I'm Too Busy TV - w/ guest Leigh Steinberg - I'm Too Busy!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to I'm Too Busy, an interview based show hosted
by a talented makeup artist, Christina Black. Christina offers viewers
a unique blend of personal stories, inspiring journeys, and practical
beauty tips. Join the conversation as Christina features successful individuals
from various industries who share their insights on health, wellness, makeup,

(00:28):
and the keys to their success. So now please welcome
the host of I'm Too Busy, Christina Flack.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hi, welcome to I'm Too Busy.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
I'm Christina Flack, and today I am so honored to
have a legendary figure in the sports industry whose career
has spanned over four decades, whose influence has shaped modern
sports representation. Lee Steinberg is widely regarded it as a
premier sports agent in the industry and the real life
inspiration behind the Oscar winning film Jerry Maguire. With an

(01:07):
unparalleled career representing elite athletes across multiple sports, Lee has
transformed how athletes build their personal brands and leverage their
influence both on and off the field. I would like
to welcome you, Lee Steinberg.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for being
here today.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
My pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
So let's just dive into this.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
You went to cal Berkeley, you got your first client
at age twenty five?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
How did that happen?

Speaker 4 (01:40):
So, Christina, I went to cal Berkeley at the time
that was unique in the campus history, and I ended
up shooting by president at the same time that the
governor was Ronald Reagan, who became a president, and I
learned everything I needed to learn about negotiating from interacting

(02:03):
with him. I was a dorm counselor in an undergraduate dorm,
working my way through law school, and they put the
freshman football team into the dorm and one of the
students was the quarterback Steve Bartkowski, and he ended up
being the very first pick in the first round of

(02:25):
the nineteen seventy five NFL Draft, and he asked me
to represent him. I was out of law school, choosing
between different jobs, and there I was birming with legal experience,
and I had the first pick in the first round
of the draft, and we got the largest rookie contract

(02:48):
in NFL history. Now, there wasn't much of a field
a sports representation then. Teams could simply slam down the
phone and say we don't deal with agents. So there
was no guaranteed right at that point, but I was looking.
My dad had these two core values. One was treasure relationships,

(03:10):
especially family, and the second one was try to make
a meaningful difference in a positive way in the world
and help people couldn't help themselves. So I was looking
for profession to do that in and in that first experience,
I saw the tremendous idol, worship and veneration athletes were
held in communities across the country. How they were the

(03:34):
movie stars, how they were the celebrities. And I thought, well,
if I could get them to embrace the concept of
being a role model and retrace their roots to the
high school, collegiate and professional community, set up a high
school scholarship fund deal with the university payback program, set

(03:56):
up a charitable foundation that had the leading business figures,
political figures, and community leaders on a board. They could
execute a program so worked. One just put the two
hundred single mother and their family in the first home
and ever owned. So that was when it began back

(04:16):
in nineteen seventy five.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Wow, that's remarkable.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
You all of your athletes that you represent all have foundations.
Is that something that you encourage them all to do
or do you expect.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Them to do?

Speaker 4 (04:29):
So I spoke with them all up front, and I
used the profile athletes that I thought were good fits
for this. I wanted to work with athletes who would
again retrace their route. So yes, all of the athletes,
in their own time, in their own way, they've raised

(04:50):
an aggregate about a billion and five hundred million dollars
in proceeds. But more importantly understood the power modeling. So
when I had the heavyweight champion of the world in boxing,
Lennox Lewis cut a public service announcement that said, real

(05:11):
men don't hit women, and that could do more to
trigger behavioral change in rebellious adolescens than a thousand authority
figures ever could.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
How accurate was the portrayal of the sports agent world
in Jerry Maguire And.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
What was your involvement in the film?

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Well, Cameron Crowe, the writer director, called me up back
in nineteen ninety three and asked if he could follow
me around and be immersed in my world to do
a film that would be predicated on a lead character
being a sports agent. So I had seen a movie

(05:52):
that he wrote the book for called Fast Times at
Ridgemont High, and I remember that well, so I thought
it was hilarious. So I thought it might be fun,
so I said sure, And he came to the nineteen
ninety three NFL Draft with me, where I had the
first pick, and to the press conference up in Boston.

