How Todd Became A Forbes List Top NFL Agent | Athletes First Family Podcast Ep-9 - Athletes First Family: Quarterback Series

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And she's like, well, what do you mean and she said, well,
I'm not staying there without you. And I was like, well,
i'd love you to come be my first employ I
was like, whatever you make, I'll pay you. I have
no idea about health insurance, you got to do all
that stuff. I literally know nothing. She's like okay, and
I was like, well, here's what's going to happen. We're
going to go to the office tomorrow. You're going to
tell them, but they're gonna, you know, not be happy,
and they're going to talk bad about me, and they're
going to escort you out. All of the above happened.

(00:20):
And so then she shows up at my townhouse and
she's like, well, now what, like, you know, where do
you have all the files? And I was like no.
She's like, do you have any of the player's contracts?
I was like no, I literally had nothing. I was like,
I have a legal pad, I have a calculator, I
have a phone. What do you need. She's liked, well,
we got to go to Staples. So we go to
Staples literally right behind my apartment, and we get a

(00:43):
car and she starts putting things into the car and
she's putting him in. I'm putting them back on the shelf.
I was like, why do you need two highlighters? Why
don't we start with my money. I got no money, Like,
I'm just going to go off of whatever. So I'm
literally putting things back and she's putting them in.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the Athletes First Family
podcast quarterback series. I'm Brian Murphy, CEO of Athletes First,
here with Aj Stevens, my co host. Arguably the best
negotiator and in our in our industry, although today's guests
may just disagree.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Thanks Murph. Happy to be back on the podcast where
we discuss athletes for success at representing quarterbacks for our
new listeners. Athletes First currently has one point four billion
dollars of NFL contracts four quarterbacks on the books. It's
the most for any agency and it includes three of
the top five paid quarterbacks in the NFL right now.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Including, of course, the highest paid quarterback in the NFL,
Dak Prescott, who was represented by none other than Todd France. Welcome, Todd,
appreciate you having me. Oh, this is this is the
podcast we've all been waiting for. It's always great to
have a legend, join us, right, A j oh, yeah,
And you know, usually Todd, when we start these we go,
we start with your background and start from the beginning

(01:54):
to the end. But I think you know, I'm at
least so excited to have you here. I want to
share with our listeners, or have agents share with the listeners, like,
just give them, give them the stats, give them the digits,
give the numbers to the numbers that make the legend,
which is, as I know, extremely hard, unprecedent.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
He's represented eighty three Pro Bowlers and had multiple Pro
Bowlers every year since twenty eleven.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
More than ninety percent of the industry combined.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
I don't know that's true, but let's go with it.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, he's negotiated the deal to make a player the
highest paid offensive and defensive player at the exact same time.
Another unprecedented. Those players Aaron Donald, Dak Prescott, exact same time.
And he's negotiated the deal to make a player the
highest paid at his position at every single position on

(02:42):
the football field except for kicker, punter, and long snapper.
But we're working on those.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm sure it's amazing you describe an agent a legend,
A superagent Forbes number one.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
And there's that too. He's been either number one or
number two on the Forbes list every year that they've
done the list since twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
And you're talking about a guy that if an agent.
If you're not working with him, if you're not on
his team and you don't know him, you really don't
like him, right, I mean you you resent him. He
gets all the players. You assume that he's an asshole,
you know, just not a guy you want to get
along with. That's what you tell the recruits.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
That he's at You know, this is a family podcast.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
That's my first first custom night, you know. But that's
that's when you're not working with Todd. That's how you feel, right.
But then you go out and you meet Todd and like, man,
like this is a super agent because he's a he's
a husband, wife, two little girls, like the funny one
of the funniest guys. You doesn't take himself too seriously
and uh just we're lucky to have him. So Todd,
we know you love podcasts and talk about yourself. So

(03:42):
thanks for joining us.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
No listen, I'm glad to be here. I just wish
the introduction would keep going. It's just great. I say,
I didn't know all those stats. I've never compiled them myself,
so I'm not sure if they're all accurate or not,
but I'll take them.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
If anything, you guys underestimated. But that's okay.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Well, that's the introduction you wrote for us to say,
and I actually did outrite that.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
It's not true. No, it is not.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, I'm fired up. This is awesome to be here.
So today's podcast, how we kind of want to tell
him a little bit about how you went from, you know,
growing up to being a super agent number one on
Forbes and kind of start with the beginning, like where
did you grow up? And did you play sports in
high school?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
And yeah, I grew up in Chicago for the first
seventeen years of my life, for sixteen years of my life,
and then moved to Atlanta, played sports, basketball, tennis, soccer,
everything you can do, and ended up moving from like
I said, from Chicago to Atlanta my junior year of
high school.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
All right, And then where'd you go to undergrad?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Went to University of Alabama, Okay, And what was the
reason for that. Well, family had just moved to Atlanta
and so wanted to not really think about going back
to making a Big ten school. If I stayed in
Chicago would have probably done that. They've been far from
the family, so very close to my family, and so
wanted to check out a school closer to me. And actually,
my older brother had graduated high school in Chicago, had

(04:58):
scholarships for tennis everywhere, and my father, through his company,
had a connection at Alabama wanted him to go at
least check it out. So he goes to Tuscaloosa. My
brother sees the campus, sees all the other beautiful things
that are there, sure, and decides let's go talk to
the tennis coach, gets a scholarship, ends up not going

(05:19):
to big ten school on tennis, and instead goes to
Alabama first college. Younger brother, as a junior in high school,
visits is his older brother at Alabama, and that's ultimately
how I ended up at Alabama.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Awesome, So I had nothing to do with this sports
management program.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Or nothing to do with anything that actually matters, right, good.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Good, And then you know, we talked to like Justin,
you know, one of our other partners in Ryan, and
when they went to college, they knew they wanted to
be sports or in the sports industry, Like, did you
when you go into college did you want to be
a sports Asian it's been a dream of yours or
didn't even enter mind?

Speaker 1 (05:49):
No, you know, I always love sports, just like a
lot of people do. I really thought I was going
to go work for my father and his business in
the advertising and media magazine publishing business. Why that was
my major advertising but it ultimately ended up working out
differently when I got out of school.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, so your dad very successful in the advertising world,
very creative, genius, you know, had a lot of good stories.
Would be a great podcast guests. Actually, but so you
graduate from Alabama, you don't go work for your dad,
what do you do instead?

