How I Negotiated Over $1 Billion in Player Contracts In a Year! | Athletes First Family Podcast Ep-6
February 20, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode of the Athletes First Family Podcast, we sit down with David Mulugheta, the powerhouse agent behind NFL quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Jordan Love. Joined by Brian Murphy and AJ Stevens, we explore David’s path from Dallas, Texas, to becoming one of the most influential agents in the game.
David shares how family, resilience, and strategic career moves shaped his journey. Growing up with immigrant parents who prioritized education and hard work, he developed the mindset that would later propel him to success. From recognizing the importance of representing quarterbacks to negotiating record-breaking deals, David’s story is one of vision, self-belief, and determination.
We also dive into representation and diversity, as David sheds light on the lack of African American agents in the quarterback space and his commitment to changing that narrative. Hear how he signed Deshaun Watson after a national championship win, the career-defining moments that followed, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Join us for an inspiring conversation that breaks down what it takes to become a top sports agent, the power of betting on yourself, and the future of athlete representation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
David's success in the industry has been documented pretty much
everywhere in sports media right to look at just his
record breaking deals that he's done in his career, from
Earl Thomas to Collecciosemile, Jordan Love, Deshaun Watson, who we're
going to talk about today, Jalen Ramsey, Derwin, James Jalen twice,
so Thomas is another one.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Bobby Wagner, Buddha Baker, Durwin, James Winfield Junior.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
We go down the list, so we could do a
whole podcast all these record breaking deals, right.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back to episode seven of The Athletes First Family podcast,
the Quarterback Series. I am Athletes First CEO Brian Murphy,
joined once again by my co host AJ Stevens. Arguably
one of the best negotiators in the business, but David
probably would disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Welcome back, Aj, Thanks Murph, happy to be back on
this podcast. We discuss athletes First success in representing quarterbacks
in the NFL. We currently have one point four billion
dollars of quarterback deals on our books. On today's episode,
we have have the agent who represents two of those players,
Deshaun Watson and Jordan Love.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Davi Mogeta happy to be here, yep.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Athletes first equity partner David Mulligeta legend as we're going
to get into but thanks for joining us, David. It
was tough getting into the office table all your fans
outside blocking block and stuff. But uh yeah, so we're
gonna we're gonna jump into you know, your journey from
where you grew up to super agent. I want to
start with no superport. You tell us about your current family,
your wife, kids.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I am married.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
I have a beautiful wife, Sandra Mulighetta, and we have
three lovely kids, DJ, Dallas and Davin.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
So yeah, family man here yep.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's one of the things that I'm most impressed about
to you is that you've become the best at what
you do without sacrificing the family at all. And the
family has always been first to you and that's super impressive.
But let's go back to the beginning. Like, tell us
about your childhood. Where did you grow up and what
was that family?
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Like, Yeah, I grew up in Dallas, Texas. Both my
parents were immigrants from a small country in East Africa, Eritrea,
and they migrated here or immigrated here in late in
the late seventies. My older brother me and I was
born in Rome, Italy. Actually in his first couple of
years of life were spent in Rome, and they moved
(02:14):
to the States about nineteen seventy nine or nineteen eighty
somewhere there. I was born shortly thereafter in Dallas, Texas.
I have a younger brother, Abel, and a younger sister
in Niat, and I'm probably the dumb one of the group,
to be honest with you. My older brother, you know,
it was kind of, you know, the guy that set
the standard in our household, right. Both my parents never
(02:36):
even graduated, you know, never got past elementary school, let
alone going to college. So my older brother kind of
was the standard bearer. And he graduated high school obviously,
and went on to Texas and M University got his
undergrad and engineering, I believe, and then went on to
SMU where he got his NBA and kind of set
(02:58):
the standard for myself, kind of had somebodyok, you know,
look at us, like, Okay, this is kind of what
I need to do. And then my younger brother graduate
from University of Texas Austin where I went, and then
he got his a lot you know, his j D
from SMU as well. And my little sister, who I
think would be this, we consider her the smarty pants
of the family. Uh, the true standard bear. I would say,
(03:19):
you know, she did her undergrad at Harvard University and
uh we just graduated h with her MBA from Stanford.
So yeah, man, So tough U. Tough group there. Yeah no,
but I'm ranked number four OAT of the groups.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I agree with that.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Number two in this group.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Sy's fine, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, But so David, tell me about that. So your
parents came over and they didn't they didn't they didn't
go to high school, whatnot. And how how did they
influence you all to be so successful academically?
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I think for them, you know, coming from UH at
the time war torn country and you know, having to do, uh,
you know, a lot just to make it to the
United States, Right, for them, it was like, hey, you know,
we've we've done all these things to put you guys
in the position to be successful at least have a
shot at being successful.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And you know, it was always great having a mom
and dad.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
At home obviously, and just you know, seeing you know,
the work that they put in on a day to
day uh. You know, my dad had two jobs us
growing up. My mom you know, she used to clean homes.
So just kind of seeing everything that they put into it.
And it was always about us, always about the family.
I think it was just the for us. You know,
the expectation was that we took advantage of everything, you know,
the opportunity that we had being here in the States.
(04:32):
And like I said once, my brother, my older brother,
kind of set that standard of you know what that
looked like.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
You know, for us, it was you know, it was
easy to follow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, And did you enjoy school or did you feel
like there's something you wanted to do and you want
to do well make them proud.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
I think it was more of the latter, Right. I
was good at school. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it,
you know, like most kids. You know, I enjoyed going
to school, you know, being around friends. But as far
as the learning aspect of it, you know, I have
a I say I had a really good memory where
I would read something once and I could remember it.
So I was left in that way where maybe I
wasn't super passionate about school. But luckily, you know, for
(05:04):
whatever reason. I was good at school, so I was
able to maintain good grades. You know, had my had
my screw ups like you know, most kids, but I
was able to find a way to make it, you know,
through that and and you know, graduate and you know,
I went to University of Texas at Austin, which I
think kind of for me, it was a dream to
go there. It be in the flagship, you know, university
in the state of Texas. But also I was you know,
(05:25):
I always want to do something, even though I looked
at my brother as a role model, and I always
wanted to kind of follow in his footsteps in ways.
You know, when he went to a and M I
was like, I gotta go to Texas. You know, I
want to do kind of the opposite in that manner.
So he was Aggie and I was a Longhorn. So
that was pretty cool, and you know, we still have
our battles to this day.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You wanted to be unique, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
I want to be a little different. I want to
kind of, you know, in a way, have my own road.
So yeah, I want to be University of Texas.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That does not surprise me at all. But did you
play sports? And AJ claimed to be a three sport
athlete before.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
But I was okay, Yeah, I played a few sports
in high school. Unfortunately, you know, didn't get too far.
You know, I played baseball. I mean I even wrestled,
and I wrestled at one hundred and three pounds my
freshman year in high school.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Wow. Yeah, man, it's crazy. You know.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
I didn't hit my growth spurt unfortunately until after my
junior year. I was about five six, one hundred twenty
pounds until my junior year of high school.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
In the summer after my junior high school, I sprung
up to six foot and you know about one forty
five to fifty which is not huge, but where else
coming from? You know, in about four month period. You know,
gaining six inches was cool. But I was never big
enough at the time to play football.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
You know. I loved football.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Grew up in you know, Dallas in the nineties, the
Troit ah Man Michael Smith, Irvin Era where were winning
Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
So I was always a football fan, yep.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
But physically that just wasn't a place you know, I
could fit on the football field. So never played football.
But oh yeah, you know I was definitely you know,
I played sports growing.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Up awesome, And so you went to UT you loved it, Oh, yeah,
for sure. And when you went to UT, like did
you go there, like did you know at that point
you want to be a sports agent or you had
no idea?
Speaker 4 (06:56):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I didn't even know what a sport agent sports agent
was at the time. And I went to UT. And
again going back to my parents being immigrants, you know,
all they knew was doctor, lawyer, engineer, So like, pick
one of those three. We know those you know they
get paid well, right, you guys canna be successful. So
I was scared of blood, so I wasn't going to
do the doctor out.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
So, you know, and I was a little I won't
say a little bit. I enjoyed talking.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
I was a little aquacious as a kid, so I thought, hey,
you know, I feel like I could be a lawyer.
They do a lot of talking, so that was kind
of my mindset. I wanted to be a lawyer. But
universitys had a really good business school, so I want
to get into business school. So I actually was a
I went to University Texas and I majored in business
my BBA from there. But yeah, no, at no point
did I ever think about being a sports agent. That
(07:42):
didn't come along till you know, toward I would say,
probably the back end of my college career.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And then when you were in college, like you know,
you said you saw both parents work hard, you know,
do everything that could to make some money. Like did
you do some work in college? Like how did you
make some money?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah? Man?
Speaker 5 (07:57):
So when I was at UT you know, we had
pretty goo football teams, and like you said, it was like,
how do I figure out a way to make some money?
You know, I didn't come uh, you know from money,
so it was like how do I how do I
figure it out?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
So I had a lot of.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Friends of mine that played football, you know when I
first got there, A couple guys that had went to
my high school. Uh you know Montreal Flowers, Hodges, Mitchell,
you know, the different guys were on the team. So,
you know, had a relationship with a bunch of guys.