(06:16):
He came to the league meetings with me in Palm Desert.
He came to a series of games. He came to
pro scouting day at USC came to my Super Bowl party,
spent hours in my office and I told him stories,
lots and lots of stories. And then my role was

(06:38):
to be technical advisor, and so I bet the script
to make sure the willing suspension of disbelieves that holds
you in a motion picture where you don't think that
the dialogue might be unrealistic or look phony didn't get broken.
And then he signed me the actors. So I took
a young actor named Cuba Goode Junior, who played the

(07:01):
wide receiver in the film, down to the Super Bowl
in Arizona, and I made him pretend he was a
wide receiver client of mine for the week to put
him in role. And I even had to show the
quarterback played by Jerry O'Connell how to throw a spiral
because he had gone to NYU and they didn't have

(07:23):
football there.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Oh my god, that's remarkable. How much time did you spend,
if any, with Tom Cruise?

Speaker 4 (07:32):
A fair amount of time. I was on the set
for different scenes, whether it was a draft or a
seen a shot in the apartment, and so I was
trying to give the actors motivation for what might be
in their head and how an agent would look at

(07:55):
the world.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Right in nineteen ninety three, as you mentioned, was a
big year because that was the first year of free agency.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
Correct it was and Drew Bleds who was the top
pick that year. So we're able to innovate a concept
called voidable years, which frustrated the new shower gap.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Do you believe in win wind negotiation?

Speaker 4 (08:21):
So I wrote a book called Winning with Integrity, which
was how to get what you want without losing your soul. So, look,
the key skill in life is listening, and it's trying
to peel back the layers of the onion, so you
go deeper and deeper, so you understand someone's deepest anxieties

(08:42):
and fears and what their greatest hopes and dreams are.
And if you can put yourself in the heart and
mind of another human being and see the world the
way they do it. Then you can craft a paradigm
that will lead you to win wind negotiating. But you've
got to be completely aware of what the other side

(09:02):
needs out of a situation and try to craft win.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
When do you script or rehearse your verbal exchanges or are
you more off the cuff face to face or a
phone or in writing when you're negotiating.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
Well, I think that every word out of your mouth
has to have intention, and in a negotiating session, if
there's silence, you have to learn to live with it
instead of babbling out a whole series of points. But
what I do have to do, Christina, is bleed emotion

(09:39):
out of the moment so that this is not about me.
It's not my ego. I'm not going to get angry
or upset by something someone says. You're more or less
in a warrior mode where you have no emotion to it.
Everything is tactical.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
What's the most formidable negotiator that you squared off against?

Speaker 4 (10:04):
Oh my god, there was a Cincinnati Bengals and there
was an owner in GM named Mike Brown, and I
had their first round draft pick in nineteen maybe seven,
nineteen ninety two, nineteen ninety four, nineteen ninety five, nineteen
ninety nine. He didn't much care for agents. I felt

(10:25):
like if I represented astronauts, this Mike Brown would be
like commissioner of the Moon. And pren was that. You know,
he did not believe in win when negotiating, And so
I think Nature's way of teaching me humility was to

(10:48):
keep having clients drafted.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
There who is the most response responsible for shaping the
current sports representation business besides you? Who who are the
major players? And where would you place yourself in that line?

Speaker 4 (11:05):
So what happened is a whole series of multinational agencies
mostly involved in entertainment, decided they wanted to be involved
in sports, and they went and bought up a series
of individual agencies. And their real interest was not so
much the money they'd get from that, but the ability

(11:28):
to market and brand new athletes and to own content
supply motion pictures, television shows, reality shows, and to combine
them all into entities they could own. So that's like,
see it's Wayne Morris, Endeavor, it's Casey Wasser and people

(11:54):
like that.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
So when you're negotiating.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Is it hard which sport is the hardest to negotiate
if any?

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Or is it all kind of the same.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
I mean you have MLB, you have NBA, NFL, you
have boxing, golf, tennis.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
I mean, what's different about it and what's the same.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, in individual sports that you mentioned golf and tennis,
the negotiation is not for the fee or prize a
athlete will get. It's for marketing, it's for endorsements. In
team sports, the NBA and Major League Baseball are significantly
easier than pro football because that because you have a

(12:43):
salerycap in the draft, which basically predetermines what every football
player is going to receive. So the negotiation negotiability has
been taken out of it, and with veterans there's a
little more leverage, but again the salary cap plays a role.
Free agency in football is still a very lively process.

(13:09):
The NBA has the same cap on draftees, but after that,
if a player makes it, the pay is extraordinary. And
baseball free agency is an amazing process where two seventy
hitter gets hundreds of millions of dollars because they're available.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
I know, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
You know, it's remarkable that the average career span in
the NFL is three point three years. Does that factor
in when you're negotiating for these for these guys because
you want to set them up for success later on
in life or do you even think about that?