Speaker 1 (06:17):
So, yeah, he wouldn't let me work for him or
my brother worked for him straight out of school. And
so I got an internship working for the Atlanta Knights,
a minor league hockey team, and yes it was wild.
And then the Atlanta Knights bought a roller hockey international
team called the Atlanta fire Ants, and I was tasked

(06:39):
to go be corporate sales for the Atlanta fire Ants
and I crushed it. I had billybo Pizza Circus as
a client Roswell roller a ring. I got the children's
hospital as a sponsor with the helmets for ice skating
and all that stuff, and so I was doing well.
And ultimately what happened was, you know, when you work
for a team, you're at the stadium all the time.
So I'd be at the stadium early. I knew the

(07:00):
natural people, I knew the police officers, I knew everybody
in the stadium. And my father, you know, he told me,
he's like, when you dress if you're when you're an intern,
you either dress like an intern, get treated like an intern,
dressed like you own the company, get treated like you
own the company. So he brought me three shirts, three ties,
three jackets, three pants. He's like, he got nine here,
mix a match. And so I when I was doing
the internship, I had told the guy in the interview,

(07:21):
I was like, look, I'm fine financially, I'm okay, not
getting paid. I just want real experience though, like I'm
not delivering tickets. I'm not going to be a mascot.
He happened to be from Ohio. He loved my Chicago mindset.
He was like, you'll be my sales assistant. You'll stand
right next to me, do everything with me. So I
did that. And I was in the arena one time
before a Hawks game, and I guess I was just,

(07:42):
you know, twenty two years old, just walking around and
a guy walks up to me and says, what do
you do? Who are you? And I was like, you know,
I'm Todd, you know, like what do you mean? You know?
I have no idea this guy is. And he tells
me who he is and at the time, he represented
most of the NBA head coaches and he said, I've
got a company were represent the Hawks head coach. I'd
love you to come talk to us. We're hiring a
marketing person. And so I was like, sure, wasn't looking,

(08:04):
wasn't anything, And ultimately went and met with him and
got a job.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
And why did he pick you out of the blue
like that?

Speaker 1 (08:11):
He said he noticed me walking around and he's like
he wanted to know who I was, because he said,
you knew everybody You're talking to everybody. You're walking along
the floor of the basketball arena like and I don't
know who you are yet I'm very connected. And it's
just like, who is this young guy working the working
the scene? And that's kind of what I was doing.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Walking around looking like he owns the place is not
something new he's always done apparently.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, I feel like that's accurate. AJ, let's not forget that.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Okay, well he does own the place. Yeah, we're going
to get to that. You know, that's the end of
this podcast. But okay, so you go work for who
was the guy and what was company?

Speaker 1 (08:46):
It was called Career Sports Management back in the day,
and I think it's changed since then. I got a job.
I was a fourth employee there, and I was given
a phone book. There was no computers. I was given
a phone and a client list, and it was go
get these guys endorsements. And I started calling on companies
and next thing you know, I'm getting guys deals. And
then I was dealing with companies and getting deals for

(09:07):
guys that weren't our clients. I was calling literally a
celebrity like person who has like a network so I
could bring a deal to them. I brought deals to
Steve Kerr back when he was on the Bulls because
he was cheaper than Pippin and Jordan, so people would
use him. I brought deals for Jay Novicheck when he
was on the Cowboys and all that stuff. Juwan Howard
when he was in the NBA, like all these guys
I was doing deals for. Ultimately started building the company

(09:29):
and growing and ended up having thirty forty people underneath
me in marketing and sales. Wow, I was doing things
in Nascar. I sold title sponsorships to race cars. I
was negotiating title sponsorships for cars and doing racecar programs.
I was doing retail promotions literally coast to coast, giving
away Ford Thunderbirds where you would have a tear pad
and rip it off and enter to win. I was

(09:50):
probably I had like fifty promotions going on coast to
coast at any given time, whether it was win a
chance to go to Disney World with Jay Novicheck or
play basketball with Dennis Scott, like all these different kinds
of things. And then I incorporated a lot of our clients.
We represented John Smoltz, the Brace Pitcher, and did a
lot of deals for John as well and Mark Lemke
and the Braves during their heyday when they were winning
all the World series. So it ultimately did that. And

(10:12):
like I said, I was there at that point. It
was eight Yeah, I was there a total of eight
years to age twenty two to thirty two, and if
you want the rest of the stories. I ultimately went
to the owner of the company and said I want
a raise. I was very close with him, and I
felt like I deserved a raise, and he said, what
do you want. I was like, I have no idea.

(10:32):
Whatever he think's right, literally would have taken anything. I
guess thought I was negotiating and won in my number.
So I went and talked to my dad, put a
proposal together and gave it to him, and it was well,
I forget what year was, but I'm still waiting to
hear if I'm going to get that raise, let's just
say that. And so ultimately at the end, I ended

(10:53):
up decide to leave the company on August twenty third,
two thousand and three, and I left and was going
to at my own company. Wow, so you all actually
let me back up? I correct myself two years into
prior to leave it. So was there ten years. In
the eighth year, I wanted to make more money, so
I went to the owner first to say, let me
start representing athletes, because that's where the real money was

(11:13):
in contracts, and it wasn't marketing. He's like, well, I
was like, let me my true love is basketball, so
let me go do basketball players. At the time, it
was a conflict of interest. We had represented coaches, you
couldn't do players. So he said maybe maybe baseball. And
I was dumb at the time. I should have done baseball,
but I didn't understand things, and so I was like,
I don't want to chase high school kids and I don't,
you know, want to do all that, And so ultimately

(11:34):
we landed on fine, you can. You can do football,
but on your own time and nights and weekends, so
literally on nights and weekends. I never played football. I
never wore football helmet and nothing other than the flag
football as a kid. I self taught myself to business
and went out and recruited and signed seventeen players in
about a year and a half two years. And so
that's when I then went to the owner of the

(11:55):
company and after ten years, asked for the rais, didn't
get it, and ultimately decided I was going to leave
and go on my own.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
And so two thousand and one is about when you
started doing the football thing.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yes, got certified in two thousand.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
So before you get to that, like so the first
eight years you're there and you're doing all these great marketing, Like,
who's teaching you how to do those concepts?

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Nobody? Honestly, I was just winging it. You have to
have the work etht that. You can't be taught that,
and that's in the blood for my dad and all that.
So I was just grinding and building and trying to
get deals done and making things up on the fly.
Some things I learned from just working for the hockey
team in their sponsorship area, and then try to apply
the team concept to the actual individual athlete concept because

(12:33):
obviously didn't have a team anymore. I now had players,
and just got creative and went out there and started
doing all that stuff. And that's how it built.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Now twenty four years later, as we say here now right,
you know, and every you've done everything, you've seen everything,
but like is a safe say, you're still making stuff
up as you go in a good way, like.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Creatively a thousand percent. I feel like I create my
own problems and I create my own work, you know,
and the people that work with me closely every day
know that, Like I'm always always pushing the envelope for
new ideas how to do more for the players, how
to do better, how to do different ideas, how to
think outside the box and do more in different than
anyone else is doing.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Have you seen that age?

Speaker 3 (13:10):
I mean you were, well now, it's in every negotiation.
We always say like every negotiation is completely different, but
it also becomes completely different because Todd will come up
with this random idea as to how we're going to
attack the negotiation strategy, and it's one of those things
where you're not really sure where it comes from, and
he throws so many things at the wall that it's
maybe just a matriculation throughout the years, but it's definitely

(13:33):
a lot of creativity all the time.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
We're how about telling them about the Mental Health Day
t shirts that you did?

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Oh? Weal we had for World Mental Health Day. I
forget was it October? I forget the date? Someone in October?
But we had world there. I found out there was
World Mental Health Day, uh, and was talking to my
brother in law who had a relationship with a mental
health organization and it was like it's called hug my

(13:58):
bro or hug your bro. And I ultimately went to him,
I was like, Hey, could we do something with that
group where like for our own players, because mental health
is such a big deal, you know in the world,
but and you know in our NFL world, and slowly
but surely Pete players have come out and talk about
mental health. So I thought it would be a cool
idea as an agency if we could partner with Huggier Bros.

