How Dak Prescott Became the Highest-Paid NFL Player | Athletes First Family Podcast Ep-10 - Athletes First Family: Quarterback Series

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we get to the deadline where we have to
either do a long term contract or play on the
franchise tax. So another year of uncertainty on a one
year deal and the same aspect of the negotiation is
the hold up. The Cowboys still want a five year contract.
We still want a four year contract, and as we
explain in previous episodes, the four year term is of

(00:23):
the utmost importance to us in quarterbacks because of the
way that the market grows and the salary cap grows,
and the desire to get back to the market for
these guys and maximize their career earnings.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Welcome to the next episode of the Athletes First Family podcast,
the Quarterback series. I'm Brian Murphy, founder and CEO of
Athletes First, alongside with my co host aj Stevens, VP
of Client Strategy and perhaps the best negotiator in our business.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Thanks Murph, Happy to be back for another episode. For
our new listeners, the point of this podcast to give
them an inside look into the biggest and most successful
agency in the NFL, specifically with quarterbacks. We have one
point four billion dollars of quarterback contracts currently on our books,
and we're going to give you a little insight into

(01:12):
the business behind it, starting with Todd France.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Welcome back, Todd. Thanks love being here.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Todd France one of our equity partners and super agent.
Some think he's the number one agent ever exists in
our football industry. So we're fired up to have him
back here. And today we're going to be talking about
Todd France and his relationship with Dak Prescott, his client,
and not the one, but the two record breaking deals
that Todd has negotiated for Dak since joining Athletes First,

(01:43):
and it's gonna be great to go through the insights
with the Cowboy, the Jerry and Steven ag alongside of you.
So looking forward to hear how those two deals went down.
But Todd is known as the super agent not just
of quarterbacks but of every position AJ, so give us
a little rundown of Todd's success in the past.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
So, as we mentioned in the last episode, Todd has
done a record breaking deal at every position on the
football field outside of the kicker, the punter, the long snapper.
Uh so far and so some of those deals of course,
Damarus Thomas, Aaron Donald, Justin Simmons, Vernon Davis, Nate Clements,
Priest Holmes, Miles, Jack Fletcher, Cox, Ta Kio Spikes. I

(02:21):
know there's a ton more that that I can't name
off the top of my head. I'm sure Todd probably can.
But those are some of the non quarterbacks that he's
done these record breaking deals for. But we're here to
talk about the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Dak and his two record breaking deals. So okay, so
let's let's jump into it.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Todd.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
I'm excited to hear about these these negotiations and these stories.
But I think, like starting with like Dak, like, you
didn't sign Dak as a client.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Out of college? Right?

Speaker 4 (02:47):
What?

Speaker 3 (02:47):
What? What year was he in the when when you
signed him? Full disclosure? I have very little memory of
all of this, uh as do I? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:55):
So Dak was going into year three of his rookie contract,
I believe, Okay, And then I think one thing we
want to kind of dive into a little bit which
probably listeners don't know, and you three of us know
very well.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
But like when we sign a client, whether he's out
of call, it well, at a point we sign them
to a standard representation agreement an SRA. And the crazy
thing about our business is, you know you sign a
client to an SRA, they can terminate that relationship at
any point. They can say, hey, listen, I don't want
chose my agent anymore, no matter how well have you
done whatever you tell me like, I'm moving on right.
And so it's, uh, you always have to be on

(03:31):
your game. You always have to be providing the best
type of services. But I think, like you know, agent,
kind of tell a little bit about how that's impact
athletes first overall client base.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, So because of our you know, our reputation in
the industry and a multitude of other factors, we end
up signing a lot of guys who uh didn't sign
with us coming out of college. Guys who you know,
they've they've been in the NFL now for a few years,
they've seen how the business works a little bit, and
they decide that they want to come over and use
our services. We've we've done that. We've had over one

(04:00):
hundred players who have come over and signed as veterans
over the years to be represented by us for their
veteran contract. Of those players, we've done contracts for over
four billion dollars over the years. Wow, and thirteen of
those we've made the highest paid player in the NFL
at their position.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Wow, that's amazing, and I think so I think, you know,
part of it is like when a player gets a
player coming out of college just in the living room,
they're listen to all the different sales, spiels and whatnot,
and you don't it's hard some time to you know,
figure out what's real and what's not, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
But then you get to the NFL.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
You're in the locker room, you see the training room gifts,
you see the agents working, you see the deals are
getting done. You have a lot more knowledge and when
it's your time, say, hey, it's my time to take
care of my family generations like I want to go
out and find the best negotiation team I can and
they give Todd a call the tot this team or
athletes versus call.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
So that's great. So in that regard, like.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
With DK, he comes out of college, he's playing for
the Cowboys, whatnot. Like, how did you meet Dek and
what was that like, you know, talking to Dak about
becoming a Todd France client.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
You know, when I met Dak and was talking about
you know, changing and what we do. I just kind
of just give an overall game plan of what his
situation is and what the Cowboys situation is. And obviously
you talk about your own track record, but you also
end up kind of going in more specifically about his situation.
I mean, you have to establish the credibility that you've

(05:24):
been there, done that, but you got to really talk
about them. It's a lot different when you're coming out
of college, you're just throwing about all these different scenarios.
But now he's in the NFL, He's in a situation.
He's a quarterback, a fourth round pick that is now
a starter of America's team and doing so great and
making the Pro Bowl and Rookie of the Year and
all these different kinds of things and just trying to

(05:46):
walk through and explain to him how it works and
what the situation is. So I went through a pretty
detailed presentation with him prior to signing him.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
It's interesting because when you're talking to a player like
Dak or any player, your story stays the same, like
where you've come from, what you've done, that's the fixed variable.
But you know what what you can do for the player,
what they need, what they're So that's that's unique for everyone.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
No cookie cutter approach I assume no.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
I mean, if you take a cookie cutter approach, you
might not get as many guys. So yes, my my
philosophy is making it specific to the player for sure.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
And so then Deak decides to sign with you top
France at the time you're at c A and it
becomes your client a couple of years later or surely
there after. You come to athletes first. So tell us
about your relationship with Deck, Like, what's he like?

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Dek's the best.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
He's just a great guy. He he is, you know,
forget the player, just as a person, He's just a
great Guy's a guy you can go to dinner with.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
He'll go anywhere to eat, eats everything.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
I mean literally, you know the players are pickier with
food or whatever.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
He doesn't care.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Uh likes great food, has fun, has a lot of fun.
I mean he's competitive as can be, whether it's basketball,
whether it's golf, whether it's cornhole. It literally wants to
win everything. But just a real genuine, sincere guy. Always
wants to know how my family's doing, how my kids are,
will face time with them. Just I Actually I love
the guy. I enjoy spending time with him. We laugh,

(07:10):
he's funny, and I love that he thinks I'm funny,
so probably because I say things I shouldn't say which
cracks him up. But it's just it's great. It's an
awesome relationship.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Awesome, awesome, And can you tell me quickly a little
bit of your team deck, like if.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
You have yourself and yeah, myself and then you know,
i'd say, obviously AJ is involved from a contract perspective
and from a day to day perspective, I mean Julie
and athletes first, who you know does an unbelievable job
working with him, and also all the day to day
things that he needs off the field, and his off
season is busy, whether it's private jets or whether it's

(07:46):
setting up a skills camp for you know, his receivers
and his running backs before training camp and picking the
destination and coordinating the renting fields and where they're staying
and fly I mean just gift bags, I mean literally
everything from a to zy for him for that and
then and you know, on top of that, as part
of his team, he is a marketing person, he as
a foundation person and a financial person and call it

(08:07):
Team D four K and we are a really well
oiled machine. He's got a lot going on. There's phenomenal communication.
We have calls all the time. Everyone's in the loop
on everything, so everyone can do their job to the
best of their ability by knowing everything that's going on
and obviously having contract looming contract, you know things that
it matters because if he's going to do an appearance

(08:28):
for a foundation, who's going to be there, the media
and what are they going to ask him about his contract?