So we should just start a brainstow And I was
like he half, I started throwing parties you know after
the football games. That might be a way I can
make some money. So I started doing that. I want
to say, that's probably my junior year in college. I
(08:29):
started to do that and started did pretty well. You know,
we're winning games. You know, you get the football team there,
you get you know, crowd follows, you're able to make
some money. So that's kind of how I got uh.
I would say that was probably the very very initial
see that was planned in my agent career, right unknowingly
started developing a lot of relationship with a lot of
football players at Texas and uh, you know, kind of
(08:51):
just steamroll from there.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's funny because I think, like guessing, but at that time,
you weren't befriending them because you want to be a
sports agent. You were just it's just natural relationships.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Natural relationships. And then, like I said, just throwing the
events obviously, uh, you know you would meet more guys. Uh,
And again I knew a few guys on the team already,
so just more of a natural thing. And like I said,
I didn't even know the sports agent was at the time.
That didn't come until, you know, after I graduated undergrad
I wanted to go to law school, but I took
a couple of years off, started my own had a
small marketing business that I started while I was still
(09:22):
throwing the events, and one of my good friends at
the time. Jamal Charles was wrapping up school and heading
into the NFL at the time, and I met his agent,
Andrew Kessler. I met him uh in Austin at some
point and kind of yeah, you know, at that point,
I came and visited Jamal while he was training, uh
here in California for the draft, and met a couple
(09:44):
of other people here athletes. First, and Andrew offered me
an internship, and kind of one thing led to another,
and we're here today.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, and then you you left u T you took
a couple of years off, and then you did go
to law school.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Yeah, I'm sorry, I skilled that part.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, did you go to law school? At that we
actually going on.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
So I I was going to law school and then
I met that that spring before I started law school.
Actually is when I met Andrew, and I came out
here and I was California while Jamal's training got off
of the internship and as at that point is when
I started thinking like, hey man, this is something that
I might, you know, have some interest in. Obviously, I
was a huge football fan. I enjoyed sports growing up,
and I figured, hey, this is the way I could
(10:19):
use my law degree. You know, I plan on going
law school anyway, and I can use this law degree
and also stay involved in sports. So kind of seemed
like a win win to me.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yea at University of Nebraska.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I went to University of Nebraska law school.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So how do you how do you settle in University
of Nebraska.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Man, So I wanted to go to Texas. I took
the l SAT late in December, and Texas as a
rolling admission. They you know, that was back when in
eight I believe, is when kind of the economy crashed,
so everybody was coming to Texas and just you know,
as it was going to happen, I was probably gonna
get deferred to the next year. So I was like, now,
I don't want to wait. I want to go ahead
and go law school. So I looked up top one
(10:55):
hundred law school programs in Nebraska. Was at a time
they're in the tope hundred I can't remember the number,
the number of time, and they were still accepting applications.
And I talked to my brother and we were just like, hey,
man ite, somewhere we can go go to law school.
At the same time, somewhere we can actually focus. You know,
law school obviously is a grind somewhere that you don't
know a lot of people, somewhere you can really lock
in and get it done. So decided to go to
the university. Luckily, they had a good.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Football program at a time as well, so that didn't hurt.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
And uh yeah, man spent two and a half years there,
graduated a semester early, and you know, enjoyed my time
at aun L.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
So you wanted to go to a law school where
there wasn't a lot going on, and conversely I went
to Tulane in New Orleans.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
What there is a completely different I had heard a lot,
you know, a lot about law school, a lot of
stories about you know, how difficult it was, especially your
first you know, your one l year. So for me
it was like, okay, you know this, this makes sense
an somewhere I can apply to now and you know,
obviously I got in, So it worked out cool.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So you did, You came out, You met Jamal Charles,
met cass Andrew Kessler, who's going to be in a
podcast with you later about Jordan Love. You did two internships, right,
I did back to back summers and back.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Back Actually, oh no, no, No.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
So I did internship going into my first year of
law school, prior to my first year of law school,
and I always tell the story I did an internship
and it made me never want to be an agent
at the time, right, you know, I was getting lunch
orders and print this and buying this, and I was like,
hold on, this is not what I signed up for. Right,
So I did that internship before I started law school,
and then after my first year of law school, I
actually didn't do that, you know, I didn't come back
(12:21):
after my second year of law school.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I ended up doing the internship.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Spoke to Andrew Kesler, who again will be on the
podcast later or another date, but spoke to Kess and
he kind of told me if I come back, he
allowed me to shadow him and kind of get a
better feel for what being an agent was.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
So I came back.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
That was, like I said, after my second year law school,
and that's when I really knew, like, Okay, this is
something I do want to do.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
It just feels like Kessler is recruiting you at this
point where you don't even really want to be a
sports agent, and he's like, no, you need to come
back and try this.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Again, yeah, I would say Keats probably saw saw something
to me before I did. As far as the industry, right,
And again I didn't know much about the industry, but
you know, you know I've talked to Kess about that
since and he was just like, hey, you know, your
ability to kind of to people that come from different
backgrounds and just kind of those relationships you had. He
felt like it was, you know, it's a business, I
could be successful. And so I would have to say
he was. You know, it turned out that you know,
(13:08):
he gave me some good advice there.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah, Bentley and I for talent.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, I'll say this right because David talked about how
unique you know, he wanted to go to Texas to
be unique or different whatnot. And like David is taking
a completely different path to start them than most people.
And I, like you say, talk about the first year internship,
Like I'll say, like, you know, David's maybe the best
football agent ever, but he might have been one of
our worst interns ever that first year. And it's because
(13:32):
he didn't want to go get lunches, he didn't want
to clean the fridge, he didn't want to do all
those things that you know we want in terms to
do to like prove themselves right and like say, hey,
you're going to do whatever it takes to be successful
and this is part of the pecking quarter. But you
were kind of against that. And why was that?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Well, I think again, when I first got here, I
never really want to be an agent. I had no intention.
So I think you know now that I look back
at it, a lot of times when you're intern and
it's like, hey, you.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Have a goal in mind, like, hey, I really want
to be.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
An agent, So I'm willing to do A, B and
C to become an agent, right, and you understand you
have to put in the work. For me, it was like, okay,
I'm gonna come here and see what it's like, and
I don't like it, right what I want to do.
I didn't really see the you know, the light at
the end of the tunnel, right, So I think for
me that's probably what it was.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
It was just it wasn't something I was really interested
in that time.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
It was more something I was doing because you know,
somebody gave me the opportunity, and you know, I want
to kind of test it out.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
So I think that was probably what it was.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Well, yeah, you did two two internships. He did the
first one and it wasn't didn't go great. The second one,
you catch took you on his wing. It did well.
You had some fun with other interns, and then, uh,
you know, you wanted to come back. We wanted to
have you come back, and I offered your job. Do
you remember what that job offer was?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Man, I think you wrote it on a napkin after
I asked for a job. I'm not sure if you
wipe your mouth with that napping or not.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You know, I do eat a lot.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
I don't remember, but uh, yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
I mean, you know, coming out of law school, you
always go to law school and any you know, you
go to law school, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
You know, when you have higher education, you assume I'm
gonna come out, I'm gonna make a good amount of money.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
And that wasn't the case, unfort to it, right, Yeah,
I was coming out of law school. I think some
you know, you know, people that were graduating alongside of
me were coming out making you know, one hundred and
twenty one hundred, fifty thousand dollars at the time, and
I think the offer is like fifty thousand, yep, And
with a ten thousand dollar bonus if you signed the
first round pick or something like that. So yeah, it
(15:18):
wasn't you know, what I was hoping for, I guess
when I started law school. But at the same time,
by then, I had realized it's something I do want
to do, and I felt like I was gonna be successful.
So I wasn't really worried about kind of what the
initial starting pay was because I knew where I would
be in a few years. I had, you know, had
that faith and believe in myself that I could do it.
What year was that That would have been two thousand
the end of twenty ten is when I graduated law school,
(15:39):
so somewhere in there into twenty ten, early twenty eleven.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
So fourteen years ago, you're making fifty thousand dollars. You know,
if you ever got a first round pick, you give
you a ten thousand dollars on us, right, I.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Got a lot of first round picks since then.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah. Yeah, we won't go into how much we have
to pay him today. But like the the you know
ag we talked about the salary cap and like going
from Drew Bloodsloe to you know, Dak Prescott and everything like,
if you started David to David, it was it's it's
been pretty impressive and we'll get into that. But a
j why don't you tell us a little bit why
we have to pay David so much money nowadays?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So, I mean, David's success in the industry has been
documented pretty much everywhere in sports media, right, But to
look at just his record breaking deals that he's done
in his career, from Earl Thomas to Collecci, Jossemile, Jordan Loved,
Deshaun Watson, who we're going to talk about today, Jalen Ramsey,
Derwin James, Jalen Twice. I know there's more of them.
(16:30):
I'll just forget. Michael Thomas is another one.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Bobby Wagner, Buddha Baker, Durwin, James.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Or we could go down the list.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So we could do a whole podcast all these record
breaking deals, right, But he's also got twenty five first
rounders he's represented in the last twelve years, So you
can see where it's just these good players year over
year that are signing with David because of his expertise
and because of the relationship that he builds with these
guys coming out. He was also voted, not voted. He
was the number one sports agent on the Forbes list
(17:02):
in twenty twenty, so the most powerful agent in the
NFL in twenty twenty. I know that's the first time
that an African American had held that title and maybe
the youngest as well.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Is that what it was?
