Episode Transcript
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Forty years as a sports agent representingNFL stars like Troy Aikman and now Patrick
Mahomes. What has been the secretto his success and where does he think
sports and business are headed. LeeSteinberg, super agent, joins us now
on episode fifty of the Masters inCoaching Podcast. Let's go. Well,
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welcome into episode fifty of the Mastersin Coaching Podcast. That's right, we've
hit the big five. Oh hereon the Masters and Coaching Podcast. Thank
you for downloading and thank you forlistening, Thank you for watching it and
whatever platform that you are doing.So so excited about our guest here for
episode fifty, sports agent, philanthropist, author, chairman of Steinberg Sports and
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Entertainment. He is the one andonly Lee Steinberg, and he joins us
now, Lee, welcome, thanksfor doing this. How are you doing.
I'm doing great? Thank you.So here we are in the middle
of football season. But as aman who runs a company in a sports
agency, I imagine it never stopsfor you though. The grind is always
there season or off season. That'strue. But this is a specially wonderful
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time because we just finished with baseball, but we have football, basketball,
hockey. A corn copy of sportsall going at the same time. Now
you got your start as an agentin the NFL forty one year career,
you've you've blossomed now into baseball andbasketball, boxing, Olympic sports. As
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you've mentioned as somebody who got intothis four decades ago, and here you
are, and as you described yoursecond chapter of life and in sports agent,
did you ever think you'd get tothis point to where it's at today's
sports and the amount of dollars we'retalking about, and how much you know
you have a factor in all this. I really did, because back in
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nineteen seventy five, which was fortyeight years ago, I saw the potential
with the growth of television and threestations morphed into three hundred, which meant
more games on television, more backgroundshows, more content, more analysis,
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more highlights, and brand new stadiumwith the jumbo scoreboards and naming rights and
fantasy sports and the growth of theInternet. It all built together so that
the economics are exponentially more than theyever were. And probably the head of
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all of it is the growth ofpro football. And how seventy one of
the top one hundred Nielsen rank showslast year were NFL football so the first
time we have a sport that's notonly the number one sport, but the
number one form of televised entertainment.Well, why do you think the NFL
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has taken it to that level?Is it the way they packaged it,
the way they presented it to fans, and the way they continued to change
and evolved when things are happening insports. They're the first ones to adopt
instant replay or whatever it is onit off the field, it seems like
the NFL is ahead a step aheadof all the other professional leagues. He
grew up with television, so everyinnovation that came with television was first with
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the NFL. It's once a week, so it's the anticipation of the upcoming
game and the celebration of the lastone. It's got contact and violence to
it. It's it's got a bigoff season, so you anticipate it coming
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up. It's the uniforms, it'sthe memorabilia. It's the marketing. It's
the birth of fans see and gamblingand the way it integrates with merchandise and
marketing. It. It gave birthto all these ancellary ways to do it.
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It's the quarterback and how this hasbecome the new leading man in American
culture. And you know, thankgod, early on, I knew it
was the quarterbacks stupid and uh soit's our Patrick Mahomes or Tua Tongo by
Ia and it was all those weekendsor had half the starting quarterbacks. And
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it's the way in which these athleteshad learned to be role models. So
we asked that each one of themretraces their roots and sets up a high
school scholarship on the college give backand then a charitable foundation where they are
having the leading political figures, economicleaders and community leaders set up a program.
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So we're done. Just put thetwo hundred single mother and their family
into the first home they'll ever ownby moving them in and making it down
payment. How important was that foryou when you first got into the business
lead and representing players and walking themthrough the process. And it's obviously evolved
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over the years in the draft andfree agency, but how important has it
been for you the people you representin your agency to make sure they're doing
things off the field and helping outOur players have raised almost a billion dollars
and programs that make a difference inthe quality of life off the field.
My dad raised me with two corevalues treasure relationships, especially family, and
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make a positive difference in the world. So to have a practice that speaks
for something positive where you can haveLennox Lewis heavyweight box or kind of public
service announcement that says real men don'thit women. That can do trigger more
behavioral change and rebellious adolescents and athousand authority figures. Ever, could we're
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gonna get into Concordia Sports Business NBAprogram what you're an advisor for in just
a minute, and how important itis to have that program for young people
who are looking to get into thesports business world. But Leah, I
want to ask you one about analyticsbecause I find it fascinating because in my
mind, I think as an agent, that's something analytics, numbers is something
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that's probably always been used going backto when you first started, because you're
propping up your player with the background, the data, the evidence of why
they should be compensated for what theyare and get the contracts for what they
should get. But now in sportsis used on the field. But analytics,
am I incorrect and say this probablysomething you guys have been using since
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the beginning. We've always used analyticsto analyze a players performance and create categories
in which we highlight statistically how wellthey've done in a whole series of categories,
and then use that to compare wecall it comparables other players, and
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then by comparing them in statistical categories, how many touchdown passes, what's their
quarterback rating, what's their percentage ofcompletions, and then compare that to other
quarterbacks, and then show where you'restatistically superior, and then compare that to
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what their contracts are. So it'sall comparables and it helps teams figure out
is a high school player better betto draft or college players more successful?
