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
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