Speaker 3 (08:33):
So they got to know how to.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
Make sure the media is not doing something or the
player has to be prepared. You know, you just can't
go about things without the right hand and left hand
knowing what's going on. Otherwise you put your client in
some sort of predicament.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, that's great, it's great.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
So you get to know Dak pretty well, you know,
you're representing him and whatnot, and then it comes time
obviously to negotiate his contracts.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
So AJ maybe.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Set the table like where are we in the career,
how he's doing, how's doctoring on the field, then how
many years left on his contract for Todd and everyone
gets gets.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
After it right. So on an earlier episode, we talked
about how Tua's contract negotiation took us one hundred days. Well,
I can tell you the Dak Prescott's contract took much
longer than that.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah, it actually his first one was like two years.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
It predated me coming to athletes first.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Right.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
So he becomes eligible for a new contract in twenty nineteen.
So Todd like, what was that like going into training
camp having that first interaction about the contract conversation because
it's before what do you mean an So after his
first three years in the league, he's now eligible to
sign a veteran contract. This is the first time he
was able to do that was twenty nineteen. So going

(09:40):
into the training camp is when you know the Cowboys
that conversation. One year left on his contract. Yeah, he's
a starter, right, three years in the league, Rookie of
the Year, great player, right, Yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
We I don't remember exactly the specifics.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
I think I've purposely blocked them out of my mind,
but I do remember, you know, we engaged in negotiations
with with the Cowboys and ultimately couldn't get a deal done.
They wanted a five year deal, We wanted.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
A four year deal.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
We thought the number of years was ridiculously important, and
they thought the same thing, and they ultimately, you know,
made a significant offer of guaranteed money. But you just
can't look at the guaranteed money in a vacuum. You
have to look at all of the pieces. And obviously

(10:34):
the media is getting bits and pieces and making it
out like that's crazy and he's being offered a hundred
million guaranteed and he's this, and he's that, and you know,
and ultimately, you know, I had to sit down with
that and educate him on why it doesn't make sense
to do that deal, and then have all of our
contingencies in place, because if you're telling a guy to

(10:55):
turn down one hundred million dollars, a lot can happen.
They're bad play, injuries, whatever. So we went through a
brainstorm of every scenario that could possibly happen, and if
it happened, what was our plan. And so he knew
including a significant injury and how that would impact another negotiation,
and he was he was comfortable with all that from

(11:16):
the insurance plan and understanding that that's not the end
all be all to a permanent injury if you can
ever play football, like what your future looks like. And obviously,
as a later round draft pick, teams have a tendency
to dangle money in front of a player and that
they'll just grab it because it's, you know, there, more
than they've ever seen. And that's a strategy by a team,
And I get that, and some kids might go for that. Luckily,

(11:38):
for me, Dack put all his hundred percent trust and
faith in what I was guiding him and telling him.
We went through every scenario. It was very detailed, and
we ultimately.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Turned down that money.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
And I remember the day I called Steven and told
me we weren't going to do it, and I remember
exactly what his responsible exactly what his response was.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Well, just I mean again, like he's a fourth round pick,
So like a fourth round pick makes plenty of money,
but not one hundred million dollars, right, And he's got
Peter Miller doing his marketing, so he's got a lot
of great money coming into the marketings. Peter so great,
Peter Wright is doing his financial planning, so he's got saved.
So he's got the team deck around him and like
everyone's doing a great job. But uh, you know, you
get one hundred million dollar offer in this huge guarantee,

(12:18):
Like that's a guarantee itself was one hundred million. One
hundred million get you no matter what happens, you're getting
a hundred million dollars, Like you have to really understand
what you're trying to explain to turn that down. As
smart as you are, as experienced as you are, as
well planned as you are to say no, thank you
to a hundred million dollars like, I mean, Dak really
had to dove in. And you'll be he's intelligent, he's

(12:40):
smart enough and study and so when he made that,
say his decision, he walked away from one hundred million
dollar guarantee. Yeah, And you guys are all okay with that?

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yes, I mean it's not what we wanted, right, I
mean you want you want to get a deal done,
but you want to get the right deal done, not
any deal done. And while you are walking away from
one hundred, you can also look at it, by that
extra year, you're also either walking away from one hundred
or you're giving up two hundred.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, or you're walking towards two hundred.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
However, you want a frame, Yeah, leaven one hundred behind what?

Speaker 1 (13:08):
But which is a good segue into that season played
out well? He played well, he was healthy, throughout the
entire year. We get to twenty twenty and you're you know,
this is the expiration of his contract, right, He's played
out all four years of his rookie deal. The Cowboys
apply the franchise tag, so he's not allowed to negotiate
with with any other teams. He's on a one year,
fully guaranteed deal, but no long term security one hundred

(13:32):
million dollars guarantee. This is also when COVID hits. So
now there's you know, instability in the world. There's there's
all these outside pressures that are not related to the contract,
to the negotiation anything. And the Cowboys do put another
another offer on the table. I know this because this
is actually when I came into the fold with with
Todd Good. So you can remind me, because that's what

(13:52):
I'm here for usually, just to remind Todd of how
these went. Everybody, everybody. So the offer comes in, it's
the dead line. July fifteenth is the deadline for so like.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Walks away from one hundred million plays the whole season,
does great contracts up, They're gonna put the franchise tag
on them. Yep, and this is a second negotiation. Now
you're helping, right, so maybe we can change the result.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
But lo and behold what happens now?

Speaker 4 (14:17):
The result doesn't the result that we didn't need exact
same We could have got there without you.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Agent.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
You know what's funny is the make.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
This a rip session on it.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
We should have a whole other series or like this
is the quarterback series.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
The roast of AJ can come in the next series
the forehead.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
So, so we get to the deadline where we have
to either do a long term contract or play on
the franchise tag. So another year of uncertainty on a
one year deal, and the same aspect of the negotiation
is the hold up. The Cowboys still want a five
year contract. We still want a four year contract. And
as we explain in previous episodes this the four year

(14:59):
term is of the utmost importance to us in quarterbacks
because of the way that the market grows and the
salary cap grows, and the desire to get back to
the market for these guys and maximize their career earnings.
So again, no deal gets done. Well, and what was
the offer?

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Had the offer gone up from a hundred million guaranteed?