And they come out to wait outpicture and make sure it gets your full
complemented swings. Are you better offtrying to steal a base or sitting at
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home plate? Are is a heavypicture more likely to have arm trouble than
a lighter picture? In other words, there are ways to statistically look at
this and figure it out. Itdoesn't replace human judgment because but it gives
you a way to statistically look atif it's a three two count, do
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you run and try to steal abase then what are the results of that
is sixty nine percent safe and thirtyone percent out? And so it gives
you a whole way of looking atthat. If you orally rely on stats
and don't factor in the human elements, you have a problem. But statistics,
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if I own a baseball or footballteam, I'd use them all the
time. Are you surprised at howthey've started using them and really dictating in
baseball and football in particularly even theNBA. Now we're talking about analytics of
load management of you know, thebody and the wear down and where they
can project you know, not playingon a back to back, and where
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they can sit out here or limitminutes here. I mean, I think
it's fascinating that it's science. Yeah, and you better know and understand it.
What happens if a player sleeps sixhours a night? What are the
results in the game and the nextday? What happens if you travel the
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night before as opposed to the dayof, What are the results? It's
giving you a path to understanding humanbehavior based on results. Lee Steinberger is
with this chairman of Steinberg Sports andEntertainments. Forty plus years as a sports
agent, he's represented over three hundredprofessional athletes football, basketball, baseball,
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boxing, Olympic sports. He's representedtwelve NFL Hall of Famers, He's had
the number one overall pick in theNFL Draft a record eight times. And
you're an advisor with Concordia University Irvine'sSports Business NBA program. Now Here on
the Cup Masters and Coaching podcast,we focus on the Masters program and coaching
athletics administration. But this year theSports Business NBA program launched and you kind
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of helped put it together. Iknow you're advising it as well. Why
is it important to have an NBAspecifically for Sports Business League. Well,
first of all, this is theonly NBA program like this in Southern California
and Los Angeles is really the meccaof pro sports in many ways and a
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gateway internationally, so this is acritical place to be. And what they
do is they produce a whole lotof sports professionals with ethics and value,
so that's a really important thing todo. And they combine academics with experiential
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so that while they're getting classroom education, they're also out on a variety of
different scenes with internships and actually gettingday to day experience. So this is
a very unique program. Professor MarkFrancis, who's a long friend of mine,
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is a superb lecturer and teacher,and you have to look at the
quality of the students that they turnout their fabulous additions and are going to
make a big impact in the worldof sports. So you go to Concordia
get the Masters. They have anetwork of people that can help you succeed
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professionally, and they've really refined theway in which they teach and the skill
set to make sure that you're amajor success in sports business. The two
words you mentioned, ethics and values, I think really dive deep into this
because of being in sports business andthey're talking about the amount of dollars that
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you are talking about, and havingthat ethics, having the values with your
clients, with relationships in sports business, with teams other executives is a huge
thing because your your name is whatyou have as a sports agent or somebody
in sports business. And if youcarry the Concordia diploma and you carry their
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Masters, just like the good housekeeping seal of approval, people know out
there in the world of sports andbusiness what they're getting. What they're getting
is a well trained professional that willcarry on with the highest ethics in the
highest values. Leave you mentioned foryou, it's sort of a second chapter
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in this industry. You were atthe top of the game. I mean
you left it, you come backin, and now you're back at it.
You've mentioned Patrick Mahomes and to towyour big clients in the NFL.
The second goal around for you leadgoing into it, What did you want
to do differently when the second timearound from the first time. Well,
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I think there's a challenge and canwe get athletes to perform in critical situations
at a higher level of productivity.And so we've been exploring things like hyperbaric
oxygen, light stem brain enhancers rTMS, and necessary with Tommy Shavers and brain
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training, their BioMed breakthroughs that aregoing to revolutionize the amount of energy standing
and recovery from injury that people getthat I think are really portant to take
into pro sports and collegiance sports.And then for the rest of us,
enhance the amount of time we liveand the clarity of our cognitive thinking over
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time. So that starting on anotherbook, I'm starting on a podcast.