(14:18):
Do T shirts for all of our guys that say
Hugger Bros. Send them out to all of our players
just as hey, we're thinking about you, and put all
the resources out there that that you could go to
if anyone's having issues, like whether the NFLPA had listed
you know, all sorts of different resources and hotlines and
all that type of stuff. I think it was a
great thing and the agency did that, and we sent
it out to what like five hundred like all the players,
coaches and I guys, just everybody got it and it

(14:40):
was a really cool, like kind of a feel good
thing to do.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Unbelievable response from that kind of point to like, like
even now you're an Equi partner Number one Forbes, one
of the greatest, if not the greatest, football agent all
the time, but you're still just thinking and making stuff
up that that can benefit our players. Or Athletes, our company,
the brands. It's just NonStop.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, I don't know any other way to be. It's
like the fires in your belly. So you're always just
pushing the envelope. And I think that's just how you're
wired and that's how I operate, and so same thing
goes true when it comes to recruiting or anything else.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah. No, it makes a ton of fun to work
with you because it's just you never know what's gonna happen,
you know, I get I guess see what you call. Well,
there's gonna be something I've never thought of it before,
but it's gonna be interesting. So go back though to
two thousand and one. So you're doing this great marketing.
You built up thirty forty staff members, that right, and
so you build up this company, but you want more,
which is still hasn't changed. And uh, you know, so

(15:29):
you say I'm gonna go I'm gonna do football. That's
where you landed for a different reasons. But like so
we started Athletes first in two thousand and one. At
the same time, it's not easy to go out and
get any client, and we I was working with Dave
Done and Dave Done have been doing it for ten years,
and we had Drew Budsoe as a client. We had
John Lynch as a client, so we had some some
guys like the guys right, but still you go knock

(15:49):
on the door, make a phone call. It's it's not
easy to get in the door. Once you get in
the door, everyone wants to sign these guys. And you
and I are playing by the rules, so we're not
giving money or anything. So as the disadvantage as well,
how many guys you say you signed in two years,
seventeen so like that's that's you know, eight and a
half per year according to AJ, Like that's hard to
do now as number one in the world, you say

(16:12):
number one in the world, like David sitting right there,
like let me go. You know you and David both tie.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
We'll call it what David Davis had come to terms
that he's number four.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
But so, how did you sign seventeen guys? And that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
And get into how good of players some of these
guys are.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, So I mean some of it's luck. Obviously, sometimes
you create your own luck. But I unfortunately didn't have
any relationships or any connections with any Scouts or anything.
So I was literally going off of mel kiper information
that was out and available, and I would say, Oh,
this kid's at Georgia Tech. I'm in Atlanta, he's from Augusta.
Let me go recruit him and let me go get

(16:48):
this guy. So I would go down to Georgia Tech. Well,
first of all, I you know, back up, I created
like a football brochure, like I try to put something
together that I could actually hand to people. There was
nothing football in it. It was all like, oh, we
represent these coaches. We did this.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
To yourself. What's that just Scotty frame me?

Speaker 1 (17:03):
I do that? No, scot who wasn't born yet exactly.
So yeah, one hundred percent. So I kind of put
it together and would just go in and honestly would
just talk and convince people that I would be the
one to be able to represent their family and uh
and and and it worked, and I got. The first
guy I got was a guy named Marino Philia out

(17:24):
of Choice State. And it's the first and last time
I've ever spent in a family's living room during the draft.
I didn't know any different. That's the whole story for
another day. Because he was supposed to go much earlier
than he did.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
So it was along with three days and so yeah,
uh and then from there he this player actually was
on the Falcons and he ended up being friends with
another kid who wanted to talk to me. And he
was Derek Vaughan at the time, and he was like
an electric kick returner and he ended up changing to me.

(17:59):
And and I'm still recruiting, and I'm in the heart
of you know, the sec And so I go to
Georgia and I go to different places and I sign
this unbelievable linebacker at Georgia named Kendrell Bell, and Kendrell
Bell that year I signed him. He ends up winning
Rookie of the Year for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Around that time,
a veteran player starts to change or is considering changing

(18:24):
to me. His name is to Keo Spikes, Pro Bowl linebacker. Uh.
He did live next door to me, and so it
was a slow breakdown. Uh, you know. But uh. And
then Derek Vaughan had a friend, just a middleman friend
that he said, Hey, my friend wants to call you,
And I was like sure. This kid calls me, He's like, hey,
my friend's looking for a new agent. His name's Priest Holmes.

(18:44):
Would you want to meet with him? And I was
like sure. He was on the Ravens, you know, he
just had had his first year in Kansas City, and
I was like sure. And so I met him on
a Sunday, uh in Atlanta and I he came to
my high rise living complex and we met in the
conference room in like the clubroom. Right, Priest shows up

(19:06):
in a suit for our meeting on a Sunday. I,
of course am not in a suit. I mean, like,
I don't know if it was I don't remember what
month it was, but I was definitely casual, shorts and
a T shirt, jeans and yeah, yeah, no, I know
my bar miss. So I uh said, oh, hey, Priest,
what's going on? He's like hey. I was like, oh,
you just come from church and he's like no. I
was like, oh okay, thinking, wow, you're you're overdressed for

(19:30):
this meeting. But if you know Priest, you understand what
a classic guy is. And it made total sense. He
was all business, so so bizarre when I think about it.
I did my presentation to him literally had no idea
what I was really talking about, other than I knew
I would be aggressive and I had been certified and
all that stuff, and uh, I left a FedEx and
an s R with him. I was like, here you go,

(19:50):
and if you'd want to sign me like I guess
I gave it to him because a few days later
a FedEx shows up. Wow, and it was assigned s
R from Priest And then of course he plays like
he played, which was ridiculous, and he's I think he
had three years left on his contract. So it was
like a whole nightmare situation that I inherited. At the
same time. Now Tekio Spike switches to Kiyo's a legend
at the time in the SEC and in the NFL.

(20:12):
Has got a lot of peers, and then all of
a sudden, I kept signing more rookies, and then a
lot of veterans started switching because of all of that,
and it just it kept going.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Wow, didn't you At one point you draft each had
like two of the big runbacks.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
So no, I mean when I ultimately left and went
on my own, Yeah, my first draft class on my own,
I had the.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
So yeah, so you're there, So this is all you get?
All these players under this other company. You've built thirty
person staff you go, and I think a good thing
for us to remember as the owners of the company. Now, yeah,
you know you have this young, unbelievable employee. Let's call
me to Stevens coming up and like asking for a race. Right,
your boss back in the day didn't never answer your question, right,

(20:50):
And so what happens?

Speaker 1 (20:52):
So uh talk to my dad, you know, who's my
mentor and best friend, and said, and he said, you
got to bet on yourself. You got to you got
to lead. You know, it's enough of your loyalties great,
but to a point you have to be loyal to yourself.
And so ultimately, I mean it was literally a weekend.
I wrote like a literally a five page love letter
to the owner of the company because I had a
great relationship with him, you know, and everything I had.

