An Agents ‘Duty’ - Damage Control

Another NFL draft is in the books. Teams have new players, old players will soon be fighting for their jobs, and it is going to be a beautiful NFL season. Before we close this chapter and begin a new one, let us look back at what happened in the days leading up to the draft. As an agent it is very important to understand those few days. For those of you looking to become sports agents, there are some prime examples of bad situations and how to deal with them.

            The first incident that broke last week, dealt with a situation that had happened during the NFL scouting combine. It was reported that a hotel where the prospects were staying was trashed butmost disturbing part of the room trashing was the feces. Yes there was feces thrown everywhere and supposedly pictures drawn with it. The NFL vowed to get to the bottom of it, and reports surfaced this past week that a top prospect was involved. I’ve heard of numerous stupid things players have done, from drugs to drunk driving you’d think we’d seen it all. Both the players involved had their agents come out and say it was not they who did it. After sifting through the evidence, the NFL cleared the late round prospect, but the 1^st round prospect was implicated. How does an agent do damage control? In this case they have kept denying it, saying the player had already left before the bizarre vandalism had occurred. The other question to ask is “How would teams react to this news?” Taking drugs or drunk driving, or even carrying a gun seems normal for these players and NFL teams have been dealing with damage control in these situations for years. But, feces drawings and just dumping everywhere…that is a new one. Well it turns out it didn’t effect the players stock at all. He was still drafted in the first round.

            The second incident took place a day or two before the draft. There was a tweet that came from a top tackle prospectclaiming that he took money from his college and that a lot of players do. If a College pays their players or a player receives money for his play in college by anyone, it is illegal. Within a few minutes of this tweet, it was deleted, followed by a tweet saying that the player was hacked and he was not paid in college. His agent went to the media immediately and began a blitzkrieg to clear his player’s name. They went as far as getting Twitter involved saying they were working with them to find the source of the hack. Turns out, he really was hacked. Major kudos should be given to his agent for his prompt action. He didn’t wait and see how the media would react, he jumped into action to defend his client and repair the PR damage. That is your job as an agent, whether your player is guilty or innocent of whatever he’s done, your job is to control the story and work it in the players favor. In marketing they say, “Negative press is still press.”

            Just remember one thing my aspiring agent followers, the week leading up to the draft is all a smoke screen. Nothing can be taken seriously. Rumors will fly, lies will follow and give birth to shoddy and sensationalized reporting. It is your job to sift through the muck and do what’s best for your Client. In the end, if you’ve done the research on your potential cliental properly, you should make it through smoke screen week just fine.