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah? Yeah, the the offer was up across the board
in all aspects except for it was still a five
year deal.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
What was a franchise take thirty one million, so there
were Now the choice is thirty one million dollars all
guaranteed for one year or over one hundred million.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
That's right, Okay, same.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Decision, yeah, and so the same it's a little bit
different of a decision because Dak's final year of his
rookie contracts two million dollars, So it's two or one hundred,
and then it's thirty one or one hundred. Yeah, And
I remember one of the conversations with Dak was I
walked away from one hundred to play for two. Now
I'm going to walk away from a hundred to play
for thirty one. Like this one has actually a little
bit easier to decide on. So then he goes into a.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Crazy amount of trust. There has to be though, right
I mean, like I mean for to have to make
those two de sais in himself.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
And in his in you well.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Number one, he'll always bet on himself, like he he
back against the wall. Doubt him, He's he's going to
do his thing.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
That's one. Two.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
I think a very well educated player, not only a
smart guy himself. But we did a lot of presentations
to him of outlining everything and showing him the market
and where he was and what it could be in
the salary. I mean, understanding everything. So it's not like
you just say, hey man, this is a you know
deal whatever. It's not like a ten thousand foot view.
It's it's it's granular. It's in the weeds for him

(16:33):
to completely understand, because at the end of the day,
you know, and any as any agent can get caught
up in a spreadsheet right and what numbers right or wrong?
Sometimes you have to look at it and say does
this set the guy up for life? And is this
a good deal for him? And is he going to
be fine? You can't get caught up, oh he's the
third highest or he's less than this guy or less
than that guy. There's a fine line there. But it
never became about that. It was always about what his

(16:54):
value was and he understood that and he was willing
to roll the dice.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah that's great, and yeah, and again we're have time
to go into all the details. But it's not just
like thirty one or one hundred plays. There's get the insurance,
you get everything. So you guys are very well educated.
He Dak's betting on himself.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
You walk away. So now he's playing the season under
the franchise tag.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Right, So he gets to that to that season, and
just a few games into the year, he suffers a
catastrophic leg injury, and all of a sudden, you know,
everyone's every all the prognosticators are saying, why didn't they
take the deal? You know, this injury could set him back.
He's not going to get that same type of contract.
So we have all that noise for six months leading

(17:34):
up to but.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
When that happens, when that happens, the injury happens, right,
Because now it's I mean, you're very close with Deck right, right,
and and it's it's an agent's job is to negotiate.
But also, I mean, you're his friend, your family, right,
forget the contract. How did you feel when you sorry
him get injured.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
It was gut wrenching.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
I mean, you just feel bad for the guy, you
know how hardy works. It really wasn't the contract part.
It was just like it was just hurtful.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
And I remember exactly.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
Where I was it was. It was it was right
around the Columbus Day because it was fall break for
my kids and we were on quote unquote vacation. Everyone's
at the beach. I'm in the house watching the game
and saw it and it was just it was just
like such a hard, hard thing to deal with.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I think that's one thing is agents, like we do
get to see like the hard work they put in
the off season, like not training him and the off
season like every day just working hard, working hard, working
out to become the best they can be, and then
unravels like that. So it's, uh, it's got to be
horrible to see and agent, You're right, I remember, like
everyone's like, you know, the first the first reaction is like,
oh man, we lost our quarterback. You know, oh man,

(18:34):
we feel bad for Dek the media, but then it's like, oh,
Todd Frantz and agency athletes first, what a dumb decision?
You know, which is you know, I don't really know
what they're talking about. But so what happens, like you
talk to Dek and how does he.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Feel, and what's what's what's the reaction from Deck?

Speaker 4 (18:49):
It's the perseverance, it's the determination that comes through. Obviously
you don't talk about contract or anything like that. It's
more about the injury, and we were worried about infection,
you know, because it actually like came out and there
was the turf and there's all those things, and so
you just want to make sure that it's going to
go smoothly. And really the emphasis and the focus for
the very beginning and for the first couple of months

(19:11):
is strictly the injury and the recovery from the injury, so.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Which Julie plays a big part in that, like set
up the dog support me and everything.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
And the Cowboys were great, I mean, they were great
with the with the with the medical piece, and they
were obviously very hands on. That is their franchise, so
they want to make sure that they were taking care
of him. And ultimately everything worked out on the surgery
piece and the recovery and he works hard.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
And he's healthy, and so take us to the offseason.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, So then we get to the off season, Dak
obviously worked incredibly hard to get healthy and get to
the point where the Cowboys now realize this isn't going
to be a setback for him at all. It was,
you know, an unfortunate thing that happened for that season,
but he's got a long career ahead of him, and
they reapproach us, they say, you know what, we're ready
to finally nail this thing down. I remember their first

(19:59):
proposal after this was still a five year contract, and
I think and.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Aj explained to him to change the choice. So, like,
just to the listeners, like he was franchised. That's a
one year, guaranteed contract for thirty whatever.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
That's over.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
So now he's about to be a free agent again.
So the Cowboys options are let him go to free agency,
do a long term.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Deal, or or or they can use the franchise tag again.
They actually have the right to use the franchise tag
up up to three times, but this was going into
what they were going to use it a second time,
and they told us as much. They said, you know,
our ability to tag him a second time is on
the table, but we'd like to actually try to get
this thing done. We're tired of talking about it for
the last two plus years.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
So they gave you a five year proposal.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
So again, a five year proposal came. It took about
thirty seconds for Todd to retort.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
I mean I picked up a phone, I called Steven
and I just like, are you like, this is what
we're really doing again, And immediately obviously they backed off
and that that issue became not an issue anymore. Yeah,
and then it became the contract itself.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
So in this case, it was one of those rare
occasions where the team did they were like, okay, yeah,
you're right, like that is what held it up this
whole time. So here's a four year deal. Still wasn't
to the number we wanted, and it still went on
for another three four weeks before we got to a
point where the day of the deadline for them to
place the franchise tag on Dak is here, and so

(21:21):
we're basically saying, you know what, like we can just
walk away. I put the tag on us until they
got to the contract that we finalized with them, and
it was, you know, eventually called the best contract for
an NFL player of all time by Mike Florio of
Pro Football Talk.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Why did Mike say that?

Speaker 1 (21:38):
The entire structure of the deal, right, So the final
deal ends up being a four year contract. It's an
average of forty million dollars per year. It's front loaded,
so that throughout the first year of the deal he
makes seventy five million dollars. Through three years of the deal,
he's making one hundred and twenty six so an average
of forty two million dollars over the first three Included
in the deal is a no trade clause. They can't

(22:00):
trade him without his permission, which gives him a ton
of leverage. They cannot put a franchise tag on him
ever again. So we had that written in there that
you will never put the franchise tag on Deak Prescott
ever again. He had to play it out once and
now we are going to preempt you from ever doing
that again. On top of that, are you about to
say it? So we got creative with the deadline being

(22:20):
as close as it was when we were finalizing the deal,
and we said, you know what, we want you to
place the tag on him tomorrow and then we'll agree
to the deal an hour after you place the tag
on him, because we want to be able to say
that Dak Prescott has been tagged twice in his career,
and the next time he's tagged in his career, it
will it will be the third time, which triggers a
much larger and it's never tagged.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
It's never been done in the history of the NFL,
So it's essentially a lifelong NOE tag clause on top
of layering it with the no tag clause in the
actual deal.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Like it made to be quick that like having he
been tagged made no difference to this deal. But you
guys are thinking maybe six years down, like maybe he
does go to of the team and whatever happens, like
he can never be franchised again.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
If he is has had a third number, which is
obviously cost prohibitive.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
Have never been done by all anything?