Speaker 4 (17:12):
For sure the youngest as well. So my mom was proud.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I always tell people that she should was the most
important thing of that one. You know, got to take
it home. And mom saw it, and they were always
a little doubtful about the business, right, like, what do
you mean you're being a sports agent?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
You know, they didn't really know what it meant.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
So I think that was kind of the first time
they saw it and like, oh, okay, I guess you
are doing okay.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, and we're here to talk about quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
But if we were to ever do a safety podcast,
we'd probably do nine of the ten episodes would all
be with David because he currently has five of the
top six highest paid safeties in the in the NFL
are all represented by David right now, so he's cornered
the market there, and in twenty twenty four alone, he
negotiated over one billion dollars in NFL contracts, unheard of,
(17:54):
never been done before by a single agent, and that's
the first time it's ever been done.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Never been done before by probably ninety percent of the agencies, right,
I mean, like you take the two or three top agent,
I mean you talked to like agencies number six, like
they've done it. They done a billion dollar deals. So
David did that led those negotiates. Someone say, that's mind boggling,
And I think, would you tell me about that, David, Like,
what was your goal when you started?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Man?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
My goal when I started was just to be able
to create, you know, sustain a job and be able
to take care of myself. And obviously at some point
my goal has always been, you know, retired my parents.
I think for me that was kind of always a
driving force, just seeing everything they had done for us
and the work they put into it, you know, and
maybe not being paid what they should have been being paid,
you know, with everything they put into it. So for me,
(18:38):
it was like, you know, you know, that was my
light at the end of the tunnel. My why was
you know, putting my parents in a situation where they consider,
you know, sit back and relax and kind of enjoy.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
You know, their their kids, their grandkids.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
And you know when I got to that point is
when I really felt like, Okay, yeah this this has
worked out.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah. No, I mean it's ag as you can. I mean,
if you've been in the business a long time, I've
been along twenty four years, Like I've never seen anything
like David, anyone like David, or a career like David. Right,
I mean you think about like he started fourteen years ago,
what like as a as an intern making I mean
as a first ye associate making fifty thousand dollars a year.
You had no idea he'd ever had a first rounder.
And then what he's done and how he's done it
(19:15):
is and that's when we get into a little bit
like how he's done it is more impressive to me
than what he's done. And again, we have agents out
there where have no no integrity, you know, we'll cheat
what and they haven't got to that level. David did
this with a complete integrity, buying into the team, you know,
supporting the team and always putting his family first and
then also porty athletes first first. Like it's been it's
(19:37):
been remarkable. So it's uh, do you ever sit back
and think about.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
It, got and that, and that's funny, man, I have
that conversation with you know, a lot of friends all
the time. In this business, you don't really have time
to sit back and enjoy it, right, because it's literally,
you know, it never ends, right. It's an ever flowing business,
and you don't really appreciate the wins. You only feel
the losses. I always tell people, right, because if you're recruiting,
you know, a player, his family, and at some point,
(20:01):
you know you're talking to the player in the family
so much, you know, they become a part of your
you know, you know, uh, extended family, and so when
you sign them, it's like, okay, that that's an expectation.
Like I've been dealing with this player family like they're
part of my extended family for a.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Year or two years.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
Uh, you know, it's kind of becomes, you know, kind
of an expectation. I think it's the ones that you
miss out on that really bother you. Therefore, there's no
real time for you to kind of wait and kind
of smell the roses. As they say, I guess yep.
But you know, it's an interesting industry. But I've been blessed.
I've been lucky. I work with a lot of good
families and clients obviously, and you know they're really the
(20:37):
reason why, you know, I've been able to be so successful.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And I you know, obviously we're not can get into
private contract details and now your conversation whatnot. But I
will say we've done four or five employment contracts together,
and every single time, including the at the beginning when
you said you take ten thousand dollars for different like
every time you have said I don't want the guaranteed money.
I don't want, you know, I just want to bet
them myself. Just let me better yourself. At one point
(21:02):
I had offraje equity in the company, like, hey, Murph,
I don't know if that equery is worth anything. I know,
I after that upon you for that, I want to
lie upon myself. Now you an equity partner and we're
very proud of that. But what I mean, why do
you what convinced you just keep betting on yourself and
you want to be bet He did much better this
and he did he gave Vegas Like what like what?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
What? Uh?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
What? Why did you do that?
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Man?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I think for me, I always had the mindset that
if you're successful in something, you're going to always wish
you would have better on yourself.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Right. But if you you know, if.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
You don't bet on yourself and you don't do well,
you're not You're gonna be out of a job anyway, right,
So you know, taking a little bit guaranteed money or
taking what.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
You feel like it is a safe bet.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Yeah, it lasts only for so long and then you're
going to be you know, if you know, if you
don't produce, you're gonna be out of the door. So for me,
it was like, I know I am going to produce,
and if that's the case, then it's always going to
be best to better my on myself and only that.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
But it keeps you hungry, right.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
I didn't ever want to get to a place of
being complacent because I knew there was guaranteed this or
I knew I was going to have this. For me,
it was always he's staying hungry and the competition part
of it. Honestly, man, I don't even think you know,
at this point, I've been blessed you know over the
years that it's not really about the money anymore. You know,
it's more about the competition. Now, Uh, you know, I
want to be the best. You know, I want to
(22:13):
represent the best. I want to get my guys the
best contracts. So everything is about being the best. It's
no longer a financial decision for me. And I'm lucky
to be able to say that. But for me, it's
like I said, every year, you know, I want my
clients to be able to look at me and say, hey,
you know, obviously I'm lucky to work with the guys
I work with, but I also want the guys I
work with to be like, hey, I'm excited that I
work with David right because I know he's going to
(22:34):
maximize every opportunity that comes across table for me, whether
you know it's on the field, off the field, contracts,
whatever it may be. So for me, it's it's a
competition part about it. It's about trying to be the
best at this point. And that's why you know, I'm
always bet on myself.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah I know. I mean. Another future podcast could bring
Equity partner Todd Franston, who's also been ranked Forbes number
one and the best, and I know when we talked
about bringing him, it was very important to us that
you were okay with that. And I remember you saying like,
I want my I want the team to be the best, right,
you know, I want to win championship at team champions
But I also like he'll be working with him, will
(23:11):
push you to be better. And I think you've enjoyed
working with Todd and you guys have that competition, but
it's worked out well.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
No, for sure, Man, Todd is somebody that I always
looked at, you know, in the industry. Uh, you know,
there are always a few guys you look at and
you're always like, Man, you know, I wonder you know
what drives him, you know what, you know, what causes
him to work so hard? Especially Todd's done phenomenal he
I'm sure he doesn't do it for the money anymore either,
you know, he's he's done.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Really well for himself.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
So just being around other guys like that, iron sharpens iron,
you know, picking his brain on how he kind of
looks at things, how he you know, when he talks
to teams, you know what what indicators as he used
to know whether he's gonna, you know, negotiate this way
or that whatever it may be.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Right. So for me, I'm constantly learning.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
I hope to think, you know, I like to think
that he does the same with me and obviously the
other agency at Athletes Firsts as well. But for for me,
like I said, I think at the end of the day,
it honestly just comes down to the to the competition
at this point in my career and wanting to work
with the best and kind of do the best contracts.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Now we could go. I mean, there's I have a
thousand stories we get into with David, mostly good, you know,
some funny, but it's the quarterback series, so we want
to talk about the quarterbacks. And David, one thing I
give you mad props for is you were, even at
a younger age, you're always very strategic, like you were
always very deliberate in port posseful and how are you
going to build this dynasty of yours? And I remember
at one point you saying, listen, I can't be Forbes
(24:27):
number one if I don't represent quarterbacks. Do you remember?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Do you remember? That's for sure? Now that's that's super important.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
I mean, if you look historically at the guys that
are considered, you know, the best agents in the business
or the most powerful agent. However you want to kind
of you know, create that rank, and it's always guys
that have had quarterbacks and that work with the quarterbacks.
And it makes sense, right because quarterbacks are kind of
the face of teams a m B. They get paid
the most, right, so you know you're going to have
to work with those guys if you want to consider
yourself on the mount rushmore of the business. So for me,
(24:56):
that was super important. And when I first got in
the business, unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of African American
agents that were representing quarterbacks. You know, I can't, I don't.
I could be wrong, but I think I don't know
that it was a an African American agent that had
more than one first round pick, you know, ever at quarterback, right,
So for me it was important and I need to
be a challenge because again you know, it's not the
norm quarterbacks kind of you know signed with. There was
(25:18):
a certain few of agents that all the quarterbacks signed with,
so that was super important. And you know, over the years,
I've been super lucky.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
My first quarterback actually was Brandon Bridge from South Alabama
who gave me the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Great kid. I still talk to him to this day.
Toronto yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
He told me the other day he's gonna name his
first son after me. So I'm waiting to see if
he does it or not. But Brandon is my guy.
But yeah, man, you know, he gave me an opportunity.
