January 23, 2025 • 33 mins
What’s the real story behind the NFL’s most game-changing quarterback contracts? In this episode of the Athletes First Family Podcast, we uncover the journey of building a billion-dollar agency, the challenges of starting from scratch, and the record-breaking deals that define NFL history. From Drew Bledsoe’s groundbreaking contract to Justin Herbert’s $100M first-year cash flow, we explore the evolution of quarterback salaries and the personal values that drive Athletes First.
Join CEO Brian Murphy, VP AJ Stevens, and the team as they reflect on loyalty, family values, and the pivotal decisions that shaped their legacy. With $1.4 billion in active QB contracts, discover how persistence, relationships, and moral pillars create success on and off the field.
#nfl #quarterbacks #sportsbusiness
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Timestamps
00:00:35 - Discussion on Landmark Quarterback Deals and Their Evolution
00:02:01 - Transition from SMD to Starting Athletes First
00:04:01 - Initial Panic Over Client Engagement
00:05:00 - The Search for Initial Funding and Investment Challenges
00:06:43 - The Struggles of Building a Client Base from Scratch
00:07:14 - Drew Bledsoe's Contract as the First Major Deal
00:09:40 - Dak Prescott's Contract Comparison
00:09:58 - Rise of Veteran NFL Player Salaries
00:10:36 - Justin Herbert's First-Year Cash Flow
00:12:59 - Tom Brady's Rise to Starting Quarterback
00:17:43 - Joey Harrington's Impact on the Agency
00:18:35 - Introduction to David Carr and the Draft
00:21:40 - Reflection on Passing Up the Number One Pick
00:24:25 - Carson Palmer Becomes Highest-Paid Quarterback
00:27:54 - Overview of Negotiation Strategies
00:28:27 - Importance of Persistence in Deal-Making
00:30:01 - Lessons Learned from Early Days of Athletes First
00:31:38 - The Role of Family Values in Sports
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Drew Bloodsoe is the exact type of player in person
upon which you want to build this new company. He's
like his first pick in the draft. It's one of
the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Welcome to the second
episode of the Athletes's First Family podcast quarterback series. I'm
(00:20):
Brian Murphy, CEO of Athletes First Back by co host
AJ Stevens, VP of Client Strategy, and as we're found out,
maybe the best negotiator in the business.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thanks Murph, happy to be back for a second episode.
You know, we're talking about Athletes First, dominance in the
quarterback market and quarterback contracts, and right now we currently
have one point four billion dollars of quarterback contracts on
the books at a one So obviously we're gonna talk
about our dominance that way because it's the most that
any agency has in the NFL right now. But in
(00:51):
this episode, specifically, we're gonna go back to the beginning
of Athletes First. We're gonna have you explain to me
how all these landmark quarterback deals started, how they have
progressed to the deals that we've done more recently, and
the lessons that you've learned along the way. Those early
experiences obviously set the foundation for Athletes First success.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So I can't wait to hear them.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, and we did these deals without you, which is
like unheard of now, right, you know, but I'm not
sure if you were born back then. But as you know,
we've done Athletes First has done the top NFL quarterback
deal twelve different times. Right, We're going to in this
episode go back to the first time. And so go
back to the very beginning of Athletes First, which was
two thousand and one. So I had started as a
sports agent at nineteen ninety nine, worked for Steinberg Run
(01:34):
and Done, largest agency in the world at the time,
and worked there for about two years. And in two thousand
and one, February two thousand and one, Dave Dunn and
I decided that we're going to leave SMD and start
Athletes First. We had had a good experience at SMD.
It was a really scary decision to leave this massive,
hugely successful company had sold itself to a public trade
(01:57):
company up in Canada. But we just thought that maybe
we could do things a little bit differently. We could
do things maybe a little more athlete first focused and
build like what we thought of like a family value,
like a family philosophy. It's supposed to a maybe a
transaction based flaw.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So really taking it from a big organization to a smaller,
more client faced entity.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Absolutely, absolutely, And again remember I had no idea what
to do is starting a business, I say, college a
major litigator. So this was like rolling the dice. And
I just rolled the dice. Two years earlier, leaving my
very high paying job as a lawyer at Ropes and Gray,
moved to California with my wife was seven months pregnant
to become a sports agent. Right, and so now two
(02:37):
years later is working out pretty well. Let's go all
back in and throw the money and try it again.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So and for the viewers at home, your wife is
still with you, Yeah, turning down jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Twice, no doubt. So so we tided to roll the dice.
And you know at the time, it's funny. So we
left in February Febry sixteenth, two thousand and one. At
the time, and now, Dave Done was super close with
Drew Bludsoe and Drew Bloodsoe is the exact type of
player in person upon which you want to build this
new company. He's like one of the first pick in
the draft. It's one of the best quarterbacks in the
(03:08):
NFL and and just a super person. I mean comes
from a great family. Is a great family, like we
had hired his his uh you know, future sister in law, uh,
you know, to be one of our five first st
So you know, two Bloodstoe is like the perfect person
to start a new company with. Right, So we left
SMD and we announced our departure. That's all you can do.
(03:28):
You can't go hey, come with say hey, we're starting
a new company. Athletes first. Here we are.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So there was no who's coming with me?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
No, no Jerry maguire moment decide despite leaving the office
in which Jerry McGuire was filmed at Lee's office. But anyways,
we left, and you know, we thought people want to
join us there and give us a call. Certainly thought
two Bludso would be the first one calling Hey guys, Hey, Dave,
I want to join You didn't call us on day one,
you know, didn't call us on day two, didn't call
us on day three. So we're sitting there like Dave, like,
(03:56):
are you sure this is a good idea to go
start a new agency? You know, like his family face family,
both focused, We're gonna be great quarterbacks. But Drew's not
even calling us. So that was panic mode from the beginning. Uh.
Turns out in the story, Drew was on a remote
ski trip, you know, like helicopters skiing and whatnot, and
had no cell service, had no idea that we had
(04:18):
left the place, and had no idea that, and David
and I had started own companies.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So for the record, helicopter skiing is definitely something that
voids a player's contract.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And we haven't got to his contract yet, you know,
I mean, I guess probably he had one his rocky contract.
But so Drew came back and they called Dave, and
Dave got up with speed and you know, Drew Bludsoe.
It became our first client, and it was uh, I
think just this past month or two, we signed Scott
Hanson to a broadcast, you know, from Red Zone. I
was telling Scott, like, Scott, this is one of our
biggest signings, sins Drew budd so because you know, as
(04:49):
Scott is to broadcast, as Drew Bludsoell was to UH
to NFL quarterbacks at the time, So that was a
that was great. The other part of leaving, which is
kind of funny, is that when we left, I was
on the impression I had been told that there was
this big businessman in Boston who's gonna write a three
million dollar check and help us start athletes first. This
is a couple of weeks after we left, and so
(05:11):
I actually literally get a piece of paper napkin, and
it said like three million dollars, fifteen percent equity, you know,
with the name and the number, and I know what
it meant, but I knew we needed money to run
a company. So I called the number and the guy answered,
He's like, hey, how you doing. I said, Hey, Murphy
or Brian Murphy. You know, partners with Dave Dunn, you know,
friends with various people including Drew, and you know, told
(05:33):
that you want to write us a check for three
million dollars and invest in athletes first. And he said,
what what are you talking about? Like, I don't know,
but like you know, we started a new company. We
need might. So I don't know how you get me
three million dollars. You like, send it out, let me
come pick it up. You want to write a check
for it?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Not?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And I have no idea how to give you fifteen
percent equity. LC's not even creage yet, but like, let's
just agree that that's what we're going to do, and
you know, the details a little bit hazy. It's a
long time ago. By I'm almost positive the guy said
to me, Hey, listen, you know, good luck to you.
And I think Dave is phenomenal, but like, I'm in
the process of buying the Boston Celtics, so I can't
buy the Boston tellsic saands sports. I can see the
(06:06):
same time, you know. And that was my last conversation
with Wick Rosbeck, who did indeed buy the Celtics and
is now selling him at this time. But good decision
as successful as Athletes First was or is. I think
we probably made a good decision. I have no idea
if he had any clue I was talking about at
the time. But that's how we started Athletes First, with
(06:26):
Drew on a ski trip and Wick Rosspec saying he
wasn't going to invest with us, and so that started
like a year long process, like i'd say, over one
hundred beings looking for people to investment. Because David I
did have him. By David a little bit, I had none.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So while you're doing this basically trying to find investors,
going around trying to find anyone who's willing to invest
in this company that doesn't have any clients.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Some clients very few, and once a potential client on
a ski trip, and then some a couple of other clients.
