Famed sports agent Leigh Steinberg hosting event 
at Michigan, talks Harbaugh: “Jim is an original” 

By ORION SANG 

Summer Managing Sports Editor

Leigh Steinberg has had quite 

the career.

The famed sports agent has 

represented eight No. 1 overall NFL 
Draft picks, more than 60 NFL first 
round picks and countless other 
professional athletes across sports 
such as basketball, baseball and 
hockey, among others.

At his peak, he was the most 

visible 
sports 
agent 
in 
the 

business, credited with helping 
to 
revolutionize 
the 
field 
of 

sports agency and serving as the 
inspiration behind the hit 1996 
film ‘Jerry Maguire’ — in which 
Steinberg was portrayed by Tom 
Cruise.

At his lows, Steinberg was 

an agent without any clients, 
struggling with 
alcohol abuse.

Now, in his 

seventh 
year 

of sobriety and 
three 
years 

removed 
from 

receiving 
funding 
to 
restart 

his 
agency, 

Steinberg 
has 

rebuilt 
his 

career at Steinberg Sports and 
Entertainment, which currently 
represents 10 clients, including 
rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch 
— a first round draft choice of the 
Denver Broncos.

Steinberg has also continued to 

work on other ventures outside of 
client 
representation, 
including 

projects on anti-bullying initiatives 
and concussion awareness, along 
with a book and film and television 
consultation.

Though Steinberg says he has 

spoken at colleges throughout 
his more than four decade-long 
career — about his profession and 
its main tenets — he has opted for 
a new, additional approach over the 
past couple of years, one that he 
admits is more rewarding: “Leigh 
Steinberg’s Agent Academy.”

“I’m deluged with requests and 

queries and resumes from people 
wanting to get into the sports 
industry,” Steinberg said in an 
interview with The Daily. “They 

come in by the thousands. If you 
were to go to college campuses — 
and I’ve spoken on more than 80 
campuses — you 
would find that 
the 
number 

one career path 
involves sports. 
Yet no one gives 
a 
practical 

education 
that 

helps 
someone 

with the core 
skills that they 
need 
to 
be 

effective.

“So we were looking to try and 

see if we could be helpful to a new 
generation of sports agents and 
professionals who have ethics, 
values and ideals and truly are 
going to bring energy and passion 
to sports and to train them the right 

way.”

A 
one-day 

educational 
seminar on the 
field of sports 
agentry, 
the 

Agent Academy 
dives 
into 

everything 
Steinberg 
believes an agent 
must learn and 
master.

For 
instance, 
he 
puts 
his 

students 
through 
a 
recruiting 

exercise where they must practice 
recruiting an athlete and the 
athlete’s parents. Other exercises 
focus on negotiation techniques, 
marketing and branding through 
social 
media. 
There’s 
even 
a 

segment that teaches participants 
how to deal with a situation in 
which their client has gotten in 
some sort of trouble.

“It’s fun and I think the 

participants get a great one-
day education and everything 
you need to know about how to 
be successful,” Steinberg said. 
“Hopefully we’re bringing value 
and jumpstarting a whole new 
generation.”

Perhaps the most crucial part of 

Steinberg’s approach as an agent 
and teacher is his emphasis on 
using athletes to create change.

“My dad had two core values,” 

Steinberg 
said. 
“One 
was 
to 

treasure relationships, especially 

with family, and the second was to 
try to make a meaningful difference 
in the world and help people who 

couldn’t 
help 

themselves. 
I 

found that in this 
field, 
because 

of the power of 
celebrity 
status 

for athletes, that 
they can really 
trigger imitative 
behavior.

“One 
of 

the 
core 

philosophies that 

I’ve had since 1975 is the athlete as a 
role model. Going back and setting 
up a high school scholarship, a 
foundation at the professional level, 
all of which lay a foundation for the 
player’s second career.”

The 
next 
academy 
takes 

place July 16 at the University 
of Michigan — an institution 
Steinberg has many ties to.

His 
first 
first-rounder 
from 

the school was John Anderson, a 

linebacker drafted by the Green 
Bay Packers in 1978. Then, he went 
on to represent Jim Harbaugh, who 
was taken in the first round by the 
Chicago Bears in 1987, Desmond 
Howard and Amani Toomer.

Steinberg has also spoke before 

at both the business and law 
schools at Michigan, experiences 
that influenced his decision to hold 
an academy in Ann Arbor.

He also has the added benefit 

of being able 
to 
visit 
his 

friend 
and 

former 
client, 

Harbaugh, 
while in town.

“Jim is an 

original,” 
Steinberg said. 
“You have to 
start with the 
fact that he’s 
really bright and intellectually 
curious. He loves to learn, loves 
to delve into a whole variety of 
issues. Jim could talk politics, 

economics, culture, a whole series 
of things. He’s got a killer sense of 
humor (and) I’ve always found him 
to be really warm. He was a great 
team player with competitive fire 
and resilience. One day he called 
the Jim Rome Show and got in 
the Smack-Off, which very few 
professional athletes do.

“There was no question he 

was going to transform Michigan 
because you take every part of what 

being a head coach 
is 
comprised 

of 
— 
he’s 
a 

devastatingly good 
recruiter, he can 
listen and adjust 
and never gives 
up. He can speak 
well to the public, 
alums like him, 
(and) he’s got so 
much toughness in 

him that it will elevate every player’s 
performance. So it’s no big surprise 
that he’s been a success everywhere 
he has gone.”

FOOTBALL

“I think the 

participants get 
a great one-day 

education.”

The seminar 

emphasizes the 
off-field impact 
of the athlete.

Steinberg was 

Harbaugh’s 

agent when he 
was drafted.

11

Thursday, July 14, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