Speaker 4 (23:09):
Yeah, right, Which was I mean, the guarantee, the structure,
it was one or something they guarantee, the structure, Everything
about it was was, you know, a good deal and
the right thing. And I think the part that we
always talk about is the deal average forty, but forty
two is over the first three and since you can't
tag him, the reality was he was going to get

(23:32):
a new deal after year three at forty two a
year on a four year deal as opposed to other
quarterbacks that may have done six year deals or ten
year deals that obviously didn't pan out, compared you know,
side by.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Side, And I think I mean, like Mike said, grew
one of the greatest deals at the time, maybe the
greatest deal in NFL history, but like you're dealing with
Jerry and Stephen Jones, right, and and well all the guys,
all the Cowboys went off. They're very smart, very intelligent,
phenomenal businessman, like, they're not going to do a bad deal, right.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
I mean, from from that point of view, and.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
I think over the first two years, what Dak's message
and your message was, it's like, hey, we are so
convicted on the four year term like that that is
a we're not gonna We're not going to ever move
away from that. And they probably thought that you were bluffing.
I would have thought you were bluffing, right, but you weren't.
And Dak proved that he's willing to bet on himself.
So once they said, okay, listen, we can either do
a four year deal or keep franchising Deck, they said,

(24:26):
what's best for the Cowboys. What's best for the Cowboys
is to have Dak here on a four year deal
because we don't want to go through this every year.
You know, it's hard for cat managements after this. So
I mean they decided like, hey, it's more important for
us that we do a four year deal.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
We Okay, that than it is to keep going through
this with Dak And.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
What what is it about Dak that that made the
Cowboys willing to do this deal because they're not going
to do a bad deal, right that they get now
that they have.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Dak for four years?

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Three years in your mind, But like why do they
why is?

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Why do they do that for Dk?

Speaker 4 (24:54):
I mean, I think clearly they believed he was the
player right for them, and he was the guy that
was going to take him to where they want to
go on the field, I think off the field and
on the field, they can see the leadership and everybody
talks about, oh, Dak is such a great guy, and
you know, you can't teach that leadership and what he
has and the sincerity and the authenticity of his leadership

(25:15):
and the respect he commands inside that locker room, on
the field, inside that building, inside that entire building. And
I think I remember Jerry Jones saying something along the
lines of, you know, everybody inside that building wanted to,
you know.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Get Dak steal done.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
I mean, he's the guy that for Christmas doesn't just
get the old line gifts. He's getting everybody inside that
building from the cooks to the custodial people. Literally everybody
is getting the same gift from Dak across the board.
And that's the kind of guy he does.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
And you don't hear about it.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
You see the social media viral things. This guy gave
car to his offensive lineman, this one to Dak's doing
it for like a lot deeper, a lot more than just.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
The offensive line.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
It's just he's just he's he's just a different guy.
And I think that Jerry and Stephen recognize obviously the player,
but then the person too, someone who epitomizes, you know,
exactly what you want to have a face of your franchise.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, yeah, well that's great, And I think it's it's
you know, it's in other words, like it's you can't
really put a monetary value on what it means to
the cow one of the great the greatest organization of
all time right in the brand to have Dak be
the captain and it ends up Walter Payton Man of
the Year, I mean everything you want. Yeah yeah, And
I think that you and Aj and Uh and Dak
and the whole team recognizing that, like recognizing how special

(26:30):
and unique Dak is, you know, gave you, you know,
information that you used in the negotiation to guide you,
you know, and I think you know you might not
like this. A J hates it, but I always say, like,
I think it's a win winning. I mean, the Cowboys
got Dak Prescotte as or as their starring quarterback, right,
which is like, again, you can't put the money.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
I don't. I don't have an issue with the win
winner at whatsoever. All I care about at the end
of the day is the players happy.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, and that's the win.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Well you can Yeah, the best contract in NFL history
is probably a good uh comment too.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
I mean because my wallpaper in my house has that, Like,
it doesn't mean does anything.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
I really cared. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
Now, at the end of the day, truly, it's about
the player and his happiness, and he was happy, and
it was this is long drawn out thing. It was
two years, so you know, to have it just done
was a great, great thing, and I personally was relieved
from having to listen to it every morning on espoom,
them debating about paying them, don't pay them, why don't they?

Speaker 3 (27:18):
And the agent's crazy.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
All the headlines we used to see the agent's crazy
for asking for forty forty million a year.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
It was in the best shape of his life at
the time because he would stay on the StairMaster until
they would stop talking about Dak, and so it was
just six hours.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
Straight feversually like texting the people on air like that's wrong,
say that, you know, like that kind of stuff because
it you know, you can win the battle and lose
the war. And obviously that the Cowboys have no issues
with using media, so that was a big part of
the strategy of the negotiations is to stay out of
the media.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Well, okay, so that brings us to another point of
this topic. Like we talked every agent here is a
different negotiation style. I have a different one than you do. Right,
You're different than Justin Ryan David. But then every player
is different. We talked about that a little bit when
you're talking to Dak originally, like you know, Justin Herbert had,
you know, his set of instructions to Justin and his team,
you know, Twoad is to run.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Like, what were Dak's instructions to you?

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Like, hey, listen, guys, you you're representing me with the
Cowboys franchise.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
What did he say? How did he want you guys?

Speaker 1 (28:13):
To me.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
He understood.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
Again, we educated him on everything, so he understood he
wanted to get to the right numbers and the right deal.
And every time we got a proposal, we would break
it down for him. We would share it with him.
Every proposal we would send back, we would make sure
he was good with it. And you understand, you want
you to talk to the media.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Did he wants to know?

Speaker 4 (28:30):
It was I was more driving that train to letting
him know, kind of like, this is how I want
to do. Obviously, he could say whatever he wants and
we'll do what he wants because he's the boss. Want
to do I behind the scenes. You know, when you
have someone like Jerry Jones who is powerful and has
you know, he's the president, he's the GM, he's the owner,
he's the CEO. You know, he holds all those titles

(28:50):
and he has no issues being out publicly, which is fine.
I mean, teach his own and you have all the
respect on that. You can win the battle and lose
the war by competing with him in that. In that space,
I chose to stay quiet. And it's tough, and it
was tough on Dak, but we just had to stay quiet,
stay the course and stay above board and don't don't
tip your hand and don't tell him how we're feeling
or anything. And that's what we did. We were quiet.

(29:13):
It was one sided media blitz from the team directly
as well as the indirect leagues that were coming from
you know, cowboy sources, so to speak. That we just
had to bite our tongue, which was not easy, especially
for someone who you know, wants to combat wrong information.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, and speaking of the negotiation style Todd, I wouldn't
say combative, but he's not afraid to overwhelm with rationale
at all times. So if if you say something or
make a you know, a persuasive argument that he doesn't
agree with, he's not afraid to send an eight page
memo addressing that one specific line that you said. So

(29:52):
there's no shortness of breath when it comes to his
ability to you know, reply in at nauseum at thing
that maybe was a small thing that a team says,
We're going to pick apart that that statement as much
as possible.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
I would say Todd's recruiting and negotiating style. One way
to describe it would be brilliant, which not the word
I was gonna say, but brilliant, but the other one
is exhaustive.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Would you agree with that?

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Ag? Yeah, no, definitely. He is going to turn over
every stone throughout the entire process. You know, we might
have something that we have written up it is a
very analytical deep dive that is going to help our client.
He'll go through it and say, well, have you thought
about this? Have you thought about this? And he'll have
six different things and some of them might be completely

(30:36):
off the wall, not helpful. But if there's one thing
that is going to be helpful, it's mean, why don't
you write another two pages about that?