And then one thing we had, without question was massive
litigation coming down the road. So it wasn't the best investment,
all right.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So you're trying to find investors, you're still trying to
run a sports agency, start one from the ground up essentially, yep.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
And so how does that go?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, I mean we're operating out of Dave's living room.
Is like four or five of us there, and like
you said, Drew Bledsoe joined and Drew had been at
SMD with us, and we've been trying to work on
his contract, or they've been trying to work on his
contract for a long time, you know, at least Tomberg
had tried Jeff Moore to try both amazing agents. It
just didn't work. And so when Drew came to Athletes
(07:29):
First again probably February mid February, our first order of
business was to get his contract done. And in fact,
I think it was like maybe The first contract we
ever did at Athletes First was Drew's veteran deal, which,
as you know, you're live then, but what you know,
that was the largest deal in NFL history. He obviously
was the highest paid quarterback in NFL history. So we've
(07:50):
done it twelve times since. But that first one, you know,
in his Key trip, I didn't know if it was
ever going to fruition, but it was a huge moment.
I mean, it's a month month into Athletes First. It
was a huge deal at the time, and we're pretty proud,
but like huge deal at the time. You know what
we did this past year, the kind of compare those.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Two, right, So February is when Drew finally says he's
willing to come on Athletes First.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
He's going to be your first big client.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Anyways, Yep, one month later, March seventeenth, two thousand and one,
and I was alive by the way, Drew Bledsoe signs
the largest contract in NFL history. It's a ten year,
one hundred and three million dollar contract, averages just over
ten million dollars per year at the time.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
That's that's massive, right.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, if you had been with us at the time,
we're gonna talk about this in subsequent episode, but like,
how would you have fell about the ten year deal?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I would have cringed pretty hard at the ten year term.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
You know, we talk a lot about trying to get
back to the market as soon as possible, and one
of the reasons we do is because when you signed
the deal in two thousand and one, the salary cap
was sixty seven million dollars, so Bledsoe's deal takes up
about fifteen percent of the salary cap. Then if we
fast forward a few years, the salary cap has gone
(08:58):
up so much over each year because and the way
we look at deals is as the salary cap increases,
we expect NFL contracts to increase with it, and especially
with quarterback deals, where we've seen the value of the
quarterback position rise exponentially since two thousand and one, it
was a running backs we're getting drafted super high back
then now it's almost strictly quarterbacks that are going to
(09:21):
get drafted high and paid the highest. And the percentage
that is given to the top quarterbacks has gone up
exponentially as well. So when we talk about Dak Prescott
in a few episodes, we can compare his contract. Twenty
three years later, he's making sixty million dollars per year
instead of ten million dollars per year, and it's a
(09:42):
twenty three and a half percent of the current salary cap,
which is two hundred and fifty five point four million dollars.
It's going to be a little bit bigger here coming
up in twenty twenty five. But then, just looking at
the landscape of all veteran NFL players, there are two
hundred and twenty five of them who make at least
ten million dollars per year or more so. At the
(10:03):
time Drew Bledsoe signs this deal, it's it's record breaking,
biggest in NFL history. Fast forward twenty three years and
there's two hundred and twenty five NFL players who are
making more on an annual basis than Drews deal.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
That's crazy that we're going to talk about this as
a subsequent episode. But like Drews deal, amazing deal, a huge,
unbelievable deal, right, and I think you said one hundred
and three million. Let me just throw out some what
was justin Herbert's first year cash flow in his new year.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, and so we're going to talk about this one
in an episode or two from now, and in Justin's
first new year of his extension, first year of his extension,
he will have earned one hundred million dollars of new
cashs in that first new year. Okay, so one million
or one hundred million in one year versus one hundred
and three million in ten years.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
It's it's changed quite a bit, and.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
It's just amazing now, no, I mean, at the time,
one hundred million dollars was a lot from for a
kid from Wall Wall, Washington. And as you may or
may not know, Drew done gone on to do amazing
things off the field. It just is just an amazing person,
great businessman, great wine company, has or a vineyards. So
he's fine. But I mean, that's crazy that Justin Herbert
one year cash fellow new money, who's same as Jew's ten.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Year deal, right, I think that's that's crazy to look
at the quarterback landscape over the years. But just going
back to Drew's story, because this is one that you know,
I was born, but I was eleven years old, yep,
So I don't remember exactly how this played out, but
I do know the name Tom Brady quite well, sure,
and Tom Brady shortly after you did this deal, Wally pippeds.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, well well I pipped Yeah. I mean so I
think this is the story kind of is a microcosm
of the overall twenty four year journey athletes first had.
Because imagine this, like, I mean, just the change of
emotions roller coaster, like starting a new company's super excited.
The one person we thought would definitely joining Drew buzz
So we don't hear from him, you know what I mean.
So we're almost like like should we go back? Should
I go back to be a lawyer? Like if Juw
doesn't want to work with us, who will? Then he calls,
(11:56):
We're all excited, and then he's a starring quarterback for
the Pages. I grew up in New England in Boston.
My wife grew up in Foxboro, like you know, five
minutes from the stadium. And we do the biggest deal
in NFL history, and we're all excited. And when Drew's
go on, I did a marketing deal with him Papacino,
it's my favorite pizza plates. I'm like, this is a dream, Like, yeah,
we got all this ligates, but this is a dream
of utopia. And then I think it was in November.
(12:19):
Uh you know, no September. It was September Drew's as
a lot of people know too, Bloodhells playing against the Jets,
got you know, hit very hard on the sidelines, get
rushed to the hospital, really bad injury. Right, you know,
the money's not important at that point. His health was
an injury. But you know he obviously came back and
played later in the year. But yeah, you're right, Drew,
(12:40):
but Tom Brady came in, became a starter, led the
Patriots to the playoffs. I'm so torn, like I want
no offense to Tom, but I really want Tom to
lose or I don't want to get hurt, but I
wanted to lose, and so Drew could come back. And uh,
you know, Tom led him to the This is before
the whole dynasty began, led him to the playoffs. And
then you you may not remember, uh Uhrew. Tom actually
(13:03):
got hurt in the SC Championship game against Pittsburgh in
the first half and Drew Bludso came out and boom
boom boom touched down the end of the first half
and he was just your true like rifle and bullets
and everything like that, and uh, you know, I led
him to Victrio. They over the Steelers, so they go
to the Super Bowl, and then there's all kinds of questions,
you know, probably not in like the media and whatnot,
(13:23):
like is Drew gonna starts? Tom gonna start? Drew gonna start?
Tom'm gonna start?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Pretty pivotal moment in Bill Belichick's coaching career.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, who knows, maybe if maybe
if drewids started Super Bowl, they would have won buy
more and in one ten Super I don't know, but
it's uh, you know, you know, obviously he went with Tom,
and Tom, you know, won the Super Bowl, and then
I think he won seven more, including one for your
your Buccaneers later in the year. But you know, I
tell you what it was. It was a huge lesson
for us. And I tell Drew this every time I
(13:50):
see him, Like we would I would not have the
life I have but for Drew buds So. Athletes first
would not be here but for Drew Budso. And he
always says like Drew, like now Murphia full if like
no job telling you, And like this year this season
with Drew and he was super close with Dave Dunn,
and I was just like the young associate like falling
around carrying their bags and whatnot. But you watch Drew
(14:10):
and you like, it's easy, take your bag, take your ball,
go home. It's easy to gripe about it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
He supported Tom so much. As he said, Tom asked
him for a lot of advice and gave it to him.
He wanted Drew to be the best. He wanted time
to be the best he could because he knew the
better Tom was, the better team was, and like Drew
a number one pick, the highest paid player in the league,
taking a step back and saying, hey, Tom, let me
do everything it can to make you successful, never griping
about it. I'm sure there's you know, pub private moments
(14:36):
with him and Dave done where he you know, you know,
spoke his mind a little bit. But man, it's one
of the athletes' first philosophies that we're going to talk
throughout the series is like do the right thing the
right reasons, with the right people. And that was all
Drew bludso That's what Drew Bludsoll did. I watched it.
I watched it at work and then he also the
other thing is he surrounded himself a family always surround
(14:57):
himself a family, treated his team like family. Treat tom
My family, but he had two great parents, brother, everything
that we treat us like family and think, you know,
when you go through those hard times, you want to
be surrounded by family. You want to be surrounded by
people like two Bloods. So yeah, none of this, We're
not here without two Blood So funny story about his
family though. Mac Blood, so phenomenal guy played the guitar
(15:18):
at one of our company retreats where a couple of
treat at the Blood so you know, mansion up in Montana.
