Must read from SI: Confessions of an agent

[NAHSTE]

Damn, some prominent guys get put on blast for taking benefits while in school in this tell-all from Sports Illustrated:


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/magazine/10/12/agent/index.html?eref=sihp


Amateur athletics...what a farce.

Oh, and in case you are worried about your favorite team getting punished for anything revealed in this article, fear not:

Neither the schools nor the players in this story are likely to face NCAA scrutiny. The NCAA has a four-year statute of limitations on violations, and the most recent violation alleged by Luchs occurred in 2005. There are exceptions to the statute, but none appear applicable.

 

[Senser81]

Thanks. Good read. It confirms that the agents are pieces of shit. Josh Luchs is completely delusional. He's basically trying to take down every player he'd been in contact with in a belated attempt to "clear his name" and/or win his lawsuit. The guy has no class, and is also incredibly naive. After being in the business for several years, he still thought he could trust other agents??

Its sickening how often he mentions his family obligations as justification for his behavior. STFU. I have a family, too. I don't break the law to provide for them. And if I did, I wouldn't blame them for "making me do it".

 

[Chrispy]

dam good read

He is just one agent, imagine the amount of players that took money.

 

[Senser81]

dam good read

He is just one agent, imagine the amount of players that took money.

I would assume, though, that its the same players taking money from multiple agents. The agents are just looking for the big score from a top NFL pick. For instance, everyone kind of knows that Patrick Peterson of LSU is going to be a high draft choice, so I'm sure all of the agents are trying to give him money. But I don't think that many agents are giving money to Jarrett Lee, because there is going to be no ROI. So I think its misleading to say that if this is one agent giving money to 50 players, you just multiply the number of agents by 50.

 

[Chrispy]

I would assume, though, that its the same players taking money from multiple agents. The agents are just looking for the big score from a top NFL pick. For instance, everyone kind of knows that Patrick Peterson of LSU is going to be a high draft choice, so I'm sure all of the agents are trying to give him money. But I don't think that many agents are giving money to Jarrett Lee, because there is going to be no ROI. So I think its misleading to say that if this is one agent giving money to 50 players, you just multiply the number of agents by 50.

True but agents who are trying to make it might, they aren't going to go straight after the top players, they have to work their way up.

 

[NAHSTE]

I have a friend who started his own agency and just starting to build it (just one guy in the NFL so far, a KR for the Saints). I'd love to hear his thoughts on this story but I haven't talked to him in a few months.

As a former player (non-scholly OL for LSU for 4 yrs.), I'm sure he could provide dirt on both sides of the coin. Hard to say the kids are to blame for accepting payment. The agents are predatory and Luch's attempts to prove otherwise failed. Still glad he shed some light and named names. We need to know just how corrupt we're talking here, if we're ever going to get it cleaned up. (Yeah, right.)

 

[EmpireWF]

Thanks. Good read. It confirms that the agents are pieces of shit. Josh Luchs is completely delusional. He's basically trying to take down every player he'd been in contact with in a belated attempt to "clear his name" and/or win his lawsuit. The guy has no class, and is also incredibly naive. After being in the business for several years, he still thought he could trust other agents??

Its sickening how often he mentions his family obligations as justification for his behavior. STFU. I have a family, too. I don't break the law to provide for them. And if I did, I wouldn't blame them for "making me do it".

And players are innocent?

 

[Senser81]

Hard to say the kids are to blame for accepting payment. The agents are predatory and Luch's attempts to prove otherwise failed.

My favorite part of the article was when he said something to the effect of "people just don't realize that baby-sitting these players is like a full-time job", as if we are supposed to sympathize with his plight. Hey, asshat, it IS a full-time job. Thats what agents are. How did you expect it to be different? How could you have had any expectation of it being different when your first actions were to pay players?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Tremendous stuff.

 

[Senser81]

And players are innocent?

Huh? I thought the only person who thought the players were innocent was Josh Luchs. I don't understand why you quoted me and then asked that question.

 

[MrBill]

 

[EmpireWF]

Huh? I thought the only person who thought the players were innocent was Josh Luchs. I don't understand why you quoted me and then asked that question.

You said the guy was a POS for writing the article and agents in general. You don't think the players who accept this stuff should be considered asshats?