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (30:43):
No, it's just amazing, it's brilliant, and you just it's exhausting,
you know, I mean like I mean, I negotiate with
talk when we're talking trying to be in mouth. It's
first and like I go home, like, man, I thought,
I could, you know, have the more perseverance, but like
here's Todd Colin again. We just finished three hours and
we're going to go again. So it's but it works.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
It works.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
There's a method of the metas. So I got behind
the scenes for me, I look at that and say
I sit here and say, you might not like what
I'm at the numbers I'm asking for, and you might
think I'm crazy, but at least you understand where I'm
coming from and so agree to disagree. That's fine, but
I'm not. At least you don't look at it and go,
where does he come up with this? Why does he
think this is the right number? Is this just the throw,
you know, throwing a number at the wall. No, there's

(31:24):
there's rationale to the position.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
Absolutely right.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
So Todd's not afraid to agree to disagree, as shown
by you know, walking away from the proposal on the
table in twenty nineteen, walking away again at the tag
deadline in twenty twenty, and then getting to up to
the deadline in twenty twenty one, where it was like
we are okay walking away. We've shown that multiple times,
and that just adds another layer to his leverage.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
And I think that's one thing that you know, we
talked about with David, and one thing that Todd and
David have in common. Different negotiating styles for sure, but
like both very convicted as to what the right number
is and what the value of their client is, and
not a lot of them to compromise. It's not because
they don't want to get deal done, but because they're
just so convicted that you need Dak is worth this,

(32:05):
and I'm right. I'll give you one hundred pages while
I'm right, So when you get here, let me know.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
And I think that that's great. Well, listen.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
So that was the arguably, Mike Florio says, the number
one contract in NFL history.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
But it was not the last contract for Dak.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
So you guys do the deal. He's making forty million
dollars a year. Forty two million dollars a year. Of
the first three obviously goes and plays, you know, aj
bring us to the next contract negotiation.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, So then the next three seasons go by. Dak
plays incredibly well. He does his job on and off
the field as the upstanding citizen that he is and
amazing football player. He gets to the the third year
of the deal and he's the runner up to the
MVP voting finishing that that third season. And so now
we're going into the final year of the contract of

(32:52):
his of his veteran contract. We know that the Cowboys
are going to have a decision to make if they
let him play out that final year of the deal,
an unrestricted free agent, meaning the Cowboys have zero rights
to us. It will be a complete bidding war, a
bidding war that the NFL has probably never seen before.
And that is that is our leverage going into the
off season, is that, you know, the Cowboys kind of

(33:13):
have to give us what we think is the fair
number or we will have a bidding war. After the season,
and Dak coming off of, you know, one of the
best seasons of his career, probably the best season of
his career. As the runner up in the MVP voting,
we knew that they were probably going to want to
come to us, and they did eventually.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
But just so, just so, he you guys, do the
best deal of all time, and he's making forty year,
but forty two million dollars for the first average over
the first three years thirty five, right, so first three
years forty.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Two million a year.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Not linear, But so he plays one year, does really well,
he plays another year, does really well. But he's only
played two years, and you're saying he's got like that.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Now, then he plays a thirty thirty plays this thirty
year ars right, yep, And he's the runner up in
the MVP voting. So this was you know, he's trending
up as a player.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Well only played three I mean he's got another young
contract which you say you can't get to. But like,
at that point when they're going to come to you,
is he still the highest paid quarterback in the league.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
No, but by this point the market has has surpassed
him pretty pretty large. Yeah, jump in in the market
it does for and so.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
No, which is crazy.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, I mean, it's is just how the when we
passed for the wrong gut. I mean it's like, yeah,
so so.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Yeah, I mean he's made it.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
He's got the best contract in NFL history. He plays
under for three years, then you guys like, hey, let's
go eat some more.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Right, and So, because the growth of the salary cap
and the growth of the market is so important for quarterbacks.
This is exactly why we did the four year deal,
and why when we did the four year deal in
twenty twenty one, it was really with this next contract
in mind. It was all about setting up this next
one and how much leverage can we create for this

(34:51):
this next contract that Dak will have and getting to
twenty twenty four, when the top of the market is
now fifty five million dollars per year on averag Bridge
from the forty that Dack did just three years prior.
That just shows why it was so important to have
that shorter deal, why we didn't want to have, you know,
five more years left on the contract had we done

(35:13):
this this long six year deal or ten year deal.
That's why it was of the utmost important to us
throughout the entire process getting that first deal.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
So they come to you, and how what happens.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
They come to us, It's it's still a negotiation. They
come with an offer that you know, we we made
that face and that sound when we first saw it.
We thought, you know what, what was this? You know,
where's the rational.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
Said to myself, why did we do a four year
deal in the first one? We should have done a
five year so we don't have to be back into
that feeling.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
With it again. So fast.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
Yeah, it literally seemed like it was overnight.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
I mean it did. It was.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah, at the end of the day that it's it's
a business. They're trying to get a player for they're
trying to get their employees far as cheap as possible,
and we understand that there's a mutual respect in that.
Sometimes you make that face when you get proposals from
teams and you say, like, I don't understand this at all,
but I guess at least where we're starting the process.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, And it goes to Todd's conviction too, right, I mean,
like I mean it's Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones that
they're not going to come and give you an A
plus off at the beginning. It's going to negotiates the process.
But Todd's so convicted to where he should be. Especially
Dak who he loves so much, is like, you can't help,
but big that face.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
You can help, but Bike that face. Now you know
what I mean. But it's but it's understandable.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
But also at the same time, Aj we've talked about
before you're working on Tours deal, you're working on Jordan
Loves deal at the same time, right around that time period, Yeah, yeah,
you know where the market's going. And I'm telling him,
don't go to the light and go higher because you've
got to set up all these other deals.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
Yeah, because every deal affects another deal.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Yep, and especially the for you.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
We talked about the way with Tua and Jordan that
we're able to one of the ways that the teams,
we're able to get a four year deal. Is that
we told him that Dak was going to do a
for you deal, right, So.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
That's exactly right. Yeah, so we're setting up, you know,
with all of these quarterbacks all negotiating all around the
same time. You know, we see two Wall get done,
we see Jordan get done, and we were part of it.
Well yeah, I mean the world sees those two get done,
and then everyone's now turned their attention to when when
will Dak get done? When when will he get his

(37:10):
contract or or will he get one or will they.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
And what's Dak thinking at this point? So like, so
Dak just cut I mean three years ago, he got
the greatest NFL contract of all time. He's crushing it
on the field, He's got you know, a ton of money,
he's you know, everything's great. But I remember him saying
something of the media like what was Dak's mentality at
this point of the negotiation, what was important to him?

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Ultimately he was thinking about football? Like I remember, we
we went and sat down with him maybe right at
the start of training camp or right before training camp,
and really just gave him an overview of everything. I
remember the the other two quarterbacks weren't quite done. So
I was basically telling him, you know, here's where the
negotiations are with Tua and Jordan, and we think they're
going to finish around here. And this is you know,
how the market has changed since your last contract. And

(37:53):
he was just really thinking about football.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
He gave us the green.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
He just you do what you need to do, like
I'm I'm focused on football, especially when they started very
late coming back at US. They could have done it
all off season. And when Dak's getting ready for camp
and getting into camp, the switch flips. But he does
not want to be involved in or having conversations about

(38:17):
the contract. Now we can talk about it, and he
didn't even want to be updated unless there was something
worthy to be talked about. Now I still did and
he still heard it, but they were shorter conversations that
weren't near as in depth as they were the first
go around, because he was in training camp and that's
where he wanted to be and that's where his mindset was,
and he was willing to bet on himself. He's like,