But you know, fast forward several years to another Patriot
client that we represented, Aaron Hernandez, right, and Aaron's in
jail and back in Boston and I put together his
legal team. I went to visit Aaron Chico in jail
(15:39):
and there's a wait in the waiting room. Look around
and there's only one book in the whole waiting room.
It is like twenty copies of this one book and
it was Parenting with Dignity by Mack bloodsoe, what are
the chance it's like this is like a sign from
God or something like that, Like you know, like it's
just bizarre. But so Uh, yeah, I'm very thankful to
Drew us. He's taught us a lot, continues to support us.
(16:00):
We continue to work for him, and it's just we're
very lucky to have a part of the Athletes first film,
not part the founder, basically of the Athletes.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
There was a lot to unpacked there.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
We could probably do a whole episode on, but I
do want to you know, acknowledge, you know, you start
off with this record breaking veteran deal, but the business
that you know, we are in it starts first and
foremost with helping the college athletes make that transition from
you know, being the college athlete into being a NFL player,
(16:31):
which is a full time job. You go from student
athlete to full time football player, and those are very
formative years for these clients, right yep. And you're helping
them make that transition, get adjusted, become a fully grown
adult with a lot of money all of a sudden.
So how is that going while you are transitioning into
this new agency?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, and I'm only I'm twenty nine years old myself, right,
I mean, so I don't really know how to be
a full adult, you know. But no, So we started
the company in February two thousand and one, and we
had some players in that draft who who had come over,
like Gary Baxter was in that draft, you know, went
on to be a great safety. But two thousand and
two was our first NFL draft, as you know, like
(17:11):
your agencies are really defined by the draft classes. Why
we're so proud we've had, you know, four last five years,
we had more first rounders than anyone. But we're new, right,
we're new, and we're facing this litigation. And you know,
as as as long as Dave Dunn had done this,
he was always in Lee Steinberg shadow. So this is
for Dave's first time out in front and center, in
front of everybody, and you know, everyone's spreading nasty rumors
(17:33):
about us, and we're gonna be you know, bankrupt, They're
gonna you know, take us away and whatnot. So we
just went and fought to fought. Fight. The fought to fight.
And it's funny talking. We talked about Justin Herbert earlier
at Oregon quarterback back in the day two thousand and two,
our big recruit was Joey Harrington. You know Joey Harrington,
the Oregon Ducks. I don't know if you remember this.
But they had the Heisman campaign to put his picture
up on the you know, in Times Square, you know,
(17:55):
on the big the big building billboard and everything. He's everywhere.
Joey Harrington. We got super lucky. He enjoy Harrington picked
athletes first, and I think probably at the time he
picked us based on what we knew. We hopefully its
gonna be a first round. I thot would be a
first round or but maybe mid to late first round.
But as the process is unfolding, Joey's just Joey. He's
just everyone doing the interviews, everyone loves him. He's throwing
(18:16):
the ball like no one's business. He's just I mean,
you you look at joe Okay, this is a perfect
human being, right in anyways, Right, So, everything's going great
and we're enjoying it. But then something happened was very unusual.
The number one pick of the draft that year was
gonna be uh, David Carr. Right Houston was a new team.
They were taking them, There's no surprises about it. And
(18:37):
then David Carr suddenly fired his agent, you know, and
I don't know why, but he fired his agent, and
his manager reached out to us and said, hey, would
you guys like to represent David Carr? You know, he'd
be interested beating with you and talking to you guys,
And you know, I think you guys have a good shot.
And we're like, we're gonna have the number one pick
in the draft, like like right, I mean their first
real draft. First you got the bloodsilk and then this
(18:59):
this is like too good to be true, right you know.
But but you know, players coming out of college, they
worry about the conflicts, right, they worry about Hey, listen,
am I your guy? And if you have too many
people at any position who you're going to be pushing.
And you know, reality is is you don't You don't
really push either one of them. Twenty four years and.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
This is when you're still very small company, right.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So now that we've got to the point where we
are as big as we are, we have so many
different agents that can represent multiple different quarterbacks in the
same draft class. Absolutely, and it's really about we're able
to share information that helps them all.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah. Yeah, but here it's really Dave. I mean, you know,
in the day with the guy, so uh, you know,
so we say, you know what athletes first, we got
to put athletes first, let's talk to Joey about this,
see how he feels about it. Let's just not go
make this decision, this business decision that has personal impact.
So we sat down, we talked to Joey, and like
I said, Joey was like the perfect human being at
(19:50):
the time, and he said, hey, listen, go ahead. And
Joey's also super smart. He's like, I understand having the
number one pick in the draft, your first draft, Like
I get that, you know, and hopefully that can be
the second pick of the third pick. He ended up
being the third pick to the Troy Alliance. But he's like,
I get it, I understand, you know, Like it wasn't
what I expected when I signed with you guys, but
I'm not gonna get in the way. And so he
(20:11):
gave us screen light, you know. But we sat down
and we said, listens, like a year after we started,
we started this company to put the athletes first. There's
no way Joey thought we're going to sign David Carr.
Maybe he would have made the same decision. Maybe it wouldn't,
but it's not the right thing to do. We really
want to do it, you know what I mean. But
and it wasn't about Joey. I mean, it was about
(20:31):
Joey because he was the person there at the time,
but he gave it us screen light. He said, okay,
go do it. Support It was a supportive of it.
But we're like, this is our first real test about
whether we're always you know, we're going to have that
blind adherence to put in the athletes first, and there'll
be other opportunities, we hope. We had no idea, We
didn't even if we could survive the lawsuit, right, but
you know, let's this's kindly passed. Thank David, his business manager,
(20:51):
for the opportunity. Unbelieve oppornity. Another great guy. But let's
just put all our focus on Joey and do the
best we can for Joey. And uh, you know, see
what happens, and Joey ended up being number three pick
in the draft, went to Detroit. Lions still have a
great relationship with Joey, honored him at the Athlete's First
Classic not too many years ago, and uh, you know
it was absolutely one thousand percent the right decision at
(21:13):
the time and no awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
So you pass on the number one overall pick that year, Yep,
you still have the top top three draft pick, and
Joey Harrington.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
And number four too of Mike Williams the Buffalo Bills,
and yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It was, so you have the ball rolling here, do
you then subsequently sign a first overall pick? Do you
do you get another chance at a quarterback that goes
what number one? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So it was, I mean it was the right decision,
without question. I mean it was. It was when the
draft came and we saw David go number one, like, ah,
it's been fun to be there, right.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But it was kind of a that's a once in
a lifetime opportunity. Yeah, they did represent the first overall
pick in the draft, and you just passed it up. Yeah, no, yeah,
it is there is there a second chance in your
life right now?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah? And so you move on to the next draft
and everything, and we got real lucky. Uh. You know,
the best quarterback in that draft grew up about fifteen
minutes from our office, Carson Palmer, you know, went to
USC dominated usc I just had a sensational senior year,
you know, won a big Bowl game, won the Heisman Trophy,
(22:14):
and then decided that he was gonna be He's gonna
join the athletes for his family, so many many meetings,
one of being one of our associates, Carmen Wallace literally
got locked in the bathroom while Dave did the whole meeting,
couldn't get out.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Did Dave lock Carmon in the back?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I don't think he did, not purpose No, Carson might have,
but uh but no, And so it's a good point.
I mean. So the next year we had the number
one pick in the draft, Carson Palmer, and uh, again
incredibly blessed and yeah, all good things I say about Joey,
same thing Carson. I remember Trent Deal for telling me that,
you know, if God was gonna like make a quarterback
and put him down front, He's like, this is what
(22:48):
a quarterback should be, it would be Carson Palmer. So
we got lucky and that was it was great. Probably
the best thing, one of the best things we ever
got Carson Palmer was He also later introduced us and
and convinced us to represent his real close friend from
USC Matt Castle, who didn't play in college. But we
ended up sending Matt Castle well that's another whole story.
But became good family friends with him and loved the guy,
(23:10):
and everyone loves Mac Castle, So that was that was
a byproduct of the Carson Palmer story, but a good part.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
And I think this like even the beginning of athletes first,
you can kind of see that, uh, the quarterback position
was just integrated in in how everything started here. Yeah,
and and was a big part of the you know,
the momentum that got the the agency.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Going, absolutely, I think. And part of that, I think
part of that is because you know, Dave Dunne did
spend a long time with with Lee Steinberg, you know,
and Lee Steinberg repsent a lot of quarterbacks, you know,
and then Tom Connan came along at IMG and he
represented Peyton, you know, and and and Tom Starry reps
all quarterbacks. So you know, I think Dave Dave grew
up in a quarterback you know, focused agency and he
had had a lot of success to it behind the scenes.