And then the quarterback is my second quarterback who really
was a guy that's a household name, you know, obviously
Deshaun Watson, who's coming out of Clemson. Uh, and he
was a big time recruit, you know, you know, at
the time, arguably the best player in the country. And
(25:57):
met him a few times, and you know that was
my know for me, it was like, man, this is
a guy that you know, I get along with. It's
a guy that I think is gonna be an elite player,
comes from a phenomenal family. And he was really the
first quarterback. They gave me an opportunity and that kind
of allowed me then to kind of continue to work
with quarterbacks. And at this point, now, man, you know
had had a few guys.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
You knows, you skipped over a little bit, like Deshaun
Watson wasn't just a very good call. I mean, tell
us about what DeShawn did in college.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, I mean, he was he was only a starter
for the two full seasons. He's a Heisman finalist both
of those years, he's an All American. And then his
final season of college football, he goes onto. At the time,
Alabama was kind of a juggernaut.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
He goes on to beat them in the National Championship
in Tampa, Florida. And you're not allowed to sign a
college player until he's done playing college football, right, So
you know, I know you had been recruiting him leading
up to that, but then when do you actually sign
to Shawn?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
So DeShawn was interesting, Actually he was. I would say,
he's the one guy that I don't see. I didn't
think I was going to sign to Seawan, right. I
met him prior to the season and had some dialogue
with him and he kind of went ghost.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Let me jump in for sec. Just to set the
tone for listeners, like you said that we had there's
some super agents out there who kind of represent all
the quarterbacks, right, I mean you had a Tom Conn
and you had Dave done right, you had least time
bring in the past, and you know they they represent
most of the quarterbacks. And you had one quarterback who
was a great guy, but he wasn't the first round pick, right,
and so like, and you're relatively young in the business
(27:25):
as well. And so when you said that you're recruiting
Deshaun Watson, that's awesome. He's the best player in college
football right now. I just want you to like, good
luck to you that if you get him as great
and we'll support you anyway we can. But that was like,
that was not like as you sit here now, any
quarterback in the league should want to sign with you, right,
they should be calling you. But back then, it was
that was an uphill back I mean a huge uphill
(27:47):
battle for sure. So I just want to set the
scene a little bit now.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
For sure, Like I said, it was, you know, it
was the first time I had went after a quarterback
that was as highly you know ranked, or you know
was you know, like you said, he was a face
of college football at the time, right. So, uh spoke
to him a few times prior to the season, and
Deshaun kind of locked in during the season.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Uh, And you know, you know, I didn't know that.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I just thought he obviously didn't like me, right because
he because he stopped texting me back the whole season.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
But uh, I get a text from him.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Who was that probably a week about four or five
days before the National Championship game, and he had probably
replied to two or three of my texts during the season,
so I don't want to say he didn't hit me
back at all. So I probably had text back and
forth him twice over a six month period, and uh,
he asked me, was I come into the National Championship game?
And I was like, Uh, it's sure if you're you know,
(28:35):
if you're inviting me, He's like, yeah, shouldn't just to
prove it, but yeah, he was like, you know, you
know he should come. So I was like, oh, yeah,
for sure, I'm there then, right, so, you know, I
hurried and book a flight to jump on a flight.
I get there, and then after the game, you know,
the obviously they beat Alabama.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
He's the MVP of the game.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
You know, I'm sure it was one of the highlights
of his career, right, you know, winning National championship for Clemson.
And you know, I'm sitting after the game wondering should
I text him, should I wait? Obviously big moment for him.
I don't want to kind of interfere with you know,
I'm sure he has family time going on. So he
texted me to ask me to come up to the
room and I get up to the room and it's
him and his mom and his aunt, you know, his
(29:11):
family sitting around and I walk in. I'm like, hey,
how you doing. You know, I go to introduce myself
and he says, hey, this is David. It's my agent,
and I'm just as shocked as everybody else in the world.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Oh, so again, it's a moment I'll never forget, you know.
And he gave me that opportunity. Uh, he was the
first person give me that opportunity, and you know, I
don't I don't know that he knows even how much
it means to me, you know, being given the opportunity,
it was huge, and you know it's led to other
quarterbacks and you know, uh now it's been awesome.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
It was.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It was probably one of the best decisions he made.
I mean, you've done a phenomenal job with him. But
like at the time, did he explain why.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Well, yeah, he told me he knew after, you know,
after we you know, spoke a couple of times before
the season started that he wants to go with me.
But you know, in his mind, he didn't just he
didn't think to tell me that. And you know, he
wanted to lock in on the season. He was focused,
you know, he the prior year, Uh, you know, they
had got pretty far.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
I forgot who they beat. I think they might be.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I think they had lost to Alabama in the National Chamber.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Yea, so they had gotten forear and lost to Obama
in that championship. So I think for him, he was
all in on football and kind of that was his focus.
And we sometimes we lose track as agents, Like players
have a million things going on, right, They're not always
thinking about who my representation is going to be so
far away for them. So for him, he's like, yeah,
this is who I'm going with. But in his mind is like,
how do I know? I need to lock in and
make sure I give my all the Clemson And that's
(30:28):
what he was doing, and you know he thought, you know,
he looking back at it, he's like, oh, yeah, I
probably should have let you know, Yeah, that would have
been helpful. That would have you know, saved some heartache
a little bit there season, right, But no, that was awesome.
Like I said, I mean, I can never you know,
repay him for the opportunity and Uh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Well that decision changed your life for sure, and then
having you as his agent has changed his life, as
we're going to get into the next episode, and it's
been a great relationship. So David, one thing we do
at the end of every episode, we just kind of
talk about what we learned through the episode. And I
usually go first because Aja takes a little bit longer
to think about it. Then you last. Yeah, you get one.
But you know, I just I'm you know, I don't
(31:04):
want to get emotional on this, but I will like
what I've learned, and I've learned from working with you
for a long time, and I'm a lot older than you,
but just watching you in the way you do things
like my lesson learned. Again, just listen to you here
talking like you have such an unbelievable belief in yourself.
And I think it's probably comes from your parents when
you're younger, and you just have a you have integrity,
(31:24):
and you have a purpose and and and you march
towards that purpose. And I think the lesson I've learned
is like, hey, in life, if we want to reach
the top of our profession, top of our family, be
the best dad we can be the best husband we can.
Like you just have to walk straight in the arrow
and never veer from who you are. And that's one
thing I said in an article before, Like David is
(31:46):
David everywhere he is. Sometimes I wish you weren't sometimes
like David is always David, and you always know what
you're going to get and you don't have to guess
what he's thinking. You don't have to. Did he really
mean that? Like you were who you are, and you
found out who you are at such a young agent.
I've seen a change over the years and develop Like
you said, maybe you get wired for people sometimes, but
(32:06):
like I am so impressed with just that you've always
known who you are, you never changed no matter what.
And your dedication to your family, to your clients, to
your children now it's just it's second to none, and
it's awesome. And I've told you many times I couldn't
be more grateful to you, but also proud of you
(32:26):
and happy for you that you've created life you have,
which is good for sure. So that's so less you've
talking me over the last fifteen years and again today,
So I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Man.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
I'm gonna get a little less sentimental. I'm gonna say,
talk about the numbers, how much mony you because.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
You work with Yeah, I don't think I believe like
I don't think I necessarily believe in destiny, but I
think you are destined to do this job, like to
the point where you didn't want it multiple times, Like
you say, when you were in school, like didn't know
what a sports agent was, wasn't interested in it. You
got introduced to the one of the biggest sports agencies
in the NFL, and you didn't like it. You went
(33:02):
back to law school, didn't think about doing it the
next summer, and then it had. It took them another
time of saying, hey, David, come do this for then
you finally, you know, kind of opened your eyes to it,
like Okay, maybe I'll do this. You didn't seem real
interested in it. It almost feels like you were destined
to do it, and then once you actually applied yourself
to it, it was, you know, to the moon from there,
well and.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
This never thought of it like this. Actually that's a
pretty pretty cool way to think about it.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah, And I would also say, like this industry needed
David moligheto we needed more African American agents and people
who can work at quarterbacks, and I think that, uh,
there was a great need for someone like you did
these the right way, and you know, you've changed our industry, right,
it's not just your life, you changed your industry. So
it's uh, it's amazing. We'll get into some stories I
(33:45):
remember our raiders meaning about Kellite, but like you know,
we'll get to those stories later. But what what about you?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
No, I think agree with what you just said, right,
h You know a lot of times about representation, and
for me, there was not a lot of representation coming
into the business, and you know, that's probably why I
didn't want to do it, because I had never seen
people like me do it. And like you said, I
think since then, and obviously I won't take credit for
it myself myself, and there's been some other really good
African American agents since since then. Now you see there
(34:12):
are a lot more African American agents that are doing
a phenomenal job in the business as well. So now
I'm proud to be one of those. You know, I
don't want to I don't even want to say early guys, right,
because you have guys like Eugene Parker who kind of
got the godfather of being an agent for African Americans.