(21:13):
I never had any intention of leaving or anything like that.
If I wasn't going to work for him, I was
going to work for my father. That's just what was
going to be. And so I called the owner of
the company and met him up on a Saturday or
a Sunday at a hotel right by his house and
told him I was leaving, and gave him the letter,
and I cried, I remember, and I was just you know,
because it was my first real job from he gave
me the opportunity. I definitely took advantage and made the

(21:34):
most of the opportunity. And then I remember him saying, well,
what are you going to do? Like are you going
to take the players with you? And I was like,
I have no idea. I literally had not thought any
thought of it, and I didn't care because well, I
would never not want to be there for the guys.
But it wasn't my motivation because at the end of
the day, if I signed seventeen guys with zero story,
zero track record, zero anything, now I have a story,
I have a track record, I have clients. I wasn't
worried about them going to get more guys, So I

(21:56):
really never thought about it.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
That's amazing and it's I think one thing that I've
learned about you during our time together is your loyalty
is unbelievable, right, And we'll go through that each stop
of the way, but every stop you've made, you've I
feel like you've gone to with the intentions of never leaving,
you know, which is which is amazing.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
And loyalty to your to your clients and also the
people you work with is unmatched. So so you do leave, though,
and you start your own company called what.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
At the time it was Fame France Athlete Management Enterprises.
Actually it was yeah, France Athlete Management Enterprises. Same, yes,
until I got a call from David Folk, I.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Think, I mean, we talk about how creative you are,
and you go and you start your own company. You
name it after the biggest basketball agency out there.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
He was. It was sort of a dead company. He
wasn't in the business early anymore. It was dormant, and
the legal advice I got was you're going to be
fine until you signed three guys in the top fifteen
and then all of a sudden that sports buiness struggs
writing about you, and then obviously I draw attention.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
And absolutely so this is two thousand and three. Yes,
so athletes first two years old. Fame is zero years old.
Your fame, not David's.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
And what happens, Well, first, when I left, I literally
called my dad. I was like, oh my god, I left.
I did it. Like He's like, I'm like, what do
I do now? Like I literally had no idea. I
was not making what I should have made, But in
that world, I was still doing well, and you know,
I had a nice car, a single note, kids, had
a nice car, living in a townhouse and buckhead. Just
like everything was good. And now it's like, oh boy,

(23:28):
what am I going to do? And so I wanted
to take one of my employees with me. Yeah, and
a lot of other employees called and I was like, no, no,
I got to take the necessity, not the luxury. And
so I called Jennifer, a girl who works works with
us here at athletes First, and told her come over
to my house. It was like a Sunday night and
she's like, I'm not coming over your house. Like, Jen,

(23:49):
cut to my house.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
How old is jenn Oh my god, young twenties.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, young twenties. And so Jen comes to my house
and she's like what's up? And I said I left
the agency and she's like, well, what do you mean?
And she said, well, I'm not staying there without you.
And I was like, well, i'd love you to come
be my first and boy, I was like, whatever you make,
I'll pay you. I have no idea about health insurance,
you got to do all that stuff. I literally know nothing.
She's like okay, and I was like, well, here's what's
going to happen. You're gonna go to the office tomorrow.

(24:14):
You're going to tell them, but they're gonna, you know,
not be happy, and they're going to talk bad about me,
and they're going to escort you out. All of the
above happened. And so then she shows up at my
townhouse and she's like, well, now what, like you know,
we're do you have all the files? And I was
like no. She's like, do you have any of the
player's contracts? I was like no, I literally had nothing.
I was like, I have a legal pad, I have

(24:35):
a calculator, I have a phone. What do you need?
She said, well, we got to go to Staples. So
we go to Staples literally right behind my apartment, and
we get a cart and she starts putting things into
the car and she's putting them in. I'm putting them
back on the shelf. I was like, why do you
need two highlighters? Why don't we start with my money?
I got no money, Like, I'm just going to go
off of whatever. So I'm literally putting things back and

(24:56):
she's putting them in. We got our stuff. We set
up our office in my third floor of my townhouse.
I sat on the couch. We had a cordless phone
next to me, a real phone next to her. So
when people called, she'd answer and she said, well, mam,
and I'll get him. Hold on. She'd get me call
waiting would come in. I'd be like, one second, throw
the phone back to her. She'd be like, you know, France,
you know, I'll throw out whatever it was. And we

(25:17):
literally like did that, and then ultimately called Nike and
called the teams and got copies of contracts and just
started running the company. Oh, I should back up. I
had to call the players and let them know I left, Ye,
and let them know I left, And when I did,
lucky for me, seventeen out of seventeen players changed and
came to me, and then ensued the lawsuit. Sure been there,

(25:41):
actually yeah, lawsuit, and then Sports Business journal I'll never
forget came out with the headline of ex employee rated
my firm, and yet there was no quotes from the
person who was. You could say X rated my firm,
but there was no quotes from him, and he don't
get me started twenty four years later, still bothers me.
But everyone of course printed that out was trying to

(26:03):
kill me in recruiting because my first year on my own,
I signed the number two pick in the draft, Ronnie Brown,
the number nine pick in the draft, Carlos Rogers who
won the Thorpe Award, and the number fourteen pick in
the draft Thomas Davis, and a fourth round of that
same year named Carrie Rhodse who three years later became
the high spaid safety in the league.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Sure, yeah, that's crazy. That's also funny. I never I
mean I thought, but the similarities between our stories, like
like when we left, when Dave and I left SMD,
we really brought one person who was Dave's assistant, right,
because that was Aaron Burns, and that was like huge
making Yeah, they without her exactly. And then we were
in Dave's living room, you know, and he had his
own highlighters fortunately, but uh, it was crazy. And then

(26:43):
but like you said, you announced your departure, and then
of course the clients are going to come with you
because you that's a relationship. Your relationship is hardly ever
with the agency, right, which is one thing we've tried
to change. The athletes first, we want them to feel
like they're part of the family. Sure, family, Sure, like
Dak is going to go wherever you go, but we
want him to be proud of the athletes for family
as well. But yeah, and then the Sports Business Journal

(27:05):
headlines against us, printing them out. Everyone used them against us,
and uh, you know, so how did that feel?

Speaker 1 (27:10):
I may or may not use that against you. If
he was mine against me, I didn't even know the existed.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
I can't help but hear the two stories and just
think of the Jerry Maguire scene where he's saying, who's
coming with me? But in this case, with athletes first
and with with you, you were saying, no, only one
of you can come with me. You weren't saying I
want to bring all of you employees with me and
start a whole new company. You were saying, Hey, we're
going to go out on our own because we believe
in something different than what's going on here. But I
only have room for one employee to come with me.

(27:36):
And that's that's you guys picked out your person.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Well, we picked up our person and went to Dave's
office of Dave's house. We lived at Dave's house. And
then Knox give Pat come to the door and like
keep open the door and there's another employee from the
football department. What are you doing here?

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (27:49):
I resigned. I want to work there. I want to
work with you guys like, oh, we have no money,
we have no office, we have no plan, we really
have no vision. Well come on here, we got beers
in the fridge.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
We fit in perfect.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah. Yeah, Carmen came, Dom came. You know, so that
was great. So okay you have if you have fame
and you just I mean, so, how let me ask
you this, how did you get those draft pickscept first year?