(23:50):
So definitely that was a way to start.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
So you mentioned Carson Palmer, You represent him in the draft,
you represent him as you come up on his his
veteran contract, and I'm sure you have some good stories
to go with this. But when he did his contract
in two thousand and five, his veteran contract, his veteran contract,
he becomes the highest paid quarterback in NFL history once again.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
This time it's a deal.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
It's a deal worth just over sixteen million dollars per year.
So again, comparing it to the contracts nowadays, it pales
in comparison, but at the time, it's massive. It's top
of the market. And I think the craziest part of this,
as I researched this, this is all before my time
in the NFL, But the craziest aspect of Carson's deal
(24:36):
is that it stayed in the top ten of all
quarterbacks until twenty twelve. So in twenty twelve, he was
still the ninth highest paid quarterback or player in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Seven years later, seven years later, he's still the ninth highest.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
And you think about it nowadays, where you know, we're
going to go through all of the quarterback deals, and
you know, Justin Herbert's deal is only two years old,
and he's been bypassed by by a couple of our
clients itself. So three of our clients have bypassed j
Justsin Herbert's deal, which was record breaking two years ago.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, that's that is amazing. That's uh, yeah, I know
it was. It was a great deal, you know, phenomenal deal,
and we're proud of it. The crazy thing about the deal,
you know, the crazy thing about the deal is that.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
We, uh, we negotiate the deal with the.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Bengals, right, and the Bengals, as you know, owned by
the Brown family, and so now you're dealing with you know,
Katie Blackburn, Troy Blackburn, Clay Katie was Mike's daughter, right,
and so it's like their their their family owns the team,
you know, in so many ways, their family owns the money. Like,
so they're negotiating with their own money. Been around for
Mike's been, the Brown family been on for a long time,
(25:45):
you know, and they've seen, like they saw Drew Bussel
got a one hundred million and that was so much money.
And now you're saying that like instead of ten million,
should be sixteen million. And so it was it was
I believe it was personal with them in a good way.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
They weren't with someone else's money or for someone else's team.
It was their team. And so the numbers we're talking
about were big numbers. But Carson was that good, you know,
and so we stuck with it. We stuck with it.
We stuck with it and we got the deal done
on December twenty ninth. December twenty ninth, he becomes a
(26:21):
highest plaid player in NFL history.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
He'd had an amazing season. I think he had thirty
two touchdowns, led the league. He had a one hundred
and one quarterback rating, which was highest in Bengals franchise history.
They go to the playoffs, he completes a sixty five
yard pass to Chris Henry. We now represent you know,
unfortunately Chris pass, but we've now represent his sons. And
(26:49):
as he completes the pass, some taxs of the knees
blows his knees out, and he's done for the season. Right,
And that was on January seventh, January sixth or seventh,
something like that, like less than a week later, you know.
So again, just like these, we've done now two record
setting deals right for quarterbacks in like three years, both
(27:09):
followed by injuries almost immediately, which is just crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, And I guess injuries are you know, it's a
nature of football, and you know, you always want to
try and strike while the iron's hot. I think that's
something that we a theme that we talk about all
the time. Is you know, if it's time and a
player is set to get the top of the market
for him, that that's when you want to strike and
get the deal done because you never know what when
(27:33):
the next play is going to have someone land on
your knee wrong or hit to the head nowadays that
you know, we're obviously so cognizant of. So I think
that's you know, timing is awful. You hate to see
the injuries, but getting the deal done to secure that.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Is so important.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
No, And I think it's you know, you and I
went through this a couple of years ago, and this
may be a different episode, but like when me and
you and Kess and Cam were doing Daniel Jones deal
with the Giants and there was a real deadline there.
It was a franchise deadline. And I think what I
learned from the Drew Bludslell's deal, which which Dave did
and I kind of watched, you know, and then the
Carson's deal, which we all did together, is that, like
(28:09):
I I my philosophy, and we're going to see all
of our other agents philosophy you, but my philosophy is like,
get the number that you want, get the deal that
you want. Get the cash flow whatever, whatever it is,
set your targets right and then just get after it
and don't worry about And I know some people like
you know, oh we sent them an offer, we can't
set a second offer, Like, hey, don't call them, We're
gonna look too you like, no, I am. I want
(28:30):
to get this deal done and I'm going to be
all in and I'm going to call you. Known't like that.
I'll become a different proposal. I'll come with a difficult
I'll change it. And you kind of saw that with
the Daniel Jones uh you know, uh negotiation where we
just we but that was a real deadline. There was
no other way to do it right.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
We were problem solvers at that point, Like both sides
wanted to get a deal done. It was just how
do we get a deal done that is going to
make sense for us and for the Giants.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, and I look back to, you know, to Drew's
deal with New England and think like, what if we
hadn't got that done? Again it was Dave. What if
Dave hadn't got that done before that mo Lewis hit,
you know what I mean? Or with Carson that had
a really hard negotiation for all the right reasons that
I don't. You know, the Bengals are a phenomenal franchise
or have a lot of success with Joe Burrow, you know,
(29:11):
their phenomenal franchise. But it's again, it's personal, it's there,
it's their family money. They've been doing it for a
long time. They remember what it used to be, and
so I don't blame them, but I think they did
a phenomenal job. But like, thank god, we kept pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing,
because you'd hate. I don't know what happens if we
don't get that done a week earlier and then Carson
gets hurt? Does he does he get the contract when
he comes back? I don't know, you know what I mean?
And Carson we've been finding either way, because again another
(29:33):
phenomenal businessman who's done great off the field, had a long,
successful career. But you know, I think I think back
to this whole, this whole beginning the first three years
of athletes, first the ups and the downs, ups and
the downs, you know, and just got to what we
learned from Drew, like just don't change during the ups
and downs, ups and downs, and then you know, it's
a it was a phenomenal h three years crazy. I mean,
(29:55):
two of the top deals in NFL history, you know,
first pick of the draft, Hiro Trophy winner, and a
bunch of stuff going on. So, uh yeah, it was fun. Man.
So we're gonna We're gonna end each episode as we
do and as we will with the uh lessons learned,
you know, and I uh, as I go back and
I look at the beginning of athletes. First, I think
the lesson one lesson I learned was made two pretty
(30:16):
dumb decisions, you know, like moved to be a sports
agent of seven months pregnant and then you know rollerd
Dice skin. But you know, you do what you do.
I think, you know, my lesson learned is I guess
I just got to go back. You talk about Joey Harrington,
you talk about Carson Palmer, you talk about two Blood.
So I think the lessoners that we could there's so
much to learn from everybody, you know, and there were
our clients and we service them and we negotiate for them,
(30:37):
we do that, but like just have an opportunity to
become friends with them at the time. Uh see how
they approach their craft. See how they approach their family.
I mean, all three of them A huge fan. I'm
just big family guys. I guess probably that's it, Like
there is room for family and family values in sports.
You know. I think a lot of headlines are against
that and talk about the negative things. But I look
(30:58):
at those three people franchise quarterbacks, you know, heis and
trophy winners, high for ture can it. Then we'll pick
the draft, and I look at what how much importance
they put on family and how important family was to them.
They're good and a bad time. So I think, you know,
we roll the dice in two thousand and one thinking
that we could do a football agency that was family
(31:20):
centric and create a family in seat of an agency.
But like absolutely, twenty four years later, I think most
of our success is, you know, founded upon that family
foundation that those three franchise quarterbacks showed us.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, that's that's great. H I guess my takeaway is
going to be somewhat similar. It's going to use one
of our mantras of the agency, and that's putting the
athlete first. I have never heard this story about Joey
Harrington and David Carr and having to choose you know
where you're going to add a second quarterback in the class,
and so hearing your rationale as to why you were
(31:54):
you know, you were going to say no to the
first overall pick in the draft, which is a you know,
for some people, that's a life chain raging acquisition as
a client, uh and definitely career changing, and potentially the
trajectory of the agency is usually different if you have
the first overall pick. But because of your your loyalty
and your you know, everything that you had built with Joey,
(32:15):
you didn't want to make him feel a certain type
of way or any certain negative connotations towards you and
Dave at the time. And so just identifying the fact
that you know, these are our moral pillars, we're going
to stick to them, and we are going to dedicate
it to to this one guy who's already committed to us.
I think that that speaks a lot to you know,
(32:36):
the athletes first mantra and and what we continue to say.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Today yep no, And thank god Carson came along the
next year, because now I can tell all our young people, like, hey,
you put the athletes first. You always got car suppontment.