But you know, want to you know, in this era,
like you know, one of the guys that I think
have made it, you know something where other people have
looked and said, hey, you know, I see people that
(34:33):
look like me doing it.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
So I'm happy to be part of that group.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
So now I'm you know, I could not be more
appreciative of if you guys give me the opportunity coming
out of college.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
No, man, you know I love what I do.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Well, I'm sure your parents are still very proud of you.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Yeah, for sure, and that's most important.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We're going to come back next episode. We're gonna bring
David back and we're going to talk about the contracts
he's negotiated with to Shaun Watson and you know, and
some of those record breaking deals that he's done and
and uh, we look forward to it. So thinks David,
we appreciate it. Good luck with the autograph seekers on
the way out. We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Doubt
David's success in the industry has been documented pretty much
everywhere in sports media right to look at just his
record breaking deals that he's done in his career, from
Earl Thomas to Collecciosemile, Jordan Love, Deshaun Watson, who we're
going to talk about today, Jalen Ramsey, Derwin, James Jalen twice,
so Thomas is another one.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Bobby Wagner, Buddha Baker, Durwin, James Winfield Junior.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
We go down the list, so we could do a
whole podcast all these record breaking deals, right.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back to episode seven of The Athletes First Family podcast,
the Quarterback Series. I am Athletes First CEO Brian Murphy,
joined once again by my co host AJ Stevens. Arguably
one of the best negotiators in the business, but David
probably would disagree with that.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Welcome back, Aj, Thanks Murph, happy to be back on
this podcast. We discuss athletes First success in representing quarterbacks
in the NFL. We currently have one point four billion
dollars of quarterback deals on our books. On today's episode,
we have have the agent who represents two of those players,
Deshaun Watson and Jordan Love.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Davi Mogeta happy to be here, yep.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Athletes first equity partner David Mulligeta legend as we're going
to get into but thanks for joining us, David. It
was tough getting into the office table all your fans
outside blocking block and stuff. But uh yeah, so we're
gonna we're gonna jump into you know, your journey from
where you grew up to super agent. I want to
start with no superport. You tell us about your current family,
your wife, kids.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I am married.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
I have a beautiful wife, Sandra Mulighetta, and we have
three lovely kids, DJ, Dallas and Davin.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
So yeah, family man here yep.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's one of the things that I'm most impressed about
to you is that you've become the best at what
you do without sacrificing the family at all. And the
family has always been first to you and that's super impressive.
But let's go back to the beginning. Like, tell us
about your childhood. Where did you grow up and what
was that family?
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Like, Yeah, I grew up in Dallas, Texas. Both my
parents were immigrants from a small country in East Africa, Eritrea,
and they migrated here or immigrated here in late in
the late seventies. My older brother me and I was
born in Rome, Italy. Actually in his first couple of
years of life were spent in Rome, and they moved
(02:14):
to the States about nineteen seventy nine or nineteen eighty
somewhere there. I was born shortly thereafter in Dallas, Texas.
I have a younger brother, Abel, and a younger sister
in Niat, and I'm probably the dumb one of the group,
to be honest with you. My older brother, you know,
it was kind of, you know, the guy that set
the standard in our household, right. Both my parents never
(02:36):
even graduated, you know, never got past elementary school, let
alone going to college. So my older brother kind of
was the standard bearer. And he graduated high school obviously,
and went on to Texas and M University got his
undergrad and engineering, I believe, and then went on to
SMU where he got his NBA and kind of set
(02:58):
the standard for myself, kind of had somebodyok, you know,
look at us, like, Okay, this is kind of what
I need to do. And then my younger brother graduate
from University of Texas Austin where I went, and then
he got his a lot you know, his j D
from SMU as well. And my little sister, who I
think would be this, we consider her the smarty pants
of the family. Uh, the true standard bear. I would say,
(03:19):
you know, she did her undergrad at Harvard University and
uh we just graduated h with her MBA from Stanford.
So yeah, man, So tough U. Tough group there. Yeah no,
but I'm ranked number four OAT of the groups.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I agree with that.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Number two in this group.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Sy's fine, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, But so David, tell me about that. So your
parents came over and they didn't they didn't they didn't
go to high school, whatnot. And how how did they
influence you all to be so successful academically?
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I think for them, you know, coming from UH at
the time war torn country and you know, having to do, uh,
you know, a lot just to make it to the
United States, Right, for them, it was like, hey, you know,
we've we've done all these things to put you guys
in the position to be successful at least have a
shot at being successful.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And you know, it was always great having a mom
and dad.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
At home obviously, and just you know, seeing you know,
the work that they put in on a day to
day uh. You know, my dad had two jobs us
growing up. My mom you know, she used to clean homes.
So just kind of seeing everything that they put into it.
And it was always about us, always about the family.
I think it was just the for us. You know,
the expectation was that we took advantage of everything, you know,
the opportunity that we had being here in the States.
(04:32):
And like I said once, my brother, my older brother,
kind of set that standard of you know what that
looked like.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
You know, for us, it was you know, it was
easy to follow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, And did you enjoy school or did you feel
like there's something you wanted to do and you want
to do well make them proud.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
I think it was more of the latter, Right. I
was good at school. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it,
you know, like most kids. You know, I enjoyed going
to school, you know, being around friends. But as far
as the learning aspect of it, you know, I have
a I say I had a really good memory where
I would read something once and I could remember it.
So I was left in that way where maybe I
wasn't super passionate about school. But luckily, you know, for
(05:04):
whatever reason. I was good at school, so I was
able to maintain good grades. You know, had my had
my screw ups like you know, most kids, but I
was able to find a way to make it, you know,
through that and and you know, graduate and you know,
I went to University of Texas at Austin, which I
think kind of for me, it was a dream to
go there. It be in the flagship, you know, university
in the state of Texas. But also I was you know,
(05:25):
I always want to do something, even though I looked
at my brother as a role model, and I always
wanted to kind of follow in his footsteps in ways.
You know, when he went to a and M I
was like, I gotta go to Texas. You know, I
want to do kind of the opposite in that manner.
So he was Aggie and I was a Longhorn. So
that was pretty cool, and you know, we still have
our battles to this day.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You wanted to be unique, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
I want to be a little different. I want to
kind of, you know, in a way, have my own road.
So yeah, I want to be University of Texas.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That does not surprise me at all. But did you
play sports? And AJ claimed to be a three sport
athlete before.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
But I was okay, Yeah, I played a few sports
in high school. Unfortunately, you know, didn't get too far.
You know, I played baseball. I mean I even wrestled,
and I wrestled at one hundred and three pounds my
freshman year in high school.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Wow. Yeah, man, it's crazy. You know.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
I didn't hit my growth spurt unfortunately until after my
junior year. I was about five six, one hundred twenty
pounds until my junior year of high school.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
In the summer after my junior high school, I sprung
up to six foot and you know about one forty
five to fifty which is not huge, but where else
coming from? You know, in about four month period. You know,
gaining six inches was cool. But I was never big
enough at the time to play football.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
You know. I loved football.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Grew up in you know, Dallas in the nineties, the
Troit ah Man Michael Smith, Irvin Era where were winning
Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
So I was always a football fan, yep.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
But physically that just wasn't a place you know, I
could fit on the football field. So never played football.
But oh yeah, you know I was definitely you know,
I played sports growing.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Up awesome, And so you went to UT you loved it, Oh, yeah,
for sure. And when you went to UT, like did
you go there, like did you know at that point
you want to be a sports agent or you had
no idea?
Speaker 4 (06:56):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I didn't even know what a sport agent sports agent
was at the time. And I went to UT. And
again going back to my parents being immigrants, you know,
all they knew was doctor, lawyer, engineer, So like, pick
one of those three. We know those you know they
get paid well, right, you guys canna be successful. So
I was scared of blood, so I wasn't going to
do the doctor out.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
So, you know, and I was a little I won't
say a little bit. I enjoyed talking.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
I was a little aquacious as a kid, so I thought, hey,
you know, I feel like I could be a lawyer.
They do a lot of talking, so that was kind
of my mindset. I wanted to be a lawyer. But
universitys had a really good business school, so I want
to get into business school. So I actually was a
I went to University Texas and I majored in business
my BBA from there. But yeah, no, at no point
did I ever think about being a sports agent. That
(07:42):
didn't come along till you know, toward I would say,
probably the back end of my college career.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And then when you were in college, like you know,
you said you saw both parents work hard, you know,
do everything that could to make some money. Like did
you do some work in college? Like how did you
make some money?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah? Man?
Speaker 5 (07:57):
So when I was at UT you know, we had
pretty goo football teams, and like you said, it was like,
how do I figure out a way to make some money?
You know, I didn't come uh, you know from money,
so it was like how do I how do I
figure it out?
Speaker 4 (08:07):
So I had a lot of.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Friends of mine that played football, you know when I
first got there, A couple guys that had went to
my high school. Uh you know Montreal Flowers, Hodges, Mitchell,
you know, the different guys were on the team. So,
you know, had a relationship with a bunch of guys.
So we should just start a brainstow And I was
like he half, I started throwing parties you know after
the football games. That might be a way I can
make some money. So I started doing that. I want
to say, that's probably my junior year in college. I
(08:29):
started to do that and started did pretty well. You know,
we're winning games. You know, you get the football team there,
you get you know, crowd follows, you're able to make
some money. So that's kind of how I got uh.