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Man, I was grinding. Yeah, I mean, I mean absolutely,
now's your company, right, Oh yeah, You've always worked hard,
but it's a different year, right.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
I don't know. I felt like I was grinding regardless,
but I mean I grind. I mean it was. It
was intense. And that year I kept getting this call
from this writer who was doing a book called The Draft,
and he wanted to follow me, and I said no,
like I don't do media stuff, like I don't want
to do any of that stuff. But it didn't matter.
He literally followed me everywhere and yes, and came to

(28:40):
the office and finally he's like, you're a character in
my book. I've been following you. Yes, and the book
the Draft. You can read it, and I go to
the index and you'll see fifteen twenty thirty pages of
my name in it and all that kind of stuff.
I think he followed some other agents and like some
different some personnel from a team and whatever it was
called the draft. Anyways, long story is short. I was

(29:03):
just grinding getting these guys to the point where so
I lived in Atlanta. I would go to the jacket
walk at Georgia Tech at like nine thirty or ten
in the morning for like their twelve thirty game, just
a high five whatever player I was recruiting. Then to
drive to Auburn to get there for the end of
their game, go to the visiting team side to see
the player I was recruiting from that team. Walk walk

(29:27):
walk to the side of the stadium the second I
turned the corner, sprint to get to the other side
of stadum where the Auburn team was coming out, to
walk out there to be able to see those guys,
spend time with those guys, got in my car, drove
to Athens to get to the end of the night
game there to see the guys. I'd see six, five
or six teams in one day. I mean I was.

(29:47):
I had no kids, no nothing, so I was grinding.
I was with them. Aunt Ronnie Brown's family lived in Cartersville,
so that was, you know, an hour and a half
outside of Atlanta. Spent a ton of time going up there.
I was in Augusta at Carlos Rodgers' family and with
Thomas Davis up in Athens. I was always there and
those and I was in Best from Malabama for carrier
word that was everywhere. Now everywhere was driving. I had
no money to be flying really everywhere in the beginning,

(30:08):
so I was driving all hours of the night. My
go to was a sprite and white cheddar popcorn at
the gas station. And I would put water underneath my
eyes and put the window down so that way, would
you know, make me cold a little bit to keep
me awake. Talk to my mom on speakerphone until twelve
thirty one the morning, cause she will be driving.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
I mean, I just it was non stop and ironically
funny thing is in the high rise I lived another
agent like another. It wasn't the main agent, but another
agent at a firm that was in Atlanta lived in
the same building I did, and I had to go
walk by his car every time to get to my car,
and I made it like my mission. Every morning, I'd
walk by his car. And I don't know if I'm

(30:45):
allowed to swear on here, but I'd be like mother,
the early bird gets the warm light, and I would
just love beating him to the you know, getting out
of the house and get to the office to go grind.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah, that's amazing, that's awesome. So you so you're at fame.
Jennifer is still with you and athletes.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
First, So yes, all these years later, right, twenty four years.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
But then like so you're having all the success, you're
creating your name for yourself, and then you you're you
have fame for about eight years, right, yeah, and then
what happens is the story is just crazy every turn,
But what happens then?

Speaker 1 (31:17):
So I yeah, I mean I started picking up all
these veterans, right, and like you have Ray Rice's and
the Dwayne Bows and like all these different guys Vernon Davis,
I mean a lot of guys switching. And so the
company was doing good. I continue to have first rounders
every year, two or three first rounders every year up
until I got a phone call from a billionaire and

(31:37):
he told me that he was interested in purchasing my company,
and I ultimately talked to him and ultimately did agree
to sell my company to him.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
And and what years this? Two thousand and eleven or twelve?

Speaker 1 (31:51):
I can't two thousand and eleven, I think.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
So you're how old you?

Speaker 1 (31:56):
No? Yeah? Right around? Right around? Then?

Speaker 3 (31:59):
Right?

Speaker 2 (32:00):
So you've had your own company for eight years? Yes? Right?
So we I mean we had we've had our company
for twenty four right, And I think it was no
one was trying to buy our company after eight years.
I think we were trying to get out of bankercy
after eight years, right, So so how like what was
that call?

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Like?

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Did you expect that call? No?

Speaker 1 (32:16):
I mean I had a person connected to him that
had mentioned like they wanted to or whatever, and so
it was awesome, you know, as they set up a meeting,
they sent their money guy to come talk to me
or whatever it was, and then I flew. I think
it was a Palm beach, I think is where I
went down to Florida to meet with him and ultimately

(32:37):
ended up selling the company.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
And now, so when we did our last deal which
you were part of with the vcs, like, we had
investment bankers, we had lawyers with everything like well described
to me your whole team. Yes.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
So it was a private equity company called Todd France,
and we me and my team also known as Jennifer,
basically took our you know, quick books program, ran through
the numbers, and ultimately, in my creativity, I literally put
a letter of a proposal together and said, this is

(33:08):
what we have, this is what we have, is where
I think it's going, this is how much I want,
and this is what I think is fair. And I
went in with what I felt was very fair number.
Did you mention at the time, No, nothing technically, yeah,
there was nothing like that. No, it was very very
one on one yeah. And ultimately I submitted that and

(33:31):
like a couple of days later, they sent me an
email with an accounter offer and it was like a
few hundred thousand dollars off of what I asked for, yep.
And so I was just like, eh, I don't think
I should fight that because it was a great offer and.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
It was just you and Gen at the time. Or
do you have other employees?

Speaker 1 (33:47):
I had two or three other people at the time.
I don't remember exactly who, but yeah, I had a
handful of people and.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I'm all going to it. But I mean it was
a large number that you sold a company for at
a very young age, Like I mean, and I know you.
I was very spechuli his own company whatnot. But this
has to be uh, I mean, it had to be
a crazy experience.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well, I literally remember it like yesterday. So I ultimately
their their offer was a term sheet. Yeah, and I
mean I read it like ten times because I just didn't.
I was like wait, wait, wait, wait what what so
I mean, I was like shocked, and I picked immediately

(34:26):
called my wife, should answer a phone, and so I
picked up the phone, called my dad's like, dadd he
got the office. He's like yes, and his office is
like five minutes from mine. So I got printed out,
got in my car, drove to my dad's office. He's
sitting at the desk whenever's finishing a phone call. I
sit down in front of him. He said, what's up.
I gave him the sheet. It's reading it, looking at it,

(34:51):
and all of a sudden he just stands up, has tears.
You know, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
And to be clear though, like the amount that they
purchased your couple for, had they purchased and kept like,
it would have been a great deal for them too.
I mean, you know, I mean like it's it's a
great deal for both people. I mean, you're dealing with
the billionaire as a very smart businessman. You are where
you are now, Like you're right, your company is going
to continue to explode. But so you know I went
win for both you know, no, for sure it was

(35:16):
and then but but it wasn't because what happened. Yeah, so, uh,
two years later, everything's going fine, building the company continue
to have the same you know, level of players and
signing and all that. And ultimately we got a I
got a call from from from him and he says,
I'm in the finals Todd to buy the Buffalo Bills.