(38:37):
that's fine that they don't want to do a contract.
I'll be a free agent, you know, and of course
the Cowboys. You know, we're banking on the star on
the helmet and that no matter what, he's going to
come back. And it wasn't going to go. It wasn't
going to work out that way. I had a deal
not worked out. I really believe that.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
And we go back to like all these players who
switched over Todd and Outfleits first. And I think that's
one huge advantage of having an experienced agent, experienced super
agent who's been there before, like Dak truly can go
play football at this point. He doesn't have to worry
about the contract because he knows that you and AJ
and the team like you have him take care of it.
You've been through the wars before. He can go do

(39:11):
what he does.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
And he knows that we're going to be on every
detail because he knew about the franchise tag designation and
how we strategically added that at the end when we
agreed to the numbers on the first deal and I
called him and told him it was done, but you
have to hang tight because we're negotiating language. And three
days go by and every day he's calling me and
I told him, like, we're fighting over this one particular

(39:32):
word and he's telling us, you know, don't worry about it,
doesn't matter, and it was like him being fined essentially
and the guarantees get void if that happened, and he
he was like, Todd, I'm never getting FOI it, I
don't care.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
Just let's sign it. I'm done with this. Let's go.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
And I like had it like literally like be strong
and be like no, you need to just hang out.
Let us finish this and do it the right way.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
And luckily we did.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
It's a story for another day because he ultimately did
get fined in his first year for some reference small
silly fine night for starting off the whole guarantee knowing
that's that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
So how does this how does this negotiation go? How's
it end?

Speaker 4 (40:06):
How?

Speaker 3 (40:07):
I mean, what happened? Any for any interesting stories.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I was gonna say it was a really slow build
until the last week.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yeah, I mean it was.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
It was throughout training camp and you know then Stephen
and and You're they like to have direct communication to
the to their players when the niggas, yes, for sure,
and I'm not going to get in the way of that.
You know that if they want to do that, have
at it. Uh, they're not going to get into numbers
and that type of stuff. And Dak understood what he
you know, what to say and not today and what

(40:34):
he felt comfortable talking about or whatever he wanted to do,
and ultimately that's his decision. And you know it, Like
like Ajay said, it was a slow process, a slow,
steady climb, uh to get ultimately where we were going.
And then it led to it was we were nowhere,
we weren't where we.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Needed to be.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
Like we were a pretty good gap before the first game.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
So that weekline the dead one that I guess this
is the one thing Dak did coming on is he
wanted to have either the deal was done or he
was stepping on the field for week one of the
season and I'm playing the season out. I'm not going
to have this back and forth during the year. I
don't want to be on the bye week thinking about
my contract when I need to be thinking about, you know,

(41:18):
what is the next team we're gonna play. How are
we gonna keep this thing rolling and try to get
to the super Bowl. So he had put on a
deadline of that's that's what it needs to be done
by we get to the last four or five days
before the first game of the season, and they're they're
in game prep, they're they're getting ready for Week one
against the Browns, and we're still to a point. I
think it was Thursday, we get a proposal from the

(41:40):
Cowboys and I go through it quickly, and Todd just
looks at me and just goes, we're not gonna get
a contract done. We're we're just gonna have to tell Dak, like,
play this out and we're gonna be great in free agency.
This is gonna be unheard of, Like, this is gonna
be a lot of fun probably when we get to
free agency. But it's it's also on the other side

(42:00):
of it. You're sitting there saying like it's you know,
one hundred and sixty or one hundred and eighty million dollars
of guaranteed money that was on the table at the time,
and when we're sitting there still saying, you know, it's
it's not enough, it's not what it needs to be.
It's not what Dak deserves given everything he's had to
do and everything that we're forecasting.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
In the moment.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
It's a tough situation, like what you're dealing with is
you also have you're under a microscope from the media
and what everyone's expectations are and all that, and what
everyone's going to, you know, play Monday morning quarterback, and
what the deal should be shouldn't be, how much you
should get good deal, bad deal. Everyone's got agendas. So
you got that piece of it, You got the piece
of just you know, the contract itself is going to

(42:39):
get done? Is it not going to get done?

Speaker 3 (42:40):
There's just all these moving parts that are happening.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
And then the biggest tough thing is is when you
become the highest paid and still say it's not enough,
that's a tough negotiation.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah. When I saw the final numbers, I didn't. I didn't.
I don't understand that. Like you go, you don't you go.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
From fifty five to five point five, fifty five to
fifty fits five to fifty seven would be let's throw
a party in a retirement party because you're never gonna
do better.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Than that, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Again, Like it was like it's Dak and it's the
cowboys and it means the world to them. So it's
but like it does, as Steve said, Steven said to
you like it takes.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
A little courage.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Didn't use those words to say, hey, we need sixty
you know. But again it goes back to your convictions.
Agent's conviction, like Dak Prescott, given the an ability of franchise,
given what he would get if he went to free agency,
it would be way more in sixty, right, Like.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
You know you don't want to go there.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
But well, no, that that that was the theme of
a lot of the conversations. Yeah, like whatever we take
as it as a discount.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
Yep, which is which is? I love that negotiation.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
It's like I'm always in ag is telling me the hypothetical, right,
like you have hypothetical Dak, Like we play the season
out and things go well and he's unrestricted free agent
at his age with it like it's that there's no
there is no I remember you guys saying two things
about Dak that were reporting to him. The first I
think you guys said like it was like he felt
like he had a produciary duty to the other quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Is that? I mean, like that, what do you say
about that? I mean, that's the standard thing that you
would say to anybody at their position.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
But you know, and he I think he came out
and said it in one of his press conferences, he's
just he's like, you know, it's you go do a
bad deal. Like, it's not just you. The next guy
is getting that deal is used against him, and you're
preventing that guy from getting whatever his fair market value is.
So you really do have to realize the precedent that's
being set set, the precedent being set at that position.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Which is amazing to me to see Dak thinking about
other people during his time, Right, but you guys say
that's typical, Deck. And then the second thing I think
you guys told me was really important Deck, and I
think he's important Mphlise here is that he wanted to
be a cowboy. I mean, Jerry's important, Steve's important like
that he's that was important to him to get this.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
I mean it was.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
But if they weren't going to participate in a fair
business proposal, right then he has no problem. That had
no understand no issues. You know, that wouldn't be the
number one goal. But it's one hundred percent of reality
that he understood was a real possibility.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
Yeah, but how important is it? How special is it
to him to be a.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
Listening He loves being it's a great it's a great thing.
And that's where he's been. That's who bet on him,
took him in the draft. You know, I think everybody
should have some sort of loyalty to the team that
you know, basically major dream come true. And it's been
a win win partnership for them and him, and they
lucked out. You got a quarterback, Tony Romo goes down.
You have this fourth round guy, and you know, look
at all these quarterback teams that just draft first round

(45:24):
picks and can't hit them in all this stuff, and
they're just in quarterback hell and pay guys and they
don't work out. And meanwhile you got this backup who
just gets thrown in, who ends up dominating and then
becoming the face of your friend. And he literally lucked
into a quarterback. So it was a win from the
Cowboys perspective as much as it was a win from Dak.
And so I think it's a win win healthy relationship
for both sides of him being a cowboy.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
I love that Todds on our podcast and he like,
I'm talking about how important it is for Dak to
be a cowboy and the Dallas community and everything and
all Todds thinking about is the next.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
Negotiation, like, hey, I can't.

Speaker 5 (45:54):
I can't three years from I don't want Jerry to
know how important, Like oh, he'll never want to be
on that, you know. Yeah, well let's just say, you know,
like I think Dak enjoys a Dallas community and the
charity work he does.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
I mean he could go anywhere next time, but yeah, yeah,
for sure, that's great.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Well listen, man, that's uh. Let me ask you, like,
what is speaking to Jerry and Stephen was? I mean,
do you guys meet with him in person? Do they
have big cowboy head song, like they have coboy boots?

