FootballSaturday, September 19, 2015
8
Show me the money? Not what
Harbaugh’s about, ex-agent says
Leigh Steinberg
discusses experience
with coach, stays
optimistic for future
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
When Jim Harbaugh spurned
lucrative NFL offers to return to
college and coach the Michigan
football team this offseason, the
overwhelming reaction nationally
was one of surprise — surprise
that Harbaugh would leave the
sport’s highest level, and surprise
that he would forsake the financial
benefits that come with that
challenge.
Harbaugh’s first agent during
his NFL playing career, Leigh
Steinberg, had no such reaction.
He has seen Harbaugh’s love for
Michigan, ever since the first
time he met Harbaugh in Ann
Arbor
soon
after
Harbaugh’s
college
career
at
Michigan
ended. Harbaugh was ill that day,
answering the door wrapped in
blankets, but the two still met and
forged a player-agent relationship
that lasted much of Harbaugh’s
playing career.
Steinberg,
once
an
NFL
superagent, is widely considered
the inspiration for the movie
Jerry Maguire, in which the
agent’s primary client frequently
yelled at the agent, “Show me the
money.” Harbaugh, Steinberg said
Thursday, was never that kind of
client.
“He might be, of the 300 to
400 athletes I’ve worked with,
the least concerned with what the
economics were of his contract,”
Steinberg
said
in
a
phone
interview.
In Steinberg’s experience, most
players use contract negotiations
to prove their value compared
to other players. Once, when
Steinberg negotiated an expensive
deal for Buffalo Bills running
back Thurman Thomas, Dallas
Cowboys running back Emmitt
Smith insisted that his next deal
be worth one dollar more than
Thomas’.
Harbaugh had no such request
during his contract negotiations.
“Even though all of the figures
were explained to him and he had
all of the information, his only
question was, ‘Do you think it’s
fair?’ ” Steinberg said.
If
Steinberg
answered
in
the affirmative,
Harbaugh
would agree to
the deal.
Steinberg
visited
Ann
Arbor
this
week to speak
in front of the
University
of
Michigan Sports
Law Society. Steinberg’s book,
The Agent, My 40-Year Career
Making Deals and Changing the
Game, was recently released in
paperback. Steinberg will also
lead the Leigh Steinberg Agent
Academy on Sept. 26 for aspiring
agents.
Steinberg has struggled at times
in recent years, battling alcoholism
and financial difficulties. His life
has experienced drastic changes
since the peak of his career.
Steinberg is no longer the premier
agent he once was.
But
in
Harbaugh,
Steinberg
sees
a rock, a coach
who acts very
similarly
to
the
way
he
did during his
playing
days.
Steinberg
stopped
in
to
visit Harbaugh
during his trip
to Ann Arbor, and it was just like
old times.
They
joked
about
their
memories — especially the time
during Harbaugh’s rookie year
when they fired squirt guns
at a Bears executive to ease
the
tension
during
contract
negotiations — and talked about
the present. In Steinberg’s eyes,
Harbaugh is as happy as he has
ever been. He’s at the school he
loves with a family he loves and a
coaching staff that will work hard
with him.
None of Harbaugh’s coaching
success surprises Steinberg. He
claims that he could see a coaching
career in Harbaugh’s future even
in the early days of his playing
career. He points to the way
Harbaugh dealt with adversity,
particularly in how he earned the
nickname “Captain Comeback”
when
he
quarterbacked
the
Indianapolis Colts.
“He had a unique ability to tune
out all the discord and notes that
might come with adversity and to
elevate his level of play in critical
situations,” Steinberg said.
Like everyone else, he sees
the
quirkiness
in
Harbaugh.
He remembers a Super Bowl
party in the San Diego Zoo
when
Harbaugh
disappeared
for a couple of hours, only to be
found “ensconced back in a cage
somewhere, having a good time.”
That
quirkiness,
Steinberg
believes
—
combined
with
Harbaugh’s sense of humor —
helps him stay composed and
keep perspective in stressful
times.
“He’d like to see the irony
in things,” Steinberg said. “So
whenever things are going wrong,
it’s like, ‘What’s next? Locusts? A
river of blood? Darkness?’ He had
a great perspective about things.
It was not that he was oblivious to
adversity, it’s just that he accepted
it and could joke about it.”
Steinberg has no doubt that
Harbaugh will turn Michigan
into a power in the next few years.
He has seen the coach’s values
remain strong and unbending,
his mettle tested time and time
again.
More
than
anything
else,
Steinberg knows that Harbaugh
is not involved in the game of
football just to see the money.
RUBY WALLAU/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has never been concerned with financial comparisons between contract offers, as a player or as a coach.
“He might be ... the
least concerned
with what the
economics were.”