(35:39):
I should mention he owned the Buffalo Sabers at the time, Yes,
Terry Bgill, And he said, Todd, I'm in the finals
to buy the Buffalo Bills. Uh, against Donald Trump and
bon Jovi, and I feel like I've got more money
than both of them combined.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
So I'm going to win this. So we need to
figure out an exit strategy. Because obviously there's a conflict
of interest. I can't own an NFL team and an agency. Now,
for the life of me, to this day, I had
no idea why he'd picked a team over owning my
little agency. But you know, hey, you know exactly. So
at one point four billion later, he buys the Buffalo
Bills and no, So he wanted me to see if

(36:13):
there would be any other people. First of all, would
I buy it back even fifty cents on the dollar?
And I wouldn't. I just thought it would be too
hard to get back into the marketplace. I felt like
the competitors would be like, oh, the partner thought, you know,
he was this or that, just make up whatever they
would do. And I just felt like it was too much,
and so I didn't want to do it. And then
he said, well, I got a list of you know,

(36:35):
billionaires that I want you to tell me which ones
you'd want to, you know, have me go talk to
or whatever. And I just I didn't really want any
of those guys. I said, it's not what I signed
up for. I said, I never. My thing to him
was I didn't want his dream, his dream, to become
my nightmare. And you know, that's not what I wanted
to have happened. At the same time, I completely understood

(36:57):
his dream right owning the Sabers, and now I have
any chance on the bill, UNBELI And they are the
most unbelievable family, great people, like, great working relationship, And
so I didn't really want to do that, and I
put a proposal together that was really nothing, yeah and
just and he'd called back and said, yeah, there's no way.
We're just not getting your company back for nothing. And

(37:20):
I said okay, And so I called my dad. I
was like, it's not gonna be me having it back.
I don't know who it's going to be. We'll see.
And ultimately him and his wife uh called me and said,
we talked, we talked about it, and you're right, our
dream should not become your nightmare. I'm gonna have our
lawyers dropped the paperwork to give the company back to you.
And again I called my dad and he was like,

(37:41):
only you, We'll get your You saw your company and
a couple of years later get it back for nothing.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
That's absolutely crazy, you know, as amazing, that's uh. We
had a similar situation there. Our first investor was Tom Gores,
a Platum Equity and uh, you know it's just a
you know, a billionaire and whatnot. And then he had
to buy he was buying the Detroit Pistons, and you know,
because we have had some basketball involvement. Uh, he had
to sell back his his his shares to us. Now

(38:05):
we didn't get it back for free because we didn't
have you do our deal for us, but crazy similarity
luck luck. But I think also like for it's cool
like that, Like that's the type of people they are,
all right, I mean, like just amazing family and you
obviously know far better than I do. But and but
at the same time, for you, like if I was
in your situation, yes, you're a great negotiator, you're driving

(38:25):
a bargain. But it's different, right, I mean because you, like,
this is your companies, your baby, is your family, and
you don't want just any billionaire to be you know, involved,
because as personal in that.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Way, Yeah, it was. It wasn't. It wasn't just about
trying to sell it and make money or whatever it
might be, or get a company back for It was
really about the players. For me, it was always about
the players. And the reason I partnered with Terry to
begin with, is I thought like they had access my
players could have access to his financial people to evaluate
all the different business opportunities that come to player's way
or their own money, you know, and they would never

(38:56):
want they wouldn't represent the players financially because that's they
don't have enough money for the for the type of
people he was using. But I felt like it was
a point of difference and it could be a benefit
and the tentacles that a billionaire has with different people
I thought was of value to my players. And so
ultimately that was why I picked him as a partner.
To end up with some other guy who just buys
it because it's fun and his kid wants to come
play football in my office. Although I wasn't looking for

(39:17):
that and there was no value to that for for me,
for you know, money for me great, but like what
does it do for the players? Because at the end
of the day, like every decision I ever make, I
always remind myself, like why I am where I am
is because of the players, literally, like that is what
it is.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
We call it. Put in the athletes first, I t
that up for you. Yeah. So now so now you're
a free agent and you have a choice at this point.
You can either stay on your own right and and
you and Jennifer your team keep going, or you can
join you know, a billion different places, but you know,
a large colaborate like c A, which is ultimately what

(39:56):
you chose. Why why the large conglomerate as opposed to
staying on your own.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Well again, I think if for the first time I
had felt like what it was like to have the
extra resources and versus kind of being the lone ranger
and didn't know that I wanted to go back to
like having my own running my own thing, doing the
whole thing. And you know, look I got I did
get compensated, and so I was kind of like, what's
the easiest path here, what's the easiest path? It looks
the best, you know that I can continue to have

(40:20):
success and stuff, And on paper it was it was
c A yep, And so ultimately you know that's Ill
sold it to, which is.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Another pace Ark place Ark Paths Cross. We didn't know
like you you Soil you joined CA in September. In
May of that year, we sold thirty three percent of
our company to Densu. But from like February to May
that year, we were in talks with CA. You know,
we weren't talking with CA about possibly during their organization
and combining our two practices, and you know, ultimately we

(40:51):
you know, we went a different direction. But like you,
I mean, our talks with CA, they were brief, but
they were they're great, they're very well established. Was talking
to how you know who I thought the world of
and uh, you know, it's A it's a it's a
great it's a great company, great organization. So I can
see why we were both interested. Uh, we were on
different ways. But then you spent five years years ahead

(41:12):
of football, and obviously you guys had a lot of success.
You had a lot of success. Your employment contract ends
and you decide to, uh, like many of our players,
take the free agent route, tell me what that was
like to be the free agent finally, you know, like
you know it it was.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Crazy.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
You know.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
My wife thought it was so awesome and impressive that
there were sixteen companies that were coming after me, like legit,
And I didn't.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Think it more than sixteen.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Only sixteen I had a chance, right, yeah, sixteen that
I was sixteen, I was taught I had like listened
to or got message from or whatever there might have
been more, but I I actually did not enjoy it
was for the first time I put myself in the
issoes of a recruit getting called by fifty agents and
marketing people and financial people. I was like, holy cow,
like what this is what it's like? You know, And
as everyone's get me their pitch and bashing this company

(42:02):
that I'm like, oh my god, is that what a
player thinks when an agent bashes this guy and bashes
that guy? Like I literally the whole time was looking
at it from a recruiting angle as opposed to really
listening what they were talking about. I wanted to listen
to people because you know, you just you never know.
But ultimately, this one guy, this one company, who I
felt a good connection with and liked and kept talking

(42:23):
to was the one that I ultimately kept talking to.
But truly, during that time it was stressful. The only
time I was truly like relieved and happy was when
I was either sleeping or in the shower. My phone
wasn't ringing. I didn't have to tell people. Know, I
felt bad, you know, telling people certain things because you're
having like true competitors, people who you no hate you,

(42:44):
right or have hated you, have talked such smack about
you are now calling you, and like that takes a lot,
Like it's not easy to just hey, I've hated on
this guy and I let me call them see to
join our team. So it was it was an interesting,
very very interesting process.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
And aj from my point of view, like we alviously
knew who talked was right, I mean, and but never
enter our mind that we'd work with Todd, right, I mean,
like because that's like the Yankees and the Red sox Cel,
like you need to have a competitor to go against
to make you better. And then through Austin Lyman, he said, hey, like,
would you ever want to talk to Todd France? And
I'm like, I guess so, but like this is this

