high-tech, win-at-whatever-price-boosters-are-willing-to-pay world of college football. In terms of concussive impact, college football is no longer a quantum leap from the NFL. It was once rare to have a 300-pound offensive lineman in the NFL; now I doubt there are many sub-300 pounders playing for a BCS conference school. Lawrence Taylor broke the mold for linebackers when he entered the NFL in 1981; today he is the mold--6'4 and 240 pounds of sheer terror.

A couple weeks ago Tim Layden wrote about the "The Big Hit" in Sports Illustrated. The article's subtitle succinctly frames the issue: "Players live for it, fans love it, media celebrate it -- and all bemoan its devastating consequences. The brutal collision of bodies is football's lifeblood, and the NFL's biggest concern." Layden follows up with another article this week, "The hits keep coming." Both articles are worth reading.

Michael Vick will forever be linked to...gambling

By Marc Isenberg

Now that Vick has plead guilty, our nation can turn its attention to settling a more pressing question: Which is worse, killing dogs or betting on dogs?

The reasonable answer: Dog killing is despicable, heinous and disturbing. Illegal sports gambling by NFL players is prohibited -- so the NFL will factor in the gambling element when it comes to determining Michael Vick's fate as a football player. But Vick will always be remembered as -- and pay the steepest price for -- killing dogs.

But what do I know? I don't get paid to write opinions like this.

Here's what extremely well-compensated studio announcers Bob Costas, Peter King, Tiki Barber, and Chris Collingsworth had to say on NBC's Football Night in America. (Thanks to Jon Stewart we can laugh at some very strange commentary.)

Costas: "We're looking at Michael Vick not showing up in the NFL until again 2010."

Stewart: "My god, that's almost 28 dog years from now."

Collingsworth: "Peter, what about the gambling?  The dog fighting might be the least of his concerns."

King: "You said it absolutely right. I am told the League is as concerned, maybe more so, about the gambling aspect than about the dog fighting."

Really? Roger Goodell has been masterful in his statements since becoming NFL commish. It's very questionable that the NFL, the most well-oiled machine in professional sports, would put out something so greasy. No question the gambling aspect compounds Vick's problems, but this is not a rock/paper/scissors game -- where gambling smashes dog killing.

The whole exchange is classic -- and worth viewing...but you must do so on Comedy Central's website, not mine. Viacom (which owns Comedy Central) is suing Youtube.com for a $1 billion. Of greater concern: My wife, Debbie Spander, is a lawyer...get ready for the punchline...at Comedy Central. If I can avoid receiving a cease and desist letter from my wife...on corporate letterhead...that's a good day.

But she will happily have a smackdown with debate Youtube's chief counsel on this very issue at the ABA Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries in NYC on October 13. (See page 9 of the brochure.)