I would say that was probably the very very initial
see that was planned in my agent career, right unknowingly
started developing a lot of relationship with a lot of
football players at Texas and uh, you know, kind of
(08:51):
just steamroll from there.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's funny because I think, like guessing, but at that time,
you weren't befriending them because you want to be a
sports agent. You were just it's just natural relationships.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Natural relationships. And then, like I said, just throwing the
events obviously, uh, you know you would meet more guys. Uh,
And again I knew a few guys on the team already,
so just more of a natural thing. And like I said,
I didn't even know the sports agent was at the time.
That didn't come until, you know, after I graduated undergrad
I wanted to go to law school, but I took
a couple of years off, started my own had a
small marketing business that I started while I was still
(09:22):
throwing the events, and one of my good friends at
the time. Jamal Charles was wrapping up school and heading
into the NFL at the time, and I met his agent,
Andrew Kessler. I met him uh in Austin at some
point and kind of yeah, you know, at that point,
I came and visited Jamal while he was training, uh
here in California for the draft, and met a couple
(09:44):
of other people here athletes. First, and Andrew offered me
an internship, and kind of one thing led to another,
and we're here today.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, and then you you left u T you took
a couple of years off, and then you did go
to law school.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Yeah, I'm sorry, I skilled that part.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, did you go to law school? At that we
actually going on.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
So I I was going to law school and then
I met that that spring before I started law school.
Actually is when I met Andrew, and I came out
here and I was California while Jamal's training got off
of the internship and as at that point is when
I started thinking like, hey man, this is something that
I might, you know, have some interest in. Obviously, I
was a huge football fan. I enjoyed sports growing up,
and I figured, hey, this is the way I could
(10:19):
use my law degree. You know, I plan on going
law school anyway, and I can use this law degree
and also stay involved in sports. So kind of seemed
like a win win to me.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yea at University of Nebraska.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I went to University of Nebraska law school.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So how do you how do you settle in University
of Nebraska.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Man, So I wanted to go to Texas. I took
the l SAT late in December, and Texas as a
rolling admission. They you know, that was back when in
eight I believe, is when kind of the economy crashed,
so everybody was coming to Texas and just you know,
as it was going to happen, I was probably gonna
get deferred to the next year. So I was like, now,
I don't want to wait. I want to go ahead
and go law school. So I looked up top one
(10:55):
hundred law school programs in Nebraska. Was at a time
they're in the tope hundred I can't remember the number,
the number of time, and they were still accepting applications.
And I talked to my brother and we were just like, hey,
man ite, somewhere we can go go to law school.
At the same time, somewhere we can actually focus. You know,
law school obviously is a grind somewhere that you don't
know a lot of people, somewhere you can really lock
in and get it done. So decided to go to
the university. Luckily, they had a good.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Football program at a time as well, so that didn't hurt.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
And uh yeah, man spent two and a half years there,
graduated a semester early, and you know, enjoyed my time
at aun L.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
So you wanted to go to a law school where
there wasn't a lot going on, and conversely I went
to Tulane in New Orleans.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
What there is a completely different I had heard a lot,
you know, a lot about law school, a lot of
stories about you know, how difficult it was, especially your
first you know, your one l year. So for me
it was like, okay, you know this, this makes sense
an somewhere I can apply to now and you know,
obviously I got in, So it worked out cool.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So you did, You came out, You met Jamal Charles,
met cass Andrew Kessler, who's going to be in a
podcast with you later about Jordan Love. You did two internships, right,
I did back to back summers and back.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Back Actually, oh no, no, No.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
So I did internship going into my first year of
law school, prior to my first year of law school,
and I always tell the story I did an internship
and it made me never want to be an agent
at the time, right, you know, I was getting lunch
orders and print this and buying this, and I was like,
hold on, this is not what I signed up for. Right,
So I did that internship before I started law school,
and then after my first year of law school, I
actually didn't do that, you know, I didn't come back
(12:21):
after my second year of law school.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I ended up doing the internship.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Spoke to Andrew Kesler, who again will be on the
podcast later or another date, but spoke to Kess and
he kind of told me if I come back, he
allowed me to shadow him and kind of get a
better feel for what being an agent was.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
So I came back.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
That was, like I said, after my second year law school,
and that's when I really knew, like, Okay, this is
something I do want to do.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
It just feels like Kessler is recruiting you at this
point where you don't even really want to be a
sports agent, and he's like, no, you need to come
back and try this.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Again, yeah, I would say Keats probably saw saw something
to me before I did. As far as the industry, right,
And again I didn't know much about the industry, but
you know, you know I've talked to Kess about that
since and he was just like, hey, you know, your
ability to kind of to people that come from different
backgrounds and just kind of those relationships you had. He
felt like it was, you know, it's a business, I
could be successful. And so I would have to say
he was. You know, it turned out that you know,
(13:08):
he gave me some good advice there.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah, Bentley and I for talent.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, I'll say this right because David talked about how
unique you know, he wanted to go to Texas to
be unique or different whatnot. And like David is taking
a completely different path to start them than most people.
And I, like you say, talk about the first year internship,
Like I'll say, like, you know, David's maybe the best
football agent ever, but he might have been one of
our worst interns ever that first year. And it's because
(13:32):
he didn't want to go get lunches, he didn't want
to clean the fridge, he didn't want to do all
those things that you know we want in terms to
do to like prove themselves right and like say, hey,
you're going to do whatever it takes to be successful
and this is part of the pecking quarter. But you
were kind of against that. And why was that?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Well, I think again, when I first got here, I
never really want to be an agent. I had no intention.
So I think you know now that I look back
at it, a lot of times when you're intern and
it's like, hey, you.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Have a goal in mind, like, hey, I really want
to be.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
An agent, So I'm willing to do A, B and
C to become an agent, right, and you understand you
have to put in the work. For me, it was like, okay,
I'm gonna come here and see what it's like, and
I don't like it, right what I want to do.
I didn't really see the you know, the light at
the end of the tunnel, right, So I think for
me that's probably what it was.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
It was just it wasn't something I was really interested
in that time.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
It was more something I was doing because you know,
somebody gave me the opportunity, and you know, I want
to kind of test it out.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
So I think that was probably what it was.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Well, yeah, you did two two internships. He did the
first one and it wasn't didn't go great. The second one,
you catch took you on his wing. It did well.
You had some fun with other interns, and then, uh,
you know, you wanted to come back. We wanted to
have you come back, and I offered your job. Do
you remember what that job offer was?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Man, I think you wrote it on a napkin after
I asked for a job. I'm not sure if you
wipe your mouth with that napping or not.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You know, I do eat a lot.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
I don't remember, but uh, yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
I mean, you know, coming out of law school, you
always go to law school and any you know, you
go to law school, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
You know, when you have higher education, you assume I'm
gonna come out, I'm gonna make a good amount of money.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
And that wasn't the case, unfort to it, right, Yeah,
I was coming out of law school. I think some
you know, you know, people that were graduating alongside of
me were coming out making you know, one hundred and
twenty one hundred, fifty thousand dollars at the time, and
I think the offer is like fifty thousand, yep, And
with a ten thousand dollar bonus if you signed the
first round pick or something like that. So yeah, it
(15:18):
wasn't you know, what I was hoping for, I guess
when I started law school. But at the same time,
by then, I had realized it's something I do want
to do, and I felt like I was gonna be successful.
So I wasn't really worried about kind of what the
initial starting pay was because I knew where I would
be in a few years. I had, you know, had
that faith and believe in myself that I could do it.
What year was that That would have been two thousand
the end of twenty ten is when I graduated law school,
(15:39):
so somewhere in there into twenty ten, early twenty eleven.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
So fourteen years ago, you're making fifty thousand dollars. You know,
if you ever got a first round pick, you give
you a ten thousand dollars on us, right, I.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Got a lot of first round picks since then.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah. Yeah, we won't go into how much we have
to pay him today. But like the the you know
ag we talked about the salary cap and like going
from Drew Bloodsloe to you know, Dak Prescott and everything like,
if you started David to David, it was it's it's
been pretty impressive and we'll get into that. But a
j why don't you tell us a little bit why
we have to pay David so much money nowadays?
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So, I mean, David's success in the industry has been
documented pretty much everywhere in sports media, right, But to
look at just his record breaking deals that he's done
in his career, from Earl Thomas to Collecci, Jossemile, Jordan Loved,
Deshaun Watson, who we're going to talk about today, Jalen Ramsey,
Derwin James, Jalen Twice. I know there's more of them.
(16:30):
I'll just forget. Michael Thomas is another one.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Bobby Wagner, Buddha Baker, Durwin, James.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Or we could go down the list.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So we could do a whole podcast all these record
breaking deals, right, But he's also got twenty five first
rounders he's represented in the last twelve years, So you
can see where it's just these good players year over
year that are signing with David because of his expertise
and because of the relationship that he builds with these
guys coming out. He was also voted, not voted. He
was the number one sports agent on the Forbes list
(17:02):
in twenty twenty, so the most powerful agent in the
NFL in twenty twenty. I know that's the first time
that an African American had held that title and maybe
the youngest as well.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Is that what it was?
