Michael Sam Reality Show

I doubt Tom Condon was pounding on his door. Perhaps Sam will do like other players, and fire his starter agent once he gets better. Wasn't that a 30 for 30, following an agent who got canned once his player realized he would go higher in the draft than originally thought?

 

It's strange --- and kind of sad --- why the media seems so enamored by this story.

 

The kid was an all-conference level player in the SEC, played in the Senior Bowl, was invited to the combine and was a certainty to be in an NFL camp this summer. He would not have had a hard time finding an actual football agent. All sorts of low-round choices and undrafted FAs wind up with decent or better agents, especially ones with Sam's kind of pedigree.

I wouldn't be surprised if these guys got him by pitching the reality show/celebrity angle over football and he bit on it.

 

The smart move for someone like Sam (late round pick) is to go with a lower-level agent who works at the same agency as some of the top guys.

There are exceptions, Flacco's agent being the most obvious one... We always hear the stories about how guys like Steinberg, Rosenhaus got their first client and then went on to incredible success... The smarter way to go is usually to go with the most experienced and best guy you can get.

If you're a top QB prosepect and you can hire Condon, you do it. There are about 10 other guys who are really, really good. Sam's best option now would be to fire his agents, make people believe the reality show was their idea, and then move on from there...

 

He might not have been able to hire someone like Condon, Rosenhaus, Parker, Dunn, Cornrich or Dogra, but he would not have had trouble finding representation that was more than adequate.

 

If his advisers had stuck with their plan as outlined back in February this might
have turned out ok.

"Bragman said it was a conclusion that all three advisers agreed on, just as they did with their overall plan — limit interviews and endorsements and do not pick up the mantle for gay rights. Until Sam, who is projected to be taken in the middle to late rounds, settles into a team, the focus will be on football.

 

IF, and maybe not that big an if, If Sam makes the team, his off the field endorsement value will be greater than any player drafted in rounds 4-7. This makes him a valuable commodity to agent. It doesn't take an agent to negotiate a contract in the NFL for later round draft picks, they are slotted. It takes an agent to market a player for endorsements and for free agency.

 

He really should have hired Jay Z and Roc nation.

 

A good agency would not have let him even entertain the idea of a reality show until he made the league, and since it was OWN, I guarantee you it was not big money.

I'll be curious what kind of endorsements Sam gets early on. The obvious ones would be autograph deals, because there will be a big market for people wanting to buy jerseys, cards, footballs, helments with his signature on it even before training camp starts.

Beyond those, I can't imagine he would get anything of real substance until he makes the team. People forget that unless you're a QB or an elite player, there isn't a ton of demand for NFL players.

 

This is true, in that he would be the only player drafted in those rounds who might get a sniff from some companies.

 

I still get the sense if this was cast as a documentary and not a "reality show" the backlash would've been much less severe. A reality show seeks to make someone famous. A documentary seeks to chronicle history. It's not as of Sam will be asked to live in a beach house with seven strangers where people stop being polite and start getting "real!"

 

I get the idea that if we did not hear anything from Sam until he made the team that
he would have been a lot better off. What needed to be managed was his
conditioning and not his coming out.

Sheldon Richardson was his college roommate who certainly would have
been a good resource for what Sam needed to prepare for the Combine.