Speaker 4 (13:52):
Not really, because the three point three years comes from
hundreds of players who only last year or two. Once
a player makes it, Warren Moon was my client and
played pro football for twenty three years, or someone like
Bruce Smith for nineteen years. So the really good players,

(14:17):
of hyper talented players, unless injury plays a factor, tend
to play a long time.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
You've had great success with Patrick Mahomes. I mean, it's
so exciting his career. How long have you had him
as a client.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Since he was a college junior at Texas Tech?

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Oh my gosh, that's remarkable and so many How often
do you negotiate contract with someone like at the level.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Of Patrick.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
Well, since I consider him to be the best player
in the NFL. Not often. But what you have as
a contruct where the most valuable thing now in pro
football with the NFL is a franchise quarterback, and it's

(15:09):
so essential to have a player you can build around
for ten to twelve years, who can win because of
rather than with, and who importantly in critical situations adversity
throwing a couple interceptions, crowd is going and what does
he do then? Can he compartmentalize, adopt a quiet mind

(15:32):
and elevate his level of play? That group is the
most valuable position in pro football and their salaries are exploding.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
So you're known for having a lot of representing a
lot of quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Why is that?

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Well, the quarterback, first of all, if you believe in
role modeling, has the highest profile, so they can be
a terrific role model. Second, the game is sort of
televised around them, and the endorsement market for quarterbacks is
much higher. Lastly, they play a long time and they're

(16:12):
paid at the top of the pay scale. So for
all those reasons, then and when you go to a game,
to watch your players center stage. So for all those
there were weekends back in the nineties where I was
representing half the starting quarterback.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
That's incredible. We are going to take our first commercial break.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
I'm Christina Flack and we are chatting with Lee Steinberg
and we will be right back.

Speaker 5 (16:41):
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Speaker 2 (18:46):
Welcome back to I'm Too Busy.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
I'm Christina Flack and we are speaking with Lee Steinberg
about all things sports. Lee, give me your top five.
I can't believe we got this deal done. If you
can share them, you don't have to give names, because
I know that stuff's private, But are there a few
that you can share well?

Speaker 4 (19:08):
When war Moon came back to the NFL from Canada,
he was a total free agent and he ended up
getting the largest contract for a veteran ever. That same year,
Steve Young came out of BYU and there was a

(19:30):
new football league, the USFL, that had the La Express
as one of their teams, and he signed forty two
million dollar contract, which made headlines around the world. As
a matter of fact, someone sent in a Japanese newspaper
and all I could see was forty two and the

(19:50):
rest of the Japanese So that was a consequential contract.
Obviously Mahome was uh what was a breakthrough contract in
its time, But back in the day, Troy Aikman's contracts

(20:12):
made news and they made history. And then at one
point I negotiated the biggest fight contract ever for Lenox
Lewis to fight Mike Tyson. That that fight got poke
bone because Mike Tyson bit Lenox on the leg.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
But you know, oh my god, what were you thinking?
Were you there when he bit his leg?

Speaker 4 (20:41):
So we're on the side of the stage at the
press conference who announced the fight, and Mike Tyson jumps
off the dais runs over to where Lenox is and
they go rolling around the floor because he tackles them.
And obviously this pressure conference is over because you know,

(21:04):
it's turned into chaos. So we go up to Lennox's
room and he rolls his pant leg up and there's
blood coming down the leg and he says, oh my god,
in a British accent, the geezer bit.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Me, the geezer bit me.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Oh my gosh, that's incredible, Oh my gosh. So Bill
Walsh has his coaching tree, and so does Mike Shanahan.
But Lee, you have your own agent tree. You've got
Jeff David. How proud of you of this legacy.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
I think that to the extent that they modeled our
same role, modeling onto that that Mike Sullivan and Steve
Baker and David Dunn and Joe By Brannon and Ryan
Tolner and Bruce Tolner and Chase con Anima Zurabbie and
Chris Cabott. Hopefully they're all out in the world making

(22:08):
positive different Now. You know, the problem in agency is
that trying to get an agent to say something nice
about someone else in the field, it's very difficult. Doctors
can admit the talent of another doctor and in journalism,
writers can write a blurb on the back of another book.

(22:30):
But if you just negotiated a contract for trellion dollars,
there would be agent thaying I could have got two trion,
he only got it because the player was so good.
You know, blah blah. It structurally flawed. I've tried to
be a mentor, but sometimes it's challenging.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
How when you are looking at new athletes, what are
you looking for and how do you find out about?