I mean, maybe we get No. One next year and
that wasn't a good philosophy, but like it worked out well,
Uh yeah, it's gonna I think we're gonna see a
lot of that through our podcasts. But thank you for
going down memory lane with me. You know, it's harked
back to the years where we didn't have an AJ
(32:58):
and we still were able to get do you having
a tenure deal? Maybe it was a great but you
know it's gonna be a lot of fun. Man, So
appreciate you listen to my old band stories today and
brought back some good memories. And we're going to be
back with episode three where we're going to bring in
Equity Partner Superagent CFO CEO Justin Schulman. We're talking about
his journey from a nice letter, hey how can I
(33:20):
help to where he is today and his relationship with
Justin Herbert and the record breaking deal he did with
Justin Herbert where he got as much money in year
one as True got in ten years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, it's crazy to see how that market has moved
and excited to have Justin on here. So thanks for
the stories.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
All right, we'll talk to you us next time. Thanks Manne.
Drew Bloodsoe is the exact type of player in person
upon which you want to build this new company. He's
like his first pick in the draft. It's one of
the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Welcome to the second
episode of the Athletes's First Family podcast quarterback series. I'm
(00:20):
Brian Murphy, CEO of Athletes First Back by co host
AJ Stevens, VP of Client Strategy, and as we're found out,
maybe the best negotiator in the business.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thanks Murph, happy to be back for a second episode.
You know, we're talking about Athletes First, dominance in the
quarterback market and quarterback contracts, and right now we currently
have one point four billion dollars of quarterback contracts on
the books at a one So obviously we're gonna talk
about our dominance that way because it's the most that
any agency has in the NFL right now. But in
(00:51):
this episode, specifically, we're gonna go back to the beginning
of Athletes First. We're gonna have you explain to me
how all these landmark quarterback deals started, how they have
progressed to the deals that we've done more recently, and
the lessons that you've learned along the way. Those early
experiences obviously set the foundation for Athletes First success.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So I can't wait to hear them.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, and we did these deals without you, which is
like unheard of now, right, you know, but I'm not
sure if you were born back then. But as you know,
we've done Athletes First has done the top NFL quarterback
deal twelve different times. Right, We're going to in this
episode go back to the first time. And so go
back to the very beginning of Athletes First, which was
two thousand and one. So I had started as a
sports agent at nineteen ninety nine, worked for Steinberg Run
(01:34):
and Done, largest agency in the world at the time,
and worked there for about two years. And in two thousand
and one, February two thousand and one, Dave Dunn and
I decided that we're going to leave SMD and start
Athletes First. We had had a good experience at SMD.
It was a really scary decision to leave this massive,
hugely successful company had sold itself to a public trade
(01:57):
company up in Canada. But we just thought that maybe
we could do things a little bit differently. We could
do things maybe a little more athlete first focused and
build like what we thought of like a family value,
like a family philosophy. It's supposed to a maybe a
transaction based flaw.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So really taking it from a big organization to a smaller,
more client faced entity.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Absolutely, absolutely, And again remember I had no idea what
to do is starting a business, I say, college a
major litigator. So this was like rolling the dice. And
I just rolled the dice. Two years earlier, leaving my
very high paying job as a lawyer at Ropes and Gray,
moved to California with my wife was seven months pregnant
to become a sports agent. Right, and so now two
(02:37):
years later is working out pretty well. Let's go all
back in and throw the money and try it again.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So and for the viewers at home, your wife is
still with you, Yeah, turning down jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Twice, no doubt. So so we tided to roll the dice.
And you know at the time, it's funny. So we
left in February Febry sixteenth, two thousand and one. At
the time, and now, Dave Done was super close with
Drew Bludsoe and Drew Bloodsoe is the exact type of
player in person upon which you want to build this
new company. He's like one of the first pick in
the draft. It's one of the best quarterbacks in the
(03:08):
NFL and and just a super person. I mean comes
from a great family. Is a great family, like we
had hired his his uh you know, future sister in law, uh,
you know, to be one of our five first st
So you know, two Bloodstoe is like the perfect person
to start a new company with. Right, So we left
SMD and we announced our departure. That's all you can do.
(03:28):
You can't go hey, come with say hey, we're starting
a new company. Athletes first. Here we are.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So there was no who's coming with me?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
No, no Jerry maguire moment decide despite leaving the office
in which Jerry McGuire was filmed at Lee's office. But anyways,
we left, and you know, we thought people want to
join us there and give us a call. Certainly thought
two Bludso would be the first one calling Hey guys, Hey, Dave,
I want to join You didn't call us on day one,
you know, didn't call us on day two, didn't call
us on day three. So we're sitting there like Dave, like,
(03:56):
are you sure this is a good idea to go
start a new agency? You know, like his family face family,
both focused, We're gonna be great quarterbacks. But Drew's not
even calling us. So that was panic mode from the beginning. Uh.
Turns out in the story, Drew was on a remote
ski trip, you know, like helicopters skiing and whatnot, and
had no cell service, had no idea that we had
(04:18):
left the place, and had no idea that, and David
and I had started own companies.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So for the record, helicopter skiing is definitely something that
voids a player's contract.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And we haven't got to his contract yet, you know,
I mean, I guess probably he had one his rocky contract.
But so Drew came back and they called Dave, and
Dave got up with speed and you know, Drew Bludsoe.
It became our first client, and it was uh, I
think just this past month or two, we signed Scott
Hanson to a broadcast, you know, from Red Zone. I
was telling Scott, like, Scott, this is one of our
biggest signings, sins Drew budd so because you know, as
(04:49):
Scott is to broadcast, as Drew Bludsoell was to UH
to NFL quarterbacks at the time, So that was a
that was great. The other part of leaving, which is
kind of funny, is that when we left, I was
on the impression I had been told that there was
this big businessman in Boston who's gonna write a three
million dollar check and help us start athletes first. This
is a couple of weeks after we left, and so
(05:11):
I actually literally get a piece of paper napkin, and
it said like three million dollars, fifteen percent equity, you know,
with the name and the number, and I know what
it meant, but I knew we needed money to run
a company. So I called the number and the guy answered,
He's like, hey, how you doing. I said, Hey, Murphy
or Brian Murphy. You know, partners with Dave Dunn, you know,
friends with various people including Drew, and you know, told
(05:33):
that you want to write us a check for three
million dollars and invest in athletes first. And he said,
what what are you talking about? Like, I don't know,
but like you know, we started a new company. We
need might. So I don't know how you get me
three million dollars. You like, send it out, let me
come pick it up. You want to write a check
for it?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Not?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And I have no idea how to give you fifteen
percent equity. LC's not even creage yet, but like, let's
just agree that that's what we're going to do, and
you know, the details a little bit hazy. It's a
long time ago. By I'm almost positive the guy said
to me, Hey, listen, you know, good luck to you.
And I think Dave is phenomenal, but like, I'm in
the process of buying the Boston Celtics, so I can't
buy the Boston tellsic saands sports. I can see the
(06:06):
same time, you know. And that was my last conversation
with Wick Rosbeck, who did indeed buy the Celtics and
is now selling him at this time. But good decision
as successful as Athletes First was or is. I think
we probably made a good decision. I have no idea
if he had any clue I was talking about at
the time. But that's how we started Athletes First, with
(06:26):
Drew on a ski trip and Wick Rosspec saying he
wasn't going to invest with us, and so that started
like a year long process, like i'd say, over one
hundred beings looking for people to investment. Because David I
did have him. By David a little bit, I had none.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So while you're doing this basically trying to find investors,
going around trying to find anyone who's willing to invest
in this company that doesn't have any clients.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Some clients very few, and once a potential client on
a ski trip, and then some a couple of other clients.
And then one thing we had, without question was massive
litigation coming down the road. So it wasn't the best investment,
all right.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So you're trying to find investors, you're still trying to
run a sports agency, start one from the ground up essentially, yep.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
And so how does that go?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, I mean we're operating out of Dave's living room.
Is like four or five of us there, and like
you said, Drew Bledsoe joined and Drew had been at
SMD with us, and we've been trying to work on
his contract, or they've been trying to work on his
contract for a long time, you know, at least Tomberg
had tried Jeff Moore to try both amazing agents. It
just didn't work. And so when Drew came to Athletes
(07:29):
First again probably February mid February, our first order of
business was to get his contract done. And in fact,
I think it was like maybe The first contract we
ever did at Athletes First was Drew's veteran deal, which,
as you know, you're live then, but what you know,
that was the largest deal in NFL history. He obviously
was the highest paid quarterback in NFL history. So we've
(07:50):
done it twelve times since. But that first one, you know,
in his Key trip, I didn't know if it was
ever going to fruition, but it was a huge moment.