Speaker 4 (17:12):
For sure the youngest as well. So my mom was proud.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I always tell people that she should was the most
important thing of that one. You know, got to take
it home. And mom saw it, and they were always
a little doubtful about the business, right, like, what do
you mean you're being a sports agent?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
You know, they didn't really know what it meant.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
So I think that was kind of the first time
they saw it and like, oh, okay, I guess you
are doing okay.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, and we're here to talk about quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
But if we were to ever do a safety podcast,
we'd probably do nine of the ten episodes would all
be with David because he currently has five of the
top six highest paid safeties in the in the NFL
are all represented by David right now, so he's cornered
the market there, and in twenty twenty four alone, he
negotiated over one billion dollars in NFL contracts, unheard of,
(17:54):
never been done before by a single agent, and that's
the first time it's ever been done.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Never been done before by probably ninety percent of the agencies, right,
I mean, like you take the two or three top agent,
I mean you talked to like agencies number six, like
they've done it. They done a billion dollar deals. So
David did that led those negotiates. Someone say, that's mind boggling,
And I think, would you tell me about that, David, Like,
what was your goal when you started?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Man?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
My goal when I started was just to be able
to create, you know, sustain a job and be able
to take care of myself. And obviously at some point
my goal has always been, you know, retired my parents.
I think for me that was kind of always a
driving force, just seeing everything they had done for us
and the work they put into it, you know, and
maybe not being paid what they should have been being paid,
you know, with everything they put into it. So for me,
(18:38):
it was like, you know, you know, that was my
light at the end of the tunnel. My why was
you know, putting my parents in a situation where they consider,
you know, sit back and relax and kind of enjoy.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
You know, their their kids, their grandkids.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
And you know when I got to that point is
when I really felt like, Okay, yeah this this has
worked out.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah. No, I mean it's ag as you can. I mean,
if you've been in the business a long time, I've
been along twenty four years, Like I've never seen anything
like David, anyone like David, or a career like David. Right,
I mean you think about like he started fourteen years ago,
what like as a as an intern making I mean
as a first ye associate making fifty thousand dollars a year.
You had no idea he'd ever had a first rounder.
And then what he's done and how he's done it
(19:15):
is and that's when we get into a little bit
like how he's done it is more impressive to me
than what he's done. And again, we have agents out
there where have no no integrity, you know, we'll cheat
what and they haven't got to that level. David did
this with a complete integrity, buying into the team, you know,
supporting the team and always putting his family first and
then also porty athletes first first. Like it's been it's
(19:37):
been remarkable. So it's uh, do you ever sit back
and think about.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
It, got and that, and that's funny, man, I have
that conversation with you know, a lot of friends all
the time. In this business, you don't really have time
to sit back and enjoy it, right, because it's literally,
you know, it never ends, right. It's an ever flowing business,
and you don't really appreciate the wins. You only feel
the losses. I always tell people, right, because if you're recruiting,
you know, a player, his family, and at some point,
(20:01):
you know you're talking to the player in the family
so much, you know, they become a part of your
you know, you know, uh, extended family, and so when
you sign them, it's like, okay, that that's an expectation.
Like I've been dealing with this player family like they're
part of my extended family for a.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Year or two years.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
Uh, you know, it's kind of becomes, you know, kind
of an expectation. I think it's the ones that you
miss out on that really bother you. Therefore, there's no
real time for you to kind of wait and kind
of smell the roses. As they say, I guess yep.
But you know, it's an interesting industry. But I've been blessed.
I've been lucky. I work with a lot of good
families and clients obviously, and you know they're really the
(20:37):
reason why, you know, I've been able to be so successful.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And I you know, obviously we're not can get into
private contract details and now your conversation whatnot. But I
will say we've done four or five employment contracts together,
and every single time, including the at the beginning when
you said you take ten thousand dollars for different like
every time you have said I don't want the guaranteed money.
I don't want, you know, I just want to bet
them myself. Just let me better yourself. At one point
(21:02):
I had offraje equity in the company, like, hey, Murph,
I don't know if that equery is worth anything. I know,
I after that upon you for that, I want to
lie upon myself. Now you an equity partner and we're
very proud of that. But what I mean, why do
you what convinced you just keep betting on yourself and
you want to be bet He did much better this
and he did he gave Vegas Like what like what?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
What? Uh?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
What? Why did you do that?
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Man?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I think for me, I always had the mindset that
if you're successful in something, you're going to always wish
you would have better on yourself.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Right. But if you you know, if.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
You don't bet on yourself and you don't do well,
you're not You're gonna be out of a job anyway, right,
So you know, taking a little bit guaranteed money or
taking what.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
You feel like it is a safe bet.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Yeah, it lasts only for so long and then you're
going to be you know, if you know, if you
don't produce, you're gonna be out of the door. So for me,
it was like, I know I am going to produce,
and if that's the case, then it's always going to
be best to better my on myself and only that.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
But it keeps you hungry, right.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
I didn't ever want to get to a place of
being complacent because I knew there was guaranteed this or
I knew I was going to have this. For me,
it was always he's staying hungry and the competition part
of it. Honestly, man, I don't even think you know,
at this point, I've been blessed you know over the
years that it's not really about the money anymore. You know,
it's more about the competition. Now, Uh, you know, I
want to be the best. You know, I want to
(22:13):
represent the best. I want to get my guys the
best contracts. So everything is about being the best. It's
no longer a financial decision for me. And I'm lucky
to be able to say that. But for me, it's
like I said, every year, you know, I want my
clients to be able to look at me and say, hey,
you know, obviously I'm lucky to work with the guys
I work with, but I also want the guys I
work with to be like, hey, I'm excited that I
work with David right because I know he's going to
(22:34):
maximize every opportunity that comes across table for me, whether
you know it's on the field, off the field, contracts,
whatever it may be. So for me, it's it's a
competition part about it. It's about trying to be the
best at this point. And that's why you know, I'm
always bet on myself.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah I know. I mean. Another future podcast could bring
Equity partner Todd Franston, who's also been ranked Forbes number
one and the best, and I know when we talked
about bringing him, it was very important to us that
you were okay with that. And I remember you saying like,
I want my I want the team to be the best, right,
you know, I want to win championship at team champions
But I also like he'll be working with him, will
(23:11):
push you to be better. And I think you've enjoyed
working with Todd and you guys have that competition, but
it's worked out well.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
No, for sure, Man, Todd is somebody that I always
looked at, you know, in the industry. Uh, you know,
there are always a few guys you look at and
you're always like, Man, you know, I wonder you know
what drives him, you know what, you know, what causes
him to work so hard? Especially Todd's done phenomenal he
I'm sure he doesn't do it for the money anymore either,
you know, he's he's done.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Really well for himself.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
So just being around other guys like that, iron sharpens iron,
you know, picking his brain on how he kind of
looks at things, how he you know, when he talks
to teams, you know what what indicators as he used
to know whether he's gonna, you know, negotiate this way
or that whatever it may be.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Right. So for me, I'm constantly learning.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
I hope to think, you know, I like to think
that he does the same with me and obviously the
other agency at Athletes Firsts as well. But for for me,
like I said, I think at the end of the day,
it honestly just comes down to the to the competition
at this point in my career and wanting to work
with the best and kind of do the best contracts.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Now we could go. I mean, there's I have a
thousand stories we get into with David, mostly good, you know,
some funny, but it's the quarterback series, so we want
to talk about the quarterbacks. And David, one thing I
give you mad props for is you were, even at
a younger age, you're always very strategic, like you were
always very deliberate in port posseful and how are you
going to build this dynasty of yours? And I remember
at one point you saying, listen, I can't be Forbes
(24:27):
number one if I don't represent quarterbacks. Do you remember?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Do you remember? That's for sure? Now that's that's super important.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
I mean, if you look historically at the guys that
are considered, you know, the best agents in the business
or the most powerful agent. However you want to kind
of you know, create that rank, and it's always guys
that have had quarterbacks and that work with the quarterbacks.
And it makes sense, right because quarterbacks are kind of
the face of teams a m B. They get paid
the most, right, so you know you're going to have
to work with those guys if you want to consider
yourself on the mount rushmore of the business. So for me,
(24:56):
that was super important. And when I first got in
the business, unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of African American
agents that were representing quarterbacks. You know, I can't, I don't.
I could be wrong, but I think I don't know
that it was a an African American agent that had
more than one first round pick, you know, ever at quarterback, right,
So for me it was important and I need to
be a challenge because again you know, it's not the
norm quarterbacks kind of you know signed with. There was
(25:18):
a certain few of agents that all the quarterbacks signed with,
so that was super important. And you know, over the years,
I've been super lucky.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
My first quarterback actually was Brandon Bridge from South Alabama
who gave me the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Great kid. I still talk to him to this day.
Toronto yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
He told me the other day he's gonna name his
first son after me. So I'm waiting to see if
he does it or not. But Brandon is my guy.
But yeah, man, you know, he gave me an opportunity.