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Do you have someone, do you have scouts out there looking.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
Or are you How does that work well? First of all,
if you have good relationships with franchises, they will tell
you who they're looking at and who the good players are.
So what I look for is the quality character, and
I look for someone that understands the importance of being

(23:25):
a role model. I look at someone with a good
work ethic, who's going to tirelessly work off the field,
to stay in shape, to keep training, to master a playbook.
And the most important quality is the one that we
meant to do minutes ago, which is what that athlete does.

(23:49):
In adversity, life will inevitably push you back and break you.
But can you be resilient. Can you perform in the moment?
Can you make a real elevation in your level of
talent in key reversus.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
You've had obstacles in your life and you've had some challenges.
How has that shaped who you've become now? And how
you relate to your clients in different ways when they're
going through different crisises.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Do you deal with a lot of crisis management?

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Well, hopefully if you've done the right screening and if
you mentor the players to explain that they're under a microscope.
And if they don't want to be gracious in signing autographs,
if they don't want to control driving an alcohol, if

(24:49):
they don't understand the fundamentals or respect for the opposite sex,
then it's going to be NonStop troubles. So we not
only screen for it, but we also try to mentor
the athletes so that they have a designated driver so
they have people around them. In my own life, I

(25:10):
struggled with alcohol some years ago and I had to
break denial and join a twelve step program with a
unique fellowship, and next month everything going well, I'll be
fifteen years continuously sober. So I've been public about it

(25:32):
thank you. I've been public about it in the hope
that people still struggling out there understand that there's a framework.
If they'll accept it, they can lead them back to
a fulfilling life. And I try to inspire if I
can people that are still struggling.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
Have you had to deal with that with athletes.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Tech?

Speaker 2 (26:00):
With alcohol and drugs? Is that something that's.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
By and large or usage rates are are lower. It's
it's alcohol. Is is often joke that pro football's a
disney Land of drinking, but that we try to work

(26:25):
with them and council Lemon. Again, it's important to understand
that mental health is health and instead of having a
stigma around it, it's just it's a set of issues
to work through.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
How much of an issue is NIL with these new
brand of players, I mean, are you dealing are you
negotiating that as well with nil or can you.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
It's a case of totally unintended consequences because what was
meant as a way to get a few more dollars
into the bank book of players that come from disadvantaged
households has turned into free agency for high school players
going to college, where four conferences have put together among

(27:16):
their alums what are called collectives, and this is now
bidding money for recruiting. So a player comes out, for example,
best college quarterback commits to LSU, and then a businessman
and Michigan decides they want him from Michigan. He offers

(27:38):
him fourteen million dollars and he decommits some transfers to Michigan.
So the problem with it is that these four conferences
are going to elevate above everybody else and sign all
the good players. And they have a second bite at
the Apple Christina with what's called the transfer portal, and

(28:00):
that's the ability of an athlete already add a university
to switch and go to another school. And big money's
part of that too. So it creates a climate where
fifteen year old high school quarterbacks are marketing themselves and
branding themselves. So the whole concept the amateurism, not that

(28:22):
it was ever pure, but it's gone out the window
and now it's about money. And those four conferences are
going to pull away from every other conference and it'll
be the haves and the have nots, and eventually they'll
get rid of the NCAA and negotiate their own television
contracts and their own rules, so there are no real regulations.

(28:47):
There are very few standards. It's the wah wah West.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
So you're not a big fan of this nil money,
I'm assuming.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
I mean, I think it's going to make a huge impact,
and I don't know if it's positive forever. I mean,
that's such a young age for these kids to have
these exorbitant sums of money at their disposal, and you know,
quite frankly, if you think about it, it might be
just too overwhelming and too much. I mean, are these
kids getting agents or house that do you have? What's

(29:16):
the youngest athlete that you have signed?

Speaker 4 (29:19):
I'm still in the mostly in the in the college bracket,
but the answer is yes, they're getting what's called them.
They're able to get a marketing director. They cannot have
a sports agent. But the marketing director does same thing right,
exactly the same thing, and many of them also represent

(29:42):
the professional athletes. So if they do a good job
early on, then they'll continue to represent an athlete all
the way from high school through the pro. So it
professionalizes everything. Am I in favor of athletes getting more
money and a better cut? Yes? Is this this is

(30:06):
a pyramid, which in general only heavily compensates those athletes
at the top of the game.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
What brands do.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
You see having a huge impact with your athletes right now?
Are you seeing the same thing with the Converse and
the Nike or what other things do you negotiate Do
you negotiate to all of that, like, for example, for Patrick,
do you do on all his stuff off the field
as well?