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Like what's that like?

Speaker 4 (46:17):
So the first contract, the first contract we went to UH.
When it went to sign it, UH, it went to
Dallas in UH Jerry's office and conference room and they
had all the photographers and no, he's dressed in a suit.
They're all in suits whatever, and it was all normal
and good. And in the second go around I didn't
go there ever, I didn't even go for the sign because.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
It was I called.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
I facetimed Dak to tell him the deal was done
on while he was getting ready to like maybe he
was going ready to play thirty minutes now, thirty minutes later,
with thirty minutes before he was going down to the
hotel lobby in Cleveland to get on the bus to
go to the game.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
They we should finish, maybe we should finish the timeline here.
So the Thursday before the game, we are saying we're
not I get a deal done. You know, we're kind
of depressed about that, like I you know, we tried,
but they're not going to get there. It gets to
Saturday night. I'm still sitting at my desk eleven pm
Saturday night because you know, we're getting emails from Steven.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
Still, I'm having conversations after a conversation with Stephen's calling
you telling you what the conversation is and what to
go back with it and what were kind of just
it happened all Saturday night.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Laid into the night. Saturday night, I wake up at
seven in the morning or I'm up at seven in
the morning to my first call from Todd on Sunday morning, Sunday,
Sunday morning, Sunday morning. He calls me seven am and
he's like, you hear anything? Have you heard anything?

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Like?

Speaker 1 (47:37):
How would I have heard anything without you? Like did
you hear anything. He's like, no, nothing yet. Like, well,
the last conversation or the last communication we had with
them was eleven eleven thirty last night, so it hasn't
been that long. He's like, well, you know, Dak's got
to be on the field. He's got a game at
three o'clock. And it was during our call he stopped
and goes, wow, Steven's calling me right now, and so

(47:59):
he he merged over to talk to Steven, and rolling
against things got rolling again here for.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
Yeah, I mean Stephen called eight am I think Sunday morning,
which was seven am his time. And uh, Stephen did
not go to Cleveland with the team, so he wasn't
in the team hotel. He had to stay back for
some major sponsors birthday party, so he wasn't flying in
with Jerry till that day of the game, the morning

(48:28):
of the game on his private plane.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
I mean, when when when you said, like, all right,
I think it's done. You have to come to my
house right now because we need to go through everything
with a fine tooth comb. So we're both at home
at Sunday morning, I drive over to Todd's house. We
get the final proposal from the Cowboys. We go through it,
and we're like, okay, like we have to call we
have to call Dak. We FaceTime Dak. We tell him

(48:49):
Todd the emotion out of you. I don't know if
you want to touch on that, and like everything.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
Yeah, I facetimed him and he answered the phone and
I couldn't even speak like he do.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
It was done. It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Yeah, No, it was pretty awesome to be a part of.
To see Todd and just the sense of relief and the.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
One hundred percent relief. I was choked up. Dak was choked.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
We both literally like looking at each other and FaceTime crying,
you know. And then I was able to finally like
tell him the news. And and I didn't realize Zeke
was in his room, you know, and uh, somebody else
was with him. I forget who it was. But so
that was really awesome, you know, to go through it,
and he was so happy. And then we uh facetimed
in or did a thing with Julie so she can
get in and uh, Peter the financial guy and Peter

(49:33):
the marketing I got his whole team on to let
them all know the hey guys, it's done, and everyone
obviously was was real relieved and to have it done
and all that.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
So it was like a fulimination of like five or
six years. I mean five or six came five or
six year chess match.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
It's a chess match.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
But there's just there's a lot of pressures. First all
you put it it's an age. You put a lot
of pressure on yourself, right, you want to do the
best you can for this player, and and you believe
in it, and you live and dreaming it and you
sleep on it, and you're driving the car, you're in
the show, you know, having a conversation with your family,
but that's you know, you're not present because you're thinking
about this, you know, and you get the media constantly
blowing you up, texting you, calling you, asking you. Then

(50:09):
you're working out and it's on the TV, and then
you're walking through the airport and it's on the TV,
and like, no, you can't escape it, you know, especially
this Dak deal, right, it's like always talked about. And
so the culmination of the of the self pressure, no
pressure from Dak, he was amazing, but still the pressure
from from yourself that you put on the pressure publicly,
you know, to to deliver and will you get a

(50:30):
deal done and will you.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
Get the right deal and what is it? And everyone
wants to kind of.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
Like debate it and have like the perfect deal done
that no one can say anything about other than wow,
was just awesome, and it was. It was a lot
of emotion that happened in a really short little window
where you went from Thursday like this isn't gonna happen,
even to Saturday, thinking this isn't going to happen in
Saturday night maybe, but I don't see it. Then Sunday morning,
still know, until like two or three calls later, and

(50:56):
then all of a sudden you're like, oh, this is
this is this is going to get done. Like it
So the very last second, literally did not think it
was going to get done. So when it did, you're
just like, wow, okay, it did get that.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Holy cow.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
Let me called back and you know, hopefully he's available.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Not on the bus, yeah, you.

Speaker 4 (51:10):
Know, because literally thirty minutes he was packing his bag
to go walk down the bus, to get down the
bus to go the game.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah, that's crazy. I mean I think I always say,
like you know, representing deck or probaly like that, like
it's an enormous privilege and blessing, absolutely, but it's also
an enormous same size responsibility huge you know, and that
like that, and we've talked about before. You're like the
responsibility weighs on us more than the blessing propels us, right,
I mean it's just like it's you just you want

(51:39):
to celebrate the win, but you just so much pressure
on you and your team and AJ to get this
done for Dak, and so many things are out of
your control, like you're not going to make Steven and
Jerry do things he don't want to do, so.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
Like and the feelings is the same way like every player, right,
Like I don't care if I'm calling a guy for
a three or twelve million dollar deal or a six
hundred million dollar deal. Like the joy of knowing what
you're doing and how you're helping that player who deserves
it and then some in my opinion, it's not like
we're doing it. They did the work and you're just
you know, crossing the t and dotting the eyes for them.
But to deliver that is just it's what it's the best.

(52:11):
It's it's like I liken it to golf, Like why
would you go to this miserable business and all that
kind of like it's like golf, right, you're terrible, but
you're that one shot that's good and you're like this
is easy, and you keep coming back and the same thing,
that that feeling, that that that joy when you tell
a player in his family and you that you just
change their life in that way and they you know that,
that's that's what keeps you coming.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Now, especially with people like your clients. We have, you
know in Dix of perfect example, we all clients we've
talked about in a series of just all phenomenal people
and we're lucky.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
So all right, so uh, lessons learned man today.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Like if we haven't even talked about what the actual deal,
give us the deal, what is the first time we
didn't get to the numbers until very end. Right, this
deal that the first one they said was the best
contract of all time, This one blows that one away
by far, the best contract in the NFL up to
this point. It is a four year extension, sixty million

(53:02):
dollars per year on average. We again front loaded that deal,
so there's a lot more money in the first couple
of years. It's actually one hundred million dollars in the
first year of the extension. It has two hundred and
thirty one million dollars guaranteed, So the top of the
market has been reset in total value, in average per year,

(53:23):
in guarantees across the board. And just because this is
who we are, we also included the no trade clause,
the no tag clause, and all the eyes were died
and the t's were crossed.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
You got to be consistent. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
Yeah, he's the first first sixty million dollar a year guy. Yep,
and first player in NFL history to actually earn one
hundred million dollars in a twelve month window.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
It goes back to our second episode where the first
contract I worked on, We're the highest, he's the highest
paid quarterback in NFL history was True Blood Sell and
he got paid one hundred and three million dollars over
ten years. Yeah, it's actually still huge, but it's an
amazing Yeah, I mean that was twenty years ago, but
like still it's a huge difference.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
I mean, hence why you want a shorter term deal.