I mean, it's a month month into Athletes First. It
was a huge deal at the time, and we're pretty proud,
but like huge deal at the time. You know what
we did this past year, the kind of compare those.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Two, right, So February is when Drew finally says he's
willing to come on Athletes First.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
He's going to be your first big client.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Anyways, Yep, one month later, March seventeenth, two thousand and one,
and I was alive by the way, Drew Bledsoe signs
the largest contract in NFL history. It's a ten year,
one hundred and three million dollar contract, averages just over
ten million dollars per year at the time.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
That's that's massive, right.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, if you had been with us at the time,
we're gonna talk about this in subsequent episode, but like,
how would you have fell about the ten year deal?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I would have cringed pretty hard at the ten year term.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
You know, we talk a lot about trying to get
back to the market as soon as possible, and one
of the reasons we do is because when you signed
the deal in two thousand and one, the salary cap
was sixty seven million dollars, so Bledsoe's deal takes up
about fifteen percent of the salary cap. Then if we
fast forward a few years, the salary cap has gone
(08:58):
up so much over each year because and the way
we look at deals is as the salary cap increases,
we expect NFL contracts to increase with it, and especially
with quarterback deals, where we've seen the value of the
quarterback position rise exponentially since two thousand and one, it
was a running backs we're getting drafted super high back
then now it's almost strictly quarterbacks that are going to
(09:21):
get drafted high and paid the highest. And the percentage
that is given to the top quarterbacks has gone up
exponentially as well. So when we talk about Dak Prescott
in a few episodes, we can compare his contract. Twenty
three years later, he's making sixty million dollars per year
instead of ten million dollars per year, and it's a
(09:42):
twenty three and a half percent of the current salary cap,
which is two hundred and fifty five point four million dollars.
It's going to be a little bit bigger here coming
up in twenty twenty five. But then, just looking at
the landscape of all veteran NFL players, there are two
hundred and twenty five of them who make at least
ten million dollars per year or more so. At the
(10:03):
time Drew Bledsoe signs this deal, it's it's record breaking,
biggest in NFL history. Fast forward twenty three years and
there's two hundred and twenty five NFL players who are
making more on an annual basis than Drews deal.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
That's crazy that we're going to talk about this as
a subsequent episode. But like Drews deal, amazing deal, a huge,
unbelievable deal, right, and I think you said one hundred
and three million. Let me just throw out some what
was justin Herbert's first year cash flow in his new year.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, and so we're going to talk about this one
in an episode or two from now, and in Justin's
first new year of his extension, first year of his extension,
he will have earned one hundred million dollars of new
cashs in that first new year. Okay, so one million
or one hundred million in one year versus one hundred
and three million in ten years.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
It's it's changed quite a bit, and.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
It's just amazing now, no, I mean, at the time,
one hundred million dollars was a lot from for a
kid from Wall Wall, Washington. And as you may or
may not know, Drew done gone on to do amazing
things off the field. It just is just an amazing person,
great businessman, great wine company, has or a vineyards. So
he's fine. But I mean, that's crazy that Justin Herbert
one year cash fellow new money, who's same as Jew's ten.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Year deal, right, I think that's that's crazy to look
at the quarterback landscape over the years. But just going
back to Drew's story, because this is one that you know,
I was born, but I was eleven years old, yep,
So I don't remember exactly how this played out, but
I do know the name Tom Brady quite well, sure,
and Tom Brady shortly after you did this deal, Wally pippeds.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, well well I pipped Yeah. I mean so I
think this is the story kind of is a microcosm
of the overall twenty four year journey athletes first had.
Because imagine this, like, I mean, just the change of
emotions roller coaster, like starting a new company's super excited.
The one person we thought would definitely joining Drew buzz
So we don't hear from him, you know what I mean.
So we're almost like like should we go back? Should
I go back to be a lawyer? Like if Juw
doesn't want to work with us, who will? Then he calls,
(11:56):
We're all excited, and then he's a starring quarterback for
the Pages. I grew up in New England in Boston.
My wife grew up in Foxboro, like you know, five
minutes from the stadium. And we do the biggest deal
in NFL history, and we're all excited. And when Drew's
go on, I did a marketing deal with him Papacino,
it's my favorite pizza plates. I'm like, this is a dream, Like, yeah,
we got all this ligates, but this is a dream
of utopia. And then I think it was in November.
(12:19):
Uh you know, no September. It was September Drew's as
a lot of people know too, Bloodhells playing against the Jets,
got you know, hit very hard on the sidelines, get
rushed to the hospital, really bad injury. Right, you know,
the money's not important at that point. His health was
an injury. But you know he obviously came back and
played later in the year. But yeah, you're right, Drew,
(12:40):
but Tom Brady came in, became a starter, led the
Patriots to the playoffs. I'm so torn, like I want
no offense to Tom, but I really want Tom to
lose or I don't want to get hurt, but I
wanted to lose, and so Drew could come back. And uh,
you know, Tom led him to the This is before
the whole dynasty began, led him to the playoffs. And
then you you may not remember, uh Uhrew. Tom actually
(13:03):
got hurt in the SC Championship game against Pittsburgh in
the first half and Drew Bludso came out and boom
boom boom touched down the end of the first half
and he was just your true like rifle and bullets
and everything like that, and uh, you know, I led
him to Victrio. They over the Steelers, so they go
to the Super Bowl, and then there's all kinds of questions,
you know, probably not in like the media and whatnot,
(13:23):
like is Drew gonna starts? Tom gonna start? Drew gonna start?
Tom'm gonna start?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Pretty pivotal moment in Bill Belichick's coaching career.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, who knows, maybe if maybe
if drewids started Super Bowl, they would have won buy
more and in one ten Super I don't know, but
it's uh, you know, you know, obviously he went with Tom,
and Tom, you know, won the Super Bowl, and then
I think he won seven more, including one for your
your Buccaneers later in the year. But you know, I
tell you what it was. It was a huge lesson
for us. And I tell Drew this every time I
(13:50):
see him, Like we would I would not have the
life I have but for Drew buds So. Athletes first
would not be here but for Drew Budso. And he
always says like Drew, like now Murphia full if like
no job telling you, And like this year this season
with Drew and he was super close with Dave Dunn,
and I was just like the young associate like falling
around carrying their bags and whatnot. But you watch Drew
(14:10):
and you like, it's easy, take your bag, take your ball,
go home. It's easy to gripe about it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
He supported Tom so much. As he said, Tom asked
him for a lot of advice and gave it to him.
He wanted Drew to be the best. He wanted time
to be the best he could because he knew the
better Tom was, the better team was, and like Drew
a number one pick, the highest paid player in the league,
taking a step back and saying, hey, Tom, let me
do everything it can to make you successful, never griping
about it. I'm sure there's you know, pub private moments
(14:36):
with him and Dave done where he you know, you know,
spoke his mind a little bit. But man, it's one
of the athletes' first philosophies that we're going to talk
throughout the series is like do the right thing the
right reasons, with the right people. And that was all
Drew bludso That's what Drew Bludsoll did. I watched it.
I watched it at work and then he also the
other thing is he surrounded himself a family always surround
(14:57):
himself a family, treated his team like family. Treat tom
My family, but he had two great parents, brother, everything
that we treat us like family and think, you know,
when you go through those hard times, you want to
be surrounded by family. You want to be surrounded by
people like two Bloods. So yeah, none of this, We're
not here without two Blood So funny story about his
family though. Mac Blood, so phenomenal guy played the guitar
(15:18):
at one of our company retreats where a couple of
treat at the Blood so you know, mansion up in Montana.
But you know, fast forward several years to another Patriot
client that we represented, Aaron Hernandez, right, and Aaron's in
jail and back in Boston and I put together his
legal team. I went to visit Aaron Chico in jail
(15:39):
and there's a wait in the waiting room. Look around
and there's only one book in the whole waiting room.
It is like twenty copies of this one book and
it was Parenting with Dignity by Mack bloodsoe, what are
the chance it's like this is like a sign from
God or something like that, Like you know, like it's
just bizarre. But so Uh, yeah, I'm very thankful to
Drew us. He's taught us a lot, continues to support us.
(16:00):
We continue to work for him, and it's just we're
very lucky to have a part of the Athletes first film,
not part the founder, basically of the Athletes.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
There was a lot to unpacked there.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
We could probably do a whole episode on, but I
do want to you know, acknowledge, you know, you start
off with this record breaking veteran deal, but the business
that you know, we are in it starts first and
foremost with helping the college athletes make that transition from
you know, being the college athlete into being a NFL player,
(16:31):
which is a full time job. You go from student
athlete to full time football player, and those are very
formative years for these clients, right yep. And you're helping
them make that transition, get adjusted, become a fully grown
adult with a lot of money all of a sudden.