We've got, as I said,an agent Academy that we're doing in Las
Vegas next week, teaching the nextgeneration, just like Concordia is doing,
you know how, with a specificskill set, how to negotiate, how
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to recruit, how to set upcharitable foundations, and just trying to make
a positive difference in the world.What what have you noticed in twenty twenty
two compared to ten years ago,compared to twenty five years ago about the
business, I'll just stay in beingin sports agency and social media absolutely,
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the whole way in which information iscommunicated and the currency in this market is
now how many followers do you haveon TikTok? How many followers do you
have on Instagram and Facebook? Andwe now have nils which have revolutionized on
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the college campus, the fact thatno longer amateurism and younger and younger,
and now you have alumni collectives thatare raising money through their businesses and they
can offer them in recruiting. Andthe players who are doing this are getting
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younger and younger through high school andyounger home hospitals. Over here. Pretty
soon you'll have agents are going tomaternity wards looking for healthy mothers market,
you know, and NFTs, whichare little pieces of memorabilia which you're sold,
but you only own it on theYeah, I don't get those,
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you only own it on that computer. So it's just explosion of a variety
of different forms. But you know, athletes still can be role models and
they still can trigger imitative behavior.So we can target bullying, sex trafficking,
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domestic violence, all sorts of problems, racism, the environment through athletes
standing up and making a difference.I want to ask you about NIL.
You mentioned it, Lee, andyou know, you talked about how he's
getting younger and younger here in southernCalifornia, hotbed for high school football.
You've you've got quarterbacks who are signedto go play for a team in the
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SEC. And he's already got anNIL deal for multimillion dollars for he's even
stepped foot on that campus and justfinishing his senior year of high school football
this fall. Is this a goodpath we're going down. I mean,
I'm in favor of the college athletesbeing compensated, and that's that's fair,
But I mean, it feels likewe're kind of in the wild wild West
here with figuring out NIL from thecollege even to the high school level,
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where kids are getting paid millions ofdollars and they're seventeen years old. The
problem is the NC doubling could haveforestalled this, but they waited too long,
and you had college students on thecampus from impoverished backgrounds sending some of
their money home to their parents,and they were living at a lower standard
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of living than our non athletic peers. You could have solved this by giving
them five thousand dollars more in astipend, but they didn't do it,
and they didn't do it in Californiaa couple of years ago past Speed two
h six that said is going tohappen for California athletes. They gave it
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a start data twenty twenty three becausethey knew that other states would would freak
out when they saw that California wasgoing to do it, and all of
a sudden they pressured the NCAA inJuly twenty twenty one to pass this rule.
It's only been a year plus threeor four months. But when you
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saw Nick Saban speak about Bryce Youngfrom mother Day and say he had a
million dollars in sign deals. NickSaban, who would always underplay how a
young quarterback would do. Bryce hadnever played a down, and Nick Saban,
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the most conservative coach in the country, was broadcasting the fact he had
a million dollars in deals. Itwas recruiting. He was saying, come
to Alabama and you can get amillion dollars and deals. So that's set
it off. And now it tookthem a couple of months to realize they
could use this in recruiting. Andnow it's not only being used to competent
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at it's just for that. Noone thought it would be as broad as
it's turned out. Where Phil andI would give stipends to every player,
men and women, at Oregon,where Jack in the Box would give fifteen
stipends to athletes with the first nameJack, where you know Colorado would give
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women's athletes. It's just and thinkabout it. If you're in Alabama,
the twentieth player on the Alabama footballsquad is still a celebrity. So it's
spread out all over the place,and that horse has left the barn and
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it's not going back in. Thatis for sure. Lee will look great.
I know you you're you're feeling great. You're dominating the sports entertainment and
we appreciate you coming on the podcast. Thank you so much for advising the
Masters program, the Sports Business programat Concordia. It's in its infancy here
in his first year. It's oftenrunning though. Great things are happening and
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we appreciate your time. Thank youso much for joining us here on the
Masters and Coaching Podcast. Want thatConcordia diploma on your wall and your life
will be a success. Absolutely absolutely, Lee, Thank you so much.
My plan here, Well there hegoes Lee Steinberg, super aged forty years
in the business, started off backin the eighties nineties and came back in
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a second stet now representing Patrick Mahomestwo Attackabaloa, NFL Stars, NBA Stars,
baseball players, boxers, Olympians.He represents them all now is a
super agent. Thank you to Leeand his people. Thank you to folks
at Concordia University and their Masters SportsBusiness program which Lee and Dorset. If
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you just heard him, he wasan adviser helping put together the program over
the last couple of years. Andhere they are in year one. Off
and run in. Find out moreabout the next session that's starting in January
at CUI dot edu. Slash Sportsthat CUI dot Edu Slash Sports. Well
there it is, episode fifty inthe books, already fifty episodes. Thank
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you so much for listening wherever youdownload your podcast. iHeartRadio, Audible Spreaker
with thank you for listening, Spotifyif you're watching, thank you for watching
it as well. Until next time, Episode fifty of the Masters in Coaching
podcast in the Books ten Kate sayingso long, everybody,