I'd imagine it'd be difficult to be a truly fine sports agent.
If you're unaware, the best agents and agencies not only procure and negotiate employment for athletes, they handle endorsements as well.
In truth, the job is multi-faceted. Agents are responsible for communication with teams. They handle public relations. There's the investment side, including taxes. A good sports agent should know finance, business management, financial risk analysis and, oh yeah, sports.
Through the years, I've met many upstanding agents. (Also, Ari Gold, Arliss and Jerry Maguire were awesome.)
Yet all too often I've also observed the horror stories. I've seen college student-athletes shed the “student” part of the description too early, surrendering a valuable year of schooling and, perhaps, a degree for little or no payoff.
Mostly, fans are detached from the stories and shrug. Tony Anderson, for instance, is a 6-foot-9 freshman forward from Southeast Missouri that's declared for the upcoming NBA draft. In summarizing his chances, The Sports Bank.net did so this way: LOL.
Funny right? Just not so much if you're the kid or someone that cares for the kid.
Now, in the upcoming weeks, WVU fans will be watching a player they care about in a similar situation. Mountaineer forward Devin Williams not only decided to test the NBA waters, he took a swan dive by signing with agent Aaron Turner.
“This is a head scratcher,” The Sports Bank.net commented. “Williams is nowhere near a first-round lock and could even go undrafted, which makes his decision to hire an agent and not even test the waters a bit baffling.”
You can scratch the words “a bit.” As Randy Moss might say, it's straight baffling, homey.
Don't, however, expect me to go off on Turner. Neither I nor you know what's been happening behind the scenes. Perhaps Turner told Williams to wait. Perhaps Williams said, look man, I'm turning pro and, if you want to be my guy, the time is now to sign.
As an observer, however, I'm weary of watching kids' pipe dreams go up in smoke.
What I'd like to see is the athletes empower themselves. So I've drawn up a proposed contract, as shown below.
Understand I know it won't fly. It won't ever see the light of day. Still, this is a rough draft of what I'd LIKE basketball players leaving early to present to prospective agents. This is what I'd LOVE for them to make the agents sign.
The first couple parts of the proposed contract is standard agent-client fare, in case you've never perused one. The rest, though, is what I'd like to see added. Put these changes in — then let's see how many kids fall through the proverbial cracks.
Here, have a look. (Having trouble viewing it? Click here)