So how is that going while you are transitioning into
this new agency?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, and I'm only I'm twenty nine years old myself, right,
I mean, so I don't really know how to be
a full adult, you know. But no, So we started
the company in February two thousand and one, and we
had some players in that draft who who had come over,
like Gary Baxter was in that draft, you know, went
on to be a great safety. But two thousand and
two was our first NFL draft, as you know, like
(17:11):
your agencies are really defined by the draft classes. Why
we're so proud we've had, you know, four last five years,
we had more first rounders than anyone. But we're new, right,
we're new, and we're facing this litigation. And you know,
as as as long as Dave Dunn had done this,
he was always in Lee Steinberg shadow. So this is
for Dave's first time out in front and center, in
front of everybody, and you know, everyone's spreading nasty rumors
(17:33):
about us, and we're gonna be you know, bankrupt, They're
gonna you know, take us away and whatnot. So we
just went and fought to fought. Fight. The fought to fight.
And it's funny talking. We talked about Justin Herbert earlier
at Oregon quarterback back in the day two thousand and two,
our big recruit was Joey Harrington. You know Joey Harrington,
the Oregon Ducks. I don't know if you remember this.
But they had the Heisman campaign to put his picture
up on the you know, in Times Square, you know,
(17:55):
on the big the big building billboard and everything. He's everywhere.
Joey Harrington. We got super lucky. He enjoy Harrington picked
athletes first, and I think probably at the time he
picked us based on what we knew. We hopefully its
gonna be a first round. I thot would be a
first round or but maybe mid to late first round.
But as the process is unfolding, Joey's just Joey. He's
just everyone doing the interviews, everyone loves him. He's throwing
(18:16):
the ball like no one's business. He's just I mean,
you you look at joe Okay, this is a perfect
human being, right in anyways, Right, So, everything's going great
and we're enjoying it. But then something happened was very unusual.
The number one pick of the draft that year was
gonna be uh, David Carr. Right Houston was a new team.
They were taking them, There's no surprises about it. And
(18:37):
then David Carr suddenly fired his agent, you know, and
I don't know why, but he fired his agent, and
his manager reached out to us and said, hey, would
you guys like to represent David Carr? You know, he'd
be interested beating with you and talking to you guys,
And you know, I think you guys have a good shot.
And we're like, we're gonna have the number one pick
in the draft, like like right, I mean their first
real draft. First you got the bloodsilk and then this
(18:59):
this is like too good to be true, right you know.
But but you know, players coming out of college, they
worry about the conflicts, right, they worry about Hey, listen,
am I your guy? And if you have too many
people at any position who you're going to be pushing.
And you know, reality is is you don't You don't
really push either one of them. Twenty four years and.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
This is when you're still very small company, right.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So now that we've got to the point where we
are as big as we are, we have so many
different agents that can represent multiple different quarterbacks in the
same draft class. Absolutely, and it's really about we're able
to share information that helps them all.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah. Yeah, but here it's really Dave. I mean, you know,
in the day with the guy, so uh, you know,
so we say, you know what athletes first, we got
to put athletes first, let's talk to Joey about this,
see how he feels about it. Let's just not go
make this decision, this business decision that has personal impact.
So we sat down, we talked to Joey, and like
I said, Joey was like the perfect human being at
(19:50):
the time, and he said, hey, listen, go ahead. And
Joey's also super smart. He's like, I understand having the
number one pick in the draft, your first draft, Like
I get that, you know, and hopefully that can be
the second pick of the third pick. He ended up
being the third pick to the Troy Alliance. But he's like,
I get it, I understand, you know, Like it wasn't
what I expected when I signed with you guys, but
I'm not gonna get in the way. And so he
(20:11):
gave us screen light, you know. But we sat down
and we said, listens, like a year after we started,
we started this company to put the athletes first. There's
no way Joey thought we're going to sign David Carr.
Maybe he would have made the same decision. Maybe it wouldn't,
but it's not the right thing to do. We really
want to do it, you know what I mean. But
and it wasn't about Joey. I mean, it was about
(20:31):
Joey because he was the person there at the time,
but he gave it us screen light. He said, okay,
go do it. Support It was a supportive of it.
But we're like, this is our first real test about
whether we're always you know, we're going to have that
blind adherence to put in the athletes first, and there'll
be other opportunities, we hope. We had no idea, We
didn't even if we could survive the lawsuit, right, but
you know, let's this's kindly passed. Thank David, his business manager,
(20:51):
for the opportunity. Unbelieve oppornity. Another great guy. But let's
just put all our focus on Joey and do the
best we can for Joey. And uh, you know, see
what happens, and Joey ended up being number three pick
in the draft, went to Detroit. Lions still have a
great relationship with Joey, honored him at the Athlete's First
Classic not too many years ago, and uh, you know
it was absolutely one thousand percent the right decision at
(21:13):
the time and no awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
So you pass on the number one overall pick that year, Yep,
you still have the top top three draft pick, and
Joey Harrington.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
And number four too of Mike Williams the Buffalo Bills,
and yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It was, so you have the ball rolling here, do
you then subsequently sign a first overall pick? Do you
do you get another chance at a quarterback that goes
what number one? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So it was, I mean it was the right decision,
without question. I mean it was. It was when the
draft came and we saw David go number one, like, ah,
it's been fun to be there, right.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But it was kind of a that's a once in
a lifetime opportunity. Yeah, they did represent the first overall
pick in the draft, and you just passed it up. Yeah, no, yeah,
it is there is there a second chance in your
life right now?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah? And so you move on to the next draft
and everything, and we got real lucky. Uh. You know,
the best quarterback in that draft grew up about fifteen
minutes from our office, Carson Palmer, you know, went to
USC dominated usc I just had a sensational senior year,
you know, won a big Bowl game, won the Heisman Trophy,
(22:14):
and then decided that he was gonna be He's gonna
join the athletes for his family, so many many meetings,
one of being one of our associates, Carmen Wallace literally
got locked in the bathroom while Dave did the whole meeting,
couldn't get out.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Did Dave lock Carmon in the back?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I don't think he did, not purpose No, Carson might have,
but uh but no, And so it's a good point.
I mean. So the next year we had the number
one pick in the draft, Carson Palmer, and uh, again
incredibly blessed and yeah, all good things I say about Joey,
same thing Carson. I remember Trent Deal for telling me that,
you know, if God was gonna like make a quarterback
and put him down front, He's like, this is what
(22:48):
a quarterback should be, it would be Carson Palmer. So
we got lucky and that was it was great. Probably
the best thing, one of the best things we ever
got Carson Palmer was He also later introduced us and
and convinced us to represent his real close friend from
USC Matt Castle, who didn't play in college. But we
ended up sending Matt Castle well that's another whole story.
But became good family friends with him and loved the guy,
(23:10):
and everyone loves Mac Castle, So that was that was
a byproduct of the Carson Palmer story, but a good part.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
And I think this like even the beginning of athletes first,
you can kind of see that, uh, the quarterback position
was just integrated in in how everything started here. Yeah,
and and was a big part of the you know,
the momentum that got the the agency.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Going, absolutely, I think. And part of that, I think
part of that is because you know, Dave Dunne did
spend a long time with with Lee Steinberg, you know,
and Lee Steinberg repsent a lot of quarterbacks, you know,
and then Tom Connan came along at IMG and he
represented Peyton, you know, and and and Tom Starry reps
all quarterbacks. So you know, I think Dave Dave grew
up in a quarterback you know, focused agency and he
had had a lot of success to it behind the scenes.
(23:50):
So definitely that was a way to start.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
So you mentioned Carson Palmer, You represent him in the draft,
you represent him as you come up on his his
veteran contract, and I'm sure you have some good stories
to go with this. But when he did his contract
in two thousand and five, his veteran contract, his veteran contract,
he becomes the highest paid quarterback in NFL history once again.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
This time it's a deal.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
It's a deal worth just over sixteen million dollars per year.