(43:16):
is another kind of lesson, right, Like I didn't like
Todd at all. I had never met him. I didn't
like him at all because I just thought he was
I don't know, I didn't like him right.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Because he was winning.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Yeah well yeah, I mean he was coming second, but yeah,
you know, but uh so, uh But I had two
personal interactions with Todd. The first one was at the
NFL Draft. We're both in the green room and I'm
there with Deshaun Kaiser, you know, and Brian Kelly and
everyone and.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Who you beat me on and recruiting deshawnka Yeah, well
we beat It's a whole other story.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Tell that story. But and came back. But but I'm
sitting there and Deshaun cog goes in the second round
and and I don't know if you've ever been in
a situation, but being in the green room with someone
who's not been one of the thirty two picks is terrible, right,
And you feel like the whole world's looking at you,
and I'm fat and sweaty and everything, and like all
of a sudden, I feel is like tapping my shoulder
turned outd Todd. I'm like, oh yeah, dude, like go

(44:09):
ahead and say I will punch you in the face
right now.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
It's like, hey, man, listen, just so you know. I've
been here before. It's a terrible feeling. He's gonna be
fine tomorrow, like just started consoling me, right And I'm like, okay, well, hey,
thanks man, I appreciate it, you know.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
And I was not hanging on to Shawn's door that night,
by the way, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Like the next morning to jar. I was like, hey,
Todd came up, but uh, you know, but that was
really nice. And then the second one, I think we're
both leaving the combine or in Indianapolis from the airport
and our flights have been to Layed, Atlanta, and we
just kind of saw each other and Todd came up
and start talking and we're just talking about like life,
like his wife and his two daughters. I have two daughters, whatnot.
I'm like, man like, I don't like it, but what

(44:48):
a what a nice, personable, funny type of guy, you
know what I mean. So when I got the call like, hey,
do you want to go talk to Todd, I I
remember those two instances and I'm like, yeah, we might
as well. So Trace arm Strong and I flew down.
We met him in a big hotel room in Atlanta.
I don't know what time I met eight o'clock and
night whatever, but we're there till four o'clock in the morning,
speaking and like no alcohol, right, So I remember Todd

(45:10):
Trace I leaving like it's light out, like well this
is weird, you know, but it like eight hours, nine
hours talking about the whole story you just heard what
athletes first meant to me what we were trying to
do with Athletes First, what we were both looking for,
you know, And it wasn't at that time, it wasn't
a sales pitch, right, It was just like, here's who
Athletes First is, here's who I am, here's what trace
Ny and everyone else trying to build. If that's appealing

(45:33):
to you, then then we should hear about you. And
then Todd told us all about him. It's like we
left there like that would be a great fit. I
have no idea if it could ever pull this off,
because it would be two Titans coming together, you know,
Athletes First and Todd. But we decided to pursue it,
you know, and uh, you know, thankfully you weren't there
to help him negotiate. But it was hard enough just

(45:55):
talking to Todd and money on the table. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, probably,
but uh but one of the issues that we talked about,
right is, like you know, we joke about, but like
Athletes First was doing very well, h and we had
David Muligeda, right, who was you know, Todd and David
were on their own parallel and there was everyone else
at the time. But you know, we talked about that like,

(46:15):
what we what were your thoughts about David. I don't
thinket I ever met David, but what was that issue
in your mind or obstacle or opportunity or whatever you
wanna call it.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
You know, it's like it's like anything like when I
went into the Poula situation. You go in with your
eyes wide open and all excited, and you think it's
gonna be perfect, and then you realize, you know, there's hiccups,
whether it's an employee that you inherit or other things
right or they're you know, you go into the next
company and you're like thinking, it's gonna be awesome, everyone's
gonna be you know, and so and it's not. And

(46:45):
so when I had the opportunity, and that was Athletes First,
there was other agencies obviously, and it was another Hollywood
agency that was starting football, and you know, it was
trying to have me come there, and ultimately, like I
brought you in in and Julie another girl that works
with us, and let them give me their input because
they are who you know, they helped make me who
I am, so I wanted their thoughts and ultimately, you know,
Athletes First became sort of the front runner for me,

(47:08):
and what made the most sense, but yes, a hesitation,
no doubt was David being here. And it wasn't about
anything other than like, is this going to be We're
gonna be able to mesh? Right, I'd heard bad things,
you know, all this kind of stuff, didn't know them.
But big reason I ultimately did come was because of David. Ironically,

(47:31):
he called me all the time. He was telling me
how great it would be, all this kind of stuff.
He was like, you know, believer in having it. And
I will tell you one of the best things about
being here has been the relationship that I've developed with him,
and the trust and just the back and forth and
the fun times we have. And you I would have
given that a ten percent chance of actually really happening

(47:55):
at the time I was considering coming here. So ultimately
the biggest concern ended up being the least of my concerns.
As a matter of fact, it became a big plus.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Yeah, absolutely, And I go back to the Joey Harrington
David car store. We told right, I mean, so you know,
I sat down with David before even approaching Todd, and
he said, hey, what do you think about this?

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Right?

Speaker 2 (48:12):
He said, well, are you trying to replace me? I'm like,
why would we try to replace you? He's like, no,
he's getting He's like, listen, man, he said, Marph, I
came to athletes versus an intern. I want to be
the best agent there is in the business. But I
also want to be part of the best family there
is in the business, best agency, and Todd's as good
as they come, right. So if you put Todd and
I on the same team, like you guys can go
on vacation, just come back and let us take care

(48:33):
of business, you know, and say I love to work
with him, but I want to talk to him first,
you know. I mean, I want to make sure that
he feels the same way. And I think you guys
have those conversations. You're both like, we don't care who
gets the credit. We don't care as long as we
can become the best of the best and the best
there ever was. And that's hard. That's the dream team
we want to be part of, you know.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
And it didn't take him long to decide that neither
of them was going to be Scottie Pippen. And they
decided one of them was twenty three Michael Jordan and
the other was forty five Michael Jordan, where it.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Was me twenty three because I was older, and we
gave him forty five. Yes, he did not want to
be pipping, but he was good being the different Michael Jordan.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
And so now you've been here four years. Two years
ago we did a deal with the venture capitalist and
you rightfully became an equity partner. And like you said
at the beginning of the podcast, you do own the place,
so you connect any way you want your What are
your impressions after four years being here?