And then the quarterback is my second quarterback who really
was a guy that's a household name, you know, obviously
Deshaun Watson, who's coming out of Clemson. Uh, and he
was a big time recruit, you know, you know, at
the time, arguably the best player in the country. And
(25:57):
met him a few times, and you know that was
my know for me, it was like, man, this is
a guy that you know, I get along with. It's
a guy that I think is gonna be an elite player,
comes from a phenomenal family. And he was really the
first quarterback. They gave me an opportunity and that kind
of allowed me then to kind of continue to work
with quarterbacks. And at this point, now, man, you know
had had a few guys.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
You knows, you skipped over a little bit, like Deshaun
Watson wasn't just a very good call. I mean, tell
us about what DeShawn did in college.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, I mean, he was he was only a starter
for the two full seasons. He's a Heisman finalist both
of those years, he's an All American. And then his
final season of college football, he goes onto. At the time,
Alabama was kind of a juggernaut.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
He goes on to beat them in the National Championship
in Tampa, Florida. And you're not allowed to sign a
college player until he's done playing college football, right, So
you know, I know you had been recruiting him leading
up to that, but then when do you actually sign
to Shawn?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
So DeShawn was interesting, Actually he was. I would say,
he's the one guy that I don't see. I didn't
think I was going to sign to Seawan, right. I
met him prior to the season and had some dialogue
with him and he kind of went ghost.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Let me jump in for sec. Just to set the
tone for listeners, like you said that we had there's
some super agents out there who kind of represent all
the quarterbacks, right, I mean you had a Tom Conn
and you had Dave done right, you had least time
bring in the past, and you know they they represent
most of the quarterbacks. And you had one quarterback who
was a great guy, but he wasn't the first round pick, right,
and so like, and you're relatively young in the business
(27:25):
as well. And so when you said that you're recruiting
Deshaun Watson, that's awesome. He's the best player in college
football right now. I just want you to like, good
luck to you that if you get him as great
and we'll support you anyway we can. But that was like,
that was not like as you sit here now, any
quarterback in the league should want to sign with you, right,
they should be calling you. But back then, it was
that was an uphill back I mean a huge uphill
(27:47):
battle for sure. So I just want to set the
scene a little bit now.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
For sure, Like I said, it was, you know, it
was the first time I had went after a quarterback
that was as highly you know ranked, or you know
was you know, like you said, he was a face
of college football at the time, right. So, uh spoke
to him a few times prior to the season, and
Deshaun kind of locked in during the season.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Uh, And you know, you know, I didn't know that.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I just thought he obviously didn't like me, right because
he because he stopped texting me back the whole season.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
But uh, I get a text from him.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Who was that probably a week about four or five
days before the National Championship game, and he had probably
replied to two or three of my texts during the season,
so I don't want to say he didn't hit me
back at all. So I probably had text back and
forth him twice over a six month period, and uh,
he asked me, was I come into the National Championship game?
And I was like, Uh, it's sure if you're you know,
(28:35):
if you're inviting me, He's like, yeah, shouldn't just to
prove it, but yeah, he was like, you know, you
know he should come. So I was like, oh, yeah,
for sure, I'm there then, right, so, you know, I
hurried and book a flight to jump on a flight.
I get there, and then after the game, you know,
the obviously they beat Alabama.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
He's the MVP of the game.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
You know, I'm sure it was one of the highlights
of his career, right, you know, winning National championship for Clemson.
And you know, I'm sitting after the game wondering should
I text him, should I wait? Obviously big moment for him.
I don't want to kind of interfere with you know,
I'm sure he has family time going on. So he
texted me to ask me to come up to the
room and I get up to the room and it's
him and his mom and his aunt, you know, his
(29:11):
family sitting around and I walk in. I'm like, hey,
how you doing. You know, I go to introduce myself
and he says, hey, this is David. It's my agent,
and I'm just as shocked as everybody else in the world.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Oh, so again, it's a moment I'll never forget, you know.
And he gave me that opportunity. Uh, he was the
first person give me that opportunity, and you know, I
don't I don't know that he knows even how much
it means to me, you know, being given the opportunity,
it was huge, and you know it's led to other
quarterbacks and you know, uh now it's been awesome.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
It was.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It was probably one of the best decisions he made.
I mean, you've done a phenomenal job with him. But
like at the time, did he explain why.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Well, yeah, he told me he knew after, you know,
after we you know, spoke a couple of times before
the season started that he wants to go with me.
But you know, in his mind, he didn't just he
didn't think to tell me that. And you know, he
wanted to lock in on the season. He was focused,
you know, he the prior year, Uh, you know, they
had got pretty far.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
I forgot who they beat. I think they might be.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I think they had lost to Alabama in the National Chamber.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Yea, so they had gotten forear and lost to Obama
in that championship. So I think for him, he was
all in on football and kind of that was his focus.
And we sometimes we lose track as agents, Like players
have a million things going on, right, They're not always
thinking about who my representation is going to be so
far away for them. So for him, he's like, yeah,
this is who I'm going with. But in his mind is like,
how do I know? I need to lock in and
make sure I give my all the Clemson And that's
(30:28):
what he was doing, and you know he thought, you know,
he looking back at it, he's like, oh, yeah, I
probably should have let you know, Yeah, that would have
been helpful. That would have you know, saved some heartache
a little bit there season, right, But no, that was awesome.
Like I said, I mean, I can never you know,
repay him for the opportunity and Uh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Well that decision changed your life for sure, and then
having you as his agent has changed his life, as
we're going to get into the next episode, and it's
been a great relationship. So David, one thing we do
at the end of every episode, we just kind of
talk about what we learned through the episode. And I
usually go first because Aja takes a little bit longer
to think about it. Then you last. Yeah, you get one.
But you know, I just I'm you know, I don't
(31:04):
want to get emotional on this, but I will like
what I've learned, and I've learned from working with you
for a long time, and I'm a lot older than you,
but just watching you in the way you do things
like my lesson learned. Again, just listen to you here
talking like you have such an unbelievable belief in yourself.
And I think it's probably comes from your parents when
you're younger, and you just have a you have integrity,
(31:24):
and you have a purpose and and and you march
towards that purpose. And I think the lesson I've learned
is like, hey, in life, if we want to reach
the top of our profession, top of our family, be
the best dad we can be the best husband we can.
Like you just have to walk straight in the arrow
and never veer from who you are. And that's one
thing I said in an article before, Like David is
(31:46):
David everywhere he is. Sometimes I wish you weren't sometimes
like David is always David, and you always know what
you're going to get and you don't have to guess
what he's thinking. You don't have to. Did he really
mean that? Like you were who you are, and you
found out who you are at such a young agent.
I've seen a change over the years and develop Like
you said, maybe you get wired for people sometimes, but
(32:06):
like I am so impressed with just that you've always
known who you are, you never changed no matter what.
And your dedication to your family, to your clients, to
your children now it's just it's second to none, and
it's awesome. And I've told you many times I couldn't
be more grateful to you, but also proud of you
(32:26):
and happy for you that you've created life you have,
which is good for sure. So that's so less you've
talking me over the last fifteen years and again today,
So I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Man.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
I'm gonna get a little less sentimental. I'm gonna say,
talk about the numbers, how much mony you because.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
You work with Yeah, I don't think I believe like
I don't think I necessarily believe in destiny, but I
think you are destined to do this job, like to
the point where you didn't want it multiple times, Like
you say, when you were in school, like didn't know
what a sports agent was, wasn't interested in it. You
got introduced to the one of the biggest sports agencies
in the NFL, and you didn't like it. You went
(33:02):
back to law school, didn't think about doing it the
next summer, and then it had. It took them another
time of saying, hey, David, come do this for then
you finally, you know, kind of opened your eyes to it,
like Okay, maybe I'll do this. You didn't seem real
interested in it. It almost feels like you were destined
to do it, and then once you actually applied yourself
to it, it was, you know, to the moon from there,
well and.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
This never thought of it like this. Actually that's a
pretty pretty cool way to think about it.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah, And I would also say, like this industry needed
David moligheto we needed more African American agents and people
who can work at quarterbacks, and I think that, uh,
there was a great need for someone like you did
these the right way, and you know, you've changed our industry, right,
it's not just your life, you changed your industry. So
it's uh, it's amazing. We'll get into some stories I
(33:45):
remember our raiders meaning about Kellite, but like you know,
we'll get to those stories later. But what what about you?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
No, I think agree with what you just said, right,
h You know a lot of times about representation, and
for me, there was not a lot of representation coming
into the business, and you know, that's probably why I
didn't want to do it, because I had never seen
people like me do it. And like you said, I
think since then, and obviously I won't take credit for
it myself myself, and there's been some other really good
African American agents since since then. Now you see there
(34:12):
are a lot more African American agents that are doing
a phenomenal job in the business as well. So now
I'm proud to be one of those. You know, I
don't want to I don't even want to say early guys, right,
because you have guys like Eugene Parker who kind of
got the godfather of being an agent for African Americans.
But you know, want to you know, in this era,
like you know, one of the guys that I think
have made it, you know something where other people have
looked and said, hey, you know, I see people that
(34:33):
look like me doing it.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
So I'm happy to be part of that group.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
So now I'm you know, I could not be more
appreciative of if you guys give me the opportunity coming
out of college.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
No, man, you know I love what I do.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Well, I'm sure your parents are still very proud of you.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Yeah, for sure, and that's most important.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We're going to come back next episode. We're gonna bring
David back and we're going to talk about the contracts
he's negotiated with to Shaun Watson and you know, and
some of those record breaking deals that he's done and
and uh, we look forward to it. So thinks David,
we appreciate it. Good luck with the autograph seekers on
the way out. We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Doubt
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