Speaker 4 (54:10):
It must not have been part of the strategy, not
about that.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
We just certainly give it a cap was gonna grow
like it did. Yeah, yeah, no way.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
No, that's that's an incredible deal. And I get with
unquestionably the best deal in NFL history.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Part two.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Uh, and you get to the phenomenal job athletes first,
to the phenomenal job. But Dak is Dak, and you
know he deserves it. And the Cowboys did a great
job because they had that continuity of starting quarterback and
there's not not allowed of decks come along. So all right,
lessons learned, man, so many lessons learned here. One don't
do a ten year deal. But for me, the lesson

(54:43):
learned here for me, and it goes back to my
own personal story, is that, yeah, you have to have
that faith in yourself and be willing to roll the dice.
That's the only way you can get to the top
of these mountains.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
You know. I think for me it was leaving my
high paying job as a.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Big time lawyer in Boston and coming out here to
be a sorts agent and then two years later rolling
of the dates again to start athletes first. And you know,
did I know it was going to end up here
doing a podcast with a legend and his sidekick? No,
but I did believe that it was going to work
out well. And I think that my message lesson learned
to reiterate here is like you have faith in yourself,

(55:19):
you know, but don't have faith in yourself and roll
the dice if you're not willing to do the research,
put the work in, perseverance termination, and also know that
you're gonna stumble. I mean, you know things are gonna happen.
That's gonna turn down a deal and get hurt, right,
But that's okay because you've planned for that and you're
ready to go. And so I think it's a great lesson.
And certainly Dak you know, had all the confidence in

(55:39):
himself and he rolled the dice twice in a row
and you know, came up a huge winner. But I
think he you know, him having faith in himself and
him having faith in Todd and your team. Uh, you know,
you see the results and it's it's phenomenal. So that's
my lesson learned, like, really have faith in yourself, but
then you know, work hard enough that that faith is justified.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
A j Yeah, I think my lesson learned this is
going to be something that it's more pertaining to the negotiation,
and the negotiation strategy that Todd employees into every deal
he does is having a very well educated client. And
I don't mean, you know, they have a really good
educational background, but they're very educated on the contract, the expectations,

(56:21):
the market, and everything that they need to know, so
that if they are walking away from a deal, it's
for a good reason. And because they're educated, they have
even more trust in everything that we do in the
negotiation process. And especially with Dak. You know, people ask
all the time like, how did Dak get that deal? Well,
he's a really good player, and then they'll follow up
the question with, well, how did he get that good

(56:42):
of a deal? And the answer is because Dak trusted us.
And the reason Dak trusted us is because he was
so well educated, because he knew the ins and outs
and he knew why he was walking away from the
one hundred million dollar deal to play for two million
is because around the corner was the one hundred and
sixty million dollar deal.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Oh And I always say here like, it's not our decision, right,
it's Dak is a client's decision. So we have to
educate the client to empower them, right, Because if you
don't educate them then it's not going to be their decision.
They're just going to trust you, and you want the
Dak trusts you implicitly at the end of the day,
you want it. It has to be Dak's decision, you know,
and whatever decision he makes once you've educated him, so

(57:19):
he's empowered to make the decision that's the right decision.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
But to my lesson learned, uh for sure, is the
support and the team work that goes into these types
of things. So it was the first deal was a
two year nightmare, and then the next one was a
long process and the support and the team work. Like
I you know, this is all about pumping me up
and I'm great and all that, but I am great
because of the people that I work with and working

(57:43):
with AJ and just you know on the contract piece,
but working with Julie on the you know side, conversation
she's having with Thatak maybe to keep him, you know,
his mind at ease or you know, all of these
different things. You know, my wife, like my family, my dad,
like everybody is part of it. Because you don't just
work nine to five. You take it home and you
bring it home. And so the frustrations are seeing this

(58:03):
stuff on the media and me not wanting to deal
with that or you know, all these different things. So
having the outlets of family support and friends and then
the people in the office that are directly involved as
well as indirectly involved to help make me what I am,
to help me do my job, whether it's aj on
the contract and preparing me and like giving me every

(58:24):
you know, bell and whistle for us to debate back
and forth before we ever have calls and to come
up with all these things. Like if you don't have
that support system and you don't have that team, like
you're missing something because your ideas aren't always the right
ideas and there might not even be the best ideas.
But when you bounce them off other people who can
poke holes in them, and then they become the right
ideas or they become the best ideas. So for me,

(58:45):
my lesson of hands down is what makes me great.
And you know I'm putting great in quotes because you
guys are saying I'm great. I think it's unreal, but legendary, legendary, whatever,
whatever it is. What makes me who I am is
because of the support system I have both at work
directly indirectly at home, the teamwork. All of that is
what I believe is the lesson learned here, because you
can't do these things on your own.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
I might be the one who gets the credit. I
might be the one in the headlines.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
I might be the one that gets ripped if it's
a good thing or a bad thing. But at the
end of the day, it's the support system, and I
wouldn't be who I am or where I am with
our guys Like AJ, you know yourself. I know, I
talk to you during the process as well, during the contract.
They get your ideas, immediately cross.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
That idea off. Now whatever you do.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
I was like, okay, definitely, he says, go right, we're
going left. AJ, well this is going to get done now.
That's to me, by far, the lesson learned from me.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
And I think the sign of a great leader is
someone who can acknowledge that, right, Because when you acknowledge
your teammates and how important they are to you, they
say they stick around, right because they want to be
recognized And no, I appreciate Todd, thank you for all
your time these last two episodes.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
AJ.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
This is episode ten. It's a finale. You know, when
we started this episode, the whole series. I said, man,
this is so far outside my comfort zone. And one
of the reasons, one of my purposes of doing this
is to grow as a leader as a CEO, grow
as a person. I say, like doing this with you,
aj and and all of our guests that we've had, like,
I've learned so much. I feel like I'm better because

(01:00:08):
of it, and hopefully our listeners feel the same. But
it was a great experience.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
I really enjoyed it. Howbout yourself?

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Yeah, now, this this was awesome. You know, I learned
a lot about our co workers, the partners of the
agency and how they you know, came up in the industry,
everything that they did from from an intern level or
or todd chasing chasing what was it? Fire the fire Ants,
the Atlanta fire Ants around that's a basketball team, hockey team,
roller roller hockey.

Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
Ll HI, roller Hockey International.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Come on in every step of the way. And the
adversity that everyone faced. I think it was a great
number of lessons that were in there. So it was
it was awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
We want to thank all of our listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Your parents are my parents at least, right, and uh,
you know, I think we liked this so much. Athletes
First Family Podcast. We bet back with our next series,
and we look forward to everyone subscribing and sticking with us,
and we'll talk about all kinds of a whole myriad
of different time expositions and everything. But it's been a
lot of fun and we'll we'll see you next time,
all right,

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How Dak Prescott Became the Highest-Paid NFL Player | Athletes First Family Podcast Ep-10

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AJ Stevens

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