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Well? Chris Cabotts other agents negotiates those deals. But the
reality is that the first key is to brand an athlete,
to create a website and presence on multiple platforms or

(30:58):
content reply. So you're looking for a robust Instagram and
TikTok and Facebook and LinkedIn and all of those platforms
once and then the production of content which enhances those platforms.
So it's little bits of content, little videos, little discussions,

(31:24):
and then once it gets high enough, it creates a
revenue stream where people will advertisers will come there. And
then we look at product categories, which are automotives, a
product category clothing and apparel, shoes, breakfast cereals, soft drinks, waters,

(31:45):
financial services, internet concepts, and an athlete can really only
have one deal in each of those areas exclusivity.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
Got it, We are going to take another commercial break.
I'm Christina Flack. I'm chatting with Lee Steinberg today and
we will be back in a minute. And I'm too busy.

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Speaker 3 (34:14):
Hello, I'm Christina Flack. Welcome back to I'm Too Busy.
We're chatting with Lee Steinberg about all things sports.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
So what are your thoughts?

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Lee?

Speaker 3 (34:23):
On Shay gilgis Alexander with Oklahoma City Thunder. He dropped
his agent as getting ready to negotiate a super max contract.
How big of a deal is that and how is
this going to impact with sports representation business.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
He's perfectly entitled to do that. The reality is that
one agent does for players more than negotiating the contract.
He in an ideal situation, you're preparing a player for
second career. You're helping them player understand the scouting system

(35:03):
and the best way to prepare and maximize getting drafted
as high as possible. You're mentoring a player in the
early years of career. You're a resource for a player
when he gets injured, and the concept of a second opinion.
You're working on charity and community with him. And then

(35:28):
it all depends. Contracts have structure and it takes a
while to understand what the particular items are that need
to be involved. So it's always been true that the
central value of a player's contract is a player himself,
but ensuring that their rights are protected, making sure that

(35:51):
the language is sufficient to deal with future contingencies is
always important. There have always been athletes Lamar Jackson would
be an example, or they've always been athletes who have
done this, but I don't see it really catching on

(36:13):
agents evolved because of the needs of players, not by
the person. Right.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
What progress have you seen with in concussion research and
brain help? What still needs to be addressed?

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Do you think? So I had a crisis of conscience
back in the late eighties. I was representing half the
starting quarterbacks that kept getting hid in ahead and we
go to doctors and ask how many is too many?
What should contemplate retirement? They had no answers. So in
nineteen ninety four I had the first concussion conference where Troyan,

(36:49):
Steve Young, and Warren Moon and Drew Bledsoe and Rob
Johnson all came and listened to neurologists talk about the dangers.
We kept having them, and by two thousand and six
the doctors told us that three or more was the
magic number. And at that point there was an exponentially
higher risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, premature senility, chronic traumatic and sephalopathy,

(37:16):
and depression. So I called it a ticking time bomb
and an undiagnosed health epidemic. Since then, we've continued to
hold these conferences at my super Bowl party each year,
and we've done ten of them at the super Bowl party.
We just have one in New Orleans. So the good

(37:37):
news is that there are now a couple of ways,
modalities and protocols that I think can sure a brain.
And so the premise always was at once it got
traumatic brain injury, that that was it, that it just
was a slippery slope. But now through the theory of neuroplasticity,

(38:01):
which is the rewiring of neurons in the brain, there's
one method called TMS or rTMS. There's another called neurofeedback,
and we've seen promising results in rewiring. I just set
up a Concussion Foundation in my name to raise money
for more research and to put aside money for at

(38:26):
risk or underserved communities so they can get brain health
treatment also. So the goal is to try to make
a difference. The concussion protocol that the NFL uses is helpful.
They have people in the sidelines, in the press box,
and down on the sidelines spotting impaired players. They put

(38:50):
them through a protocol that's helpful. Better rules against using
the head and blocking and tackling are also helpful. I
think we have to be conscious of how young a
athlete is when they first play tackle football, because the
adolescent brain is still in development and needs more, and

(39:16):
it takes for a pro athlete a week to recover potentially,
and it takes the younger athlete three weeks. They are
also there are programs that have eliminated hitting during preseason
and during practices that have they're using in the IVY League,

(39:42):
for example, and there's they can drop the concussion rate
by thirty.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
That's