Speaker 1 (49:22):
It's everything I hoped it would be. But again came
in really really cautious just because of previous things, and
you hope for all this and you never think it's
really going to be that. And I think the number
one takeaways say, I'm super close with my own family.
I live next door to my brother, you know fam
my father lives in mom liberal clothes, and my sister,
and I think that's super important. I feel like that's
how I treat my players. I literally treat them as

(49:44):
if they're my sons or my you know kids, or
or I'm an uncle to them. And so the culture
here has been everything you can want. And then someone
I've never been a culture guy because I've always been
on my own and previous places i've been, culture really
wasn't the thing. I was actually some you know, quite
the opposite. And so to come here and actually see
it and realize you really do have teammates, and these

(50:05):
teammates truly want the best for you, and the teammates
will help you in any which way. I think it's unbelievable.
It starts from the top. It's with you. It's what
you believe, and it's what you preach, it's what you
require and it happens. So I love that. I also
love the fact that my creativity is never going to
be squashed. It's actually like, what's your idea, Okay, let's

(50:26):
figure out how to make that come to life. And
is it always easy? No? But are all ideas welcome
and do we really try to make those things happen? Absolutely?
I mean you can look at all the different things
this agency does, and so for those reasons like it's
it's been, it's been an unbelievable experience. It's been great,
and most importantly, like not only for me, but my staff,

(50:46):
which is important because again they are they make me
me and then even more important than them is the
people that you put first, which is the athletes. And
I think that when I've put them, I feel very
confident I've put them in the best possible place and
surrounding with the best possible people and all the best
possible resources. And at the end of the day, like
I said earlier, like everything for me is about the players.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yep, yep, no. And we you know, one of our
mantras is better together, right, And uh, there's no question
that over the last four years, you and the people
you brought with you, you've made athletes for so much better.
You've made me a lot better. I mean, you've pushed
the heck out of me. You challenged me. You you're like,
you won't settle for mediocrity, you won't settle for anything
but brilliant and our results and U and I appreciate that.

(51:28):
I mean, I think you've made David better. David made
you better. Like you guys, you guys compete, but you
collaborate and it's it's it's been awesome. And athletes first
wantn't be doing a podcast. There's no way we of
doing a podcast today without your influence. I know You're
not a big podcast by it, but just thinking outside
the box and how can we do different things to
make us different. It's been awesome. So so in on

(51:48):
our next episode, we're going to get into your actual
clients and we're gonna jump into Dak Prescott and the
two record setting deals you do with Dak, and it's
gonna be great. But I would like to ended each
podcast with our kind of lesson has learned, you know,
to a sponte whatnot. And it makes me go first,
So I'll go first, and I think the lesson I learned?
Uh And I might have said this one of my

(52:09):
previous podcasts, but you know, you hear Todd talk about like,
you know, his brother and following his brother to college
and you know, going to his dad's office and talk
to his mom on the phone and stuff like that,
and like, you know, people make fun of me because
I always took my talk about athletes firstall with family. Family, family,
and people like, dude, you're a sports agent. There's no
way that family is important to you guys, you know,
but it is. It's everything to me. And I think,

(52:31):
you know, you look at Todd and you look at
the success you've had and again, no one's had the
success that you've had. And you know, why why have
you been so successful? And there's there's a lot of
different reasons why of them sitting next to you, but
you know, I think the main reason, and if I
had to guess, the main reason you've been so successful
is you treat everyone around you like their family, like you.

(52:53):
I mean, you have every reason to not treat people
the same as you. You have every reason to like
feel that in some ways you're better than them, but
you're the boss or whatever it is. But like, whether
it's your clients, whether it's your staff, whether it's your partners,
whether it's my like my wife, my kids, like you,
just treat everyone like their family, you know. And and
you you exude that positivity and that happiness and like

(53:17):
just that, hey man, we're all in this together, and
whether it's good or bad, we're gonna win, you know.
And I have no doubt whether you're in our sabe,
we're gonna continue to win. But I think it goes
back to, like, you know, the lesson that we started
the very first step, Like family is important. Man, That
family gives you a power. And when you treat people
like family and make them feel like family. They're gonna
do more for you than if they're just a high

(53:37):
paid employee or even a friend. Right, So I think
the power of family is huge and that wasn't what
I thought we're gonna really dive into today, but like,
you personify that. So that's that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Man.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
I appreciate you, you know, yeh, you know, bringing that
whole thing to what was already a family, like bring
that to a whole new level. That's awesome. So a
j Yeah, lessons from your boss.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
Yeah, I think the lesson the takeaway, Okay, I think
the lesson takeaway that I have from from Todd's story
is really the the importance of a mentor uh.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
You know, through every twist and turn that you have
in your career, you always went back to the same person,
and in your case it was your dad, where you
had that person you could come back to and say,
here are all the things going on, here's my options,
what should I do? And it's you know, just looking
for someone for some sort of guidance and the importance
of having that person in your life. In your case
it's your dad, and for other people it can be

(54:32):
you know, any other First. Yeah, in my case it's Todd, no,
my dad, but it's it's a super important aspect of
anyone's growth in a career, in life and anything, and
I think that your story personifies that.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Yeah, I've never made any decisions. We'll talk about dad,
you know, like the only stasion maybe we'll talking to
Dad was not going to join his law firm, which
he's still begrudges before. But uh, yeah, that's a great point.
Ajay Todd close it with your life lessons Learned Today.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Well, I'm a huge podcast fan. Now, I mean, I
it's I don't know about the lesson Its just it.
I think everything I talked about it, I feel like
I'm a very grounded person, Like I never forget where
I came from. I never forget what put me here,
and I never forget you know, what I wake up
for every day in terms of who I work for,
which is the players, and so for me, you know,

(55:20):
just listening to the questions and then replaying the stories
of my history, you know, over and over. It just
it reminds me like anybody who's doing anything to get anywhere,
it's it's it doesn't happen overnight. It takes relentless effort,
tireless work, a few lucky breaks, and getting in bed
well hopefully with the right people. And you know, at

(55:41):
the end of sguratively, uh, I have so many helm
I just stand stay stay a board on this. But uh,
at the end of the day, you know, I think
that it just is very humbling and thinking about all
this stuff. Like I said, I didn't know the stats.
I don't ever think about that. Like for me, I
just I'm always been a guy who just puts their

(56:02):
head down and grinds. I expect the results, so I'm
never like surprised with them because I only expect them.
I'll be surprised if something didn't work. And so you know,
I feel very fortunate and fortunate with the people who
helped me get to where I am and the people
that I'm surrounded with today. So I say, that's my takeaway.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
It's awesome. And I think one thing we've learned from
these podcasts is like it's fun going down memory lane.
You know what I mean it's fun is that you
because you don't really take a lot we don't have
a lot of time to think about like what we
did when we first opened the office or whatnot. But
is it fun for us hopefully. But that's one reason
we want to do this podcast is because like it
wasn't like you started with, like you know, you didn't
grow up with an extra neighbor. It was a star

(56:40):
quarterback or something like that, right, I mean you you
have gone from you know, uh, a well dressed employee
for ants Thrasher team whatever. It was, right, one of
the best agents of all time, if not the best
agent of all time. And it's uh, there's a lot
of work there, but like anyone can do it, they
just have to. They take these lessons, and I think
that's what we while we want want to share our stories,

(57:00):
it's like, hey, man, like it's just get going, Just
get started. You have a dream, chase out, whether it's
a sports agent or any other profession. Like put your
head down, work your ass off, be creative, don't take
no for an answer, just go go go. So it's uh,
it's awesome, it was. I love hearing your story. It's
it's amazing. You inspire me. Uh, you inspire everyone at
athletes First and I can't wait the next podcast, maybe

(57:23):
more you and AJ talking about Dak Prescott's two deals
and uh we thank you for joining us, appreciate it,
Thanks for having me, See you next time.

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How Todd Became A Forbes List Top NFL Agent | Athletes First Family Podcast Ep-9

Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Brian Murphy

AJ Stevens

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How Todd Became A Forbes List Top NFL Agent | Athletes First Family Podcast Ep-9