So again, comparing it to the contracts nowadays, it pales
in comparison, but at the time, it's massive. It's top
of the market. And I think the craziest part of this,
as I researched this, this is all before my time
in the NFL, But the craziest aspect of Carson's deal
(24:36):
is that it stayed in the top ten of all
quarterbacks until twenty twelve. So in twenty twelve, he was
still the ninth highest paid quarterback or player in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Seven years later, seven years later, he's still the ninth highest.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
And you think about it nowadays, where you know, we're
going to go through all of the quarterback deals, and
you know, Justin Herbert's deal is only two years old,
and he's been bypassed by by a couple of our
clients itself. So three of our clients have bypassed j
Justsin Herbert's deal, which was record breaking two years ago.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, that's that is amazing. That's uh, yeah, I know
it was. It was a great deal, you know, phenomenal deal,
and we're proud of it. The crazy thing about the deal,
you know, the crazy thing about the deal is that.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
We, uh, we negotiate the deal with the.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Bengals, right, and the Bengals, as you know, owned by
the Brown family, and so now you're dealing with you know,
Katie Blackburn, Troy Blackburn, Clay Katie was Mike's daughter, right,
and so it's like their their their family owns the team,
you know, in so many ways, their family owns the money. Like,
so they're negotiating with their own money. Been around for
Mike's been, the Brown family been on for a long time,
(25:45):
you know, and they've seen, like they saw Drew Bussel
got a one hundred million and that was so much money.
And now you're saying that like instead of ten million,
should be sixteen million. And so it was it was
I believe it was personal with them in a good way.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
They weren't with someone else's money or for someone else's team.
It was their team. And so the numbers we're talking
about were big numbers. But Carson was that good, you know,
and so we stuck with it. We stuck with it.
We stuck with it and we got the deal done
on December twenty ninth. December twenty ninth, he becomes a
(26:21):
highest plaid player in NFL history.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
He'd had an amazing season. I think he had thirty
two touchdowns, led the league. He had a one hundred
and one quarterback rating, which was highest in Bengals franchise history.
They go to the playoffs, he completes a sixty five
yard pass to Chris Henry. We now represent you know,
unfortunately Chris pass, but we've now represent his sons. And
(26:49):
as he completes the pass, some taxs of the knees
blows his knees out, and he's done for the season. Right,
And that was on January seventh, January sixth or seventh,
something like that, like less than a week later, you know.
So again, just like these, we've done now two record
setting deals right for quarterbacks in like three years, both
(27:09):
followed by injuries almost immediately, which is just crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, And I guess injuries are you know, it's a
nature of football, and you know, you always want to
try and strike while the iron's hot. I think that's
something that we a theme that we talk about all
the time. Is you know, if it's time and a
player is set to get the top of the market
for him, that that's when you want to strike and
get the deal done because you never know what when
(27:33):
the next play is going to have someone land on
your knee wrong or hit to the head nowadays that
you know, we're obviously so cognizant of. So I think
that's you know, timing is awful. You hate to see
the injuries, but getting the deal done to secure that.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Is so important.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
No, And I think it's you know, you and I
went through this a couple of years ago, and this
may be a different episode, but like when me and
you and Kess and Cam were doing Daniel Jones deal
with the Giants and there was a real deadline there.
It was a franchise deadline. And I think what I
learned from the Drew Bludslell's deal, which which Dave did
and I kind of watched, you know, and then the
Carson's deal, which we all did together, is that, like
(28:09):
I I my philosophy, and we're going to see all
of our other agents philosophy you, but my philosophy is like,
get the number that you want, get the deal that
you want. Get the cash flow whatever, whatever it is,
set your targets right and then just get after it
and don't worry about And I know some people like
you know, oh we sent them an offer, we can't
set a second offer, Like, hey, don't call them, We're
gonna look too you like, no, I am. I want
(28:30):
to get this deal done and I'm going to be
all in and I'm going to call you. Known't like that.
I'll become a different proposal. I'll come with a difficult
I'll change it. And you kind of saw that with
the Daniel Jones uh you know, uh negotiation where we
just we but that was a real deadline. There was
no other way to do it right.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
We were problem solvers at that point, Like both sides
wanted to get a deal done. It was just how
do we get a deal done that is going to
make sense for us and for the Giants.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, and I look back to, you know, to Drew's
deal with New England and think like, what if we
hadn't got that done? Again it was Dave. What if
Dave hadn't got that done before that mo Lewis hit,
you know what I mean? Or with Carson that had
a really hard negotiation for all the right reasons that
I don't. You know, the Bengals are a phenomenal franchise
or have a lot of success with Joe Burrow, you know,
(29:11):
their phenomenal franchise. But it's again, it's personal, it's there,
it's their family money. They've been doing it for a
long time. They remember what it used to be, and
so I don't blame them, but I think they did
a phenomenal job. But like, thank god, we kept pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing,
because you'd hate. I don't know what happens if we
don't get that done a week earlier and then Carson
gets hurt? Does he does he get the contract when
he comes back? I don't know, you know what I mean?
And Carson we've been finding either way, because again another
(29:33):
phenomenal businessman who's done great off the field, had a long,
successful career. But you know, I think I think back
to this whole, this whole beginning the first three years
of athletes, first the ups and the downs, ups and
the downs, you know, and just got to what we
learned from Drew, like just don't change during the ups
and downs, ups and downs, and then you know, it's
a it was a phenomenal h three years crazy. I mean,
(29:55):
two of the top deals in NFL history, you know,
first pick of the draft, Hiro Trophy winner, and a
bunch of stuff going on. So, uh yeah, it was fun. Man.
So we're gonna We're gonna end each episode as we
do and as we will with the uh lessons learned,
you know, and I uh, as I go back and
I look at the beginning of athletes. First, I think
the lesson one lesson I learned was made two pretty
(30:16):
dumb decisions, you know, like moved to be a sports
agent of seven months pregnant and then you know rollerd
Dice skin. But you know, you do what you do.
I think, you know, my lesson learned is I guess
I just got to go back. You talk about Joey Harrington,
you talk about Carson Palmer, you talk about two Blood.
So I think the lessoners that we could there's so
much to learn from everybody, you know, and there were
our clients and we service them and we negotiate for them,
(30:37):
we do that, but like just have an opportunity to
become friends with them at the time. Uh see how
they approach their craft. See how they approach their family.
I mean, all three of them A huge fan. I'm
just big family guys. I guess probably that's it, Like
there is room for family and family values in sports.
You know. I think a lot of headlines are against
that and talk about the negative things. But I look
(30:58):
at those three people franchise quarterbacks, you know, heis and
trophy winners, high for ture can it. Then we'll pick
the draft, and I look at what how much importance
they put on family and how important family was to them.
They're good and a bad time. So I think, you know,
we roll the dice in two thousand and one thinking
that we could do a football agency that was family
(31:20):
centric and create a family in seat of an agency.
But like absolutely, twenty four years later, I think most
of our success is, you know, founded upon that family
foundation that those three franchise quarterbacks showed us.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, that's that's great. H I guess my takeaway is
going to be somewhat similar. It's going to use one
of our mantras of the agency, and that's putting the
athlete first. I have never heard this story about Joey
Harrington and David Carr and having to choose you know
where you're going to add a second quarterback in the class,
and so hearing your rationale as to why you were
(31:54):
you know, you were going to say no to the
first overall pick in the draft, which is a you know,
for some people, that's a life chain raging acquisition as
a client, uh and definitely career changing, and potentially the
trajectory of the agency is usually different if you have
the first overall pick. But because of your your loyalty
and your you know, everything that you had built with Joey,
(32:15):
you didn't want to make him feel a certain type
of way or any certain negative connotations towards you and
Dave at the time. And so just identifying the fact
that you know, these are our moral pillars, we're going
to stick to them, and we are going to dedicate
it to to this one guy who's already committed to us.
I think that that speaks a lot to you know,
(32:36):
the athletes first mantra and and what we continue to say.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Today yep no, And thank god Carson came along the
next year, because now I can tell all our young people, like, hey,
you put the athletes first. You always got car suppontment.
I mean, maybe we get No. One next year and
that wasn't a good philosophy, but like it worked out well,
Uh yeah, it's gonna I think we're gonna see a
lot of that through our podcasts. But thank you for
going down memory lane with me. You know, it's harked
back to the years where we didn't have an AJ
(32:58):
and we still were able to get do you having
a tenure deal? Maybe it was a great but you
know it's gonna be a lot of fun. Man, So
appreciate you listen to my old band stories today and
brought back some good memories. And we're going to be
back with episode three where we're going to bring in
Equity Partner Superagent CFO CEO Justin Schulman. We're talking about
his journey from a nice letter, hey how can I
(33:20):
help to where he is today and his relationship with
Justin Herbert and the record breaking deal he did with
Justin Herbert where he got as much money in year
one as True got in ten years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, it's crazy to see how that market has moved
and excited to have Justin on here. So thanks for
the stories.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
All right, we'll talk to you us next time. Thanks Manne.
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Brian Murphy
AJ Stevens
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