 

[Senser81]

You said the guy was a POS for writing the article and agents in general. You don't think the players who accept this stuff should be considered asshats?

Did I say the players SHOULDN'T be considered asshats? I still don't get why you quoted me, but oh well. Even though it had nothing to do with the article, I'll say that the players are asshats too, but that should be expected. Apparently the only people who are surprised that players accepted money when it is offered to them are Josh Luchs and EmpireWF.

 

[EmpireWF]

Thanks. Good read. It confirms that the agents are pieces of shit. Josh Luchs is completely delusional. He's basically trying to take down every player he'd been in contact with in a belated attempt to "clear his name" and/or win his lawsuit. The guy has no class, and is also incredibly naive. After being in the business for several years, he still thought he could trust other agents??

Its sickening how often he mentions his family obligations as justification for his behavior. STFU. I have a family, too. I don't break the law to provide for them. And if I did, I wouldn't blame them for "making me do it".

Did I say the players SHOULDN'T be considered asshats? I still don't get why you quoted me, but oh well. Even though it had nothing to do with the article, I'll say that the players are asshats too, but that should be expected. Apparently the only people who are surprised that players accepted money when it is offered to them are Josh Luchs and EmpireWF.

Don't get sand in your vag

I quoted you because you took the agent to task, but left players out. Glad to see you aren't defending the players.

 

[Senser81]

I quoted you because you took the agent to task, but left players out.

I also didn't take BigBucs to task for posting non-stop retarded shit for the past 2 weeks. Are you going to quote me for that, too?

 

[EmpireWF]

If you take other posters to task for posting stupid shit, then FUCK YEAH!

 

[Bear Pand]

This guy is pathetic. I love how his career basically started with being Greg Townsend's bitch / manservant. Interesting article though.

 

[Senser81]

Regarding Mel Kiper from the article...

"Gary used Mel like that all the time. In the agent business, people know Gary and Mel are close, and some people suspect that Mel ranks players more favorably if they are Gary's clients."


Glad to see that Mel Kiper is coming under fire. The guy has been a fraud for some time now. I'm somewhat surprised that Kiper hasn't been called out sooner, but oh well. Kiper is no better than a sports gaming site that always gives favorable reviews to Madden because EA Sports gives the site money. I've never understood people's fascination with Kiper, because for a guy who was in the "prediction" business, it was next to impossible to find any record of his past draft predictions. One would think that if Kiper was really such a guru, we would know of several specific instances when Kiper predicted success for a sleeper player such as Tom Brady, Jared Allen, etc.

Anyway, just to give a recent case in point...Jimmy Clausen is projected to be a 2nd round pick. Jimmy Clausen signs Gary Wichard as his agent. Mel Kiper trumpets Clausen as a projected #1 overall pick. The NFL scout that I know says that his team brought in Clausen to work him out, and they were so unimpressed with Clausen that they wouldn't bother drafting him because he also had a bad attitude (FWIW). Kiper continues to hype Clausen until draft day. The Panthers draft Clausen, and he has looked horrendous.

 

[steeljake]

I find it hard to beleive all the real big name players he 'talked to' never took his money. do you think for one second a self absorbed cunt like me-shawn johnson didn't take cash?

 

[Senser81]

I thought Kiper did a pretty solid job of weaseling his way out of this on Mike and Mike, basically saying he has tons of 'agent friends'

.. course, on the network that writes his checks, he had a completely open forum, and had basically 10 mins of airtime to state his case, with no rebuttal from the show hosts.

... Rob Rang is the best Draft guy in the biz, IMO, but I still love the 3x a year I get Kipers draft prospectus in the mail. I don't care much for ESPN's Draft format, but Kipers pubs feature more in-depth info on players than you can find anywhere else.

Yeah, I thought he did a good job of weaseling out of it. My thoughts are that I suspect Kiper does give favorable "ratings" in return for money, but I don't really care and its not surprising at all. Again, Kiper doesn't really have a "job", so if he can figure out a way to get money, he's going to do it.

And I think that if Kiper is giving less-than-honest player rankings, the only people it affects are his readers. I don't think NFL teams are basing their picks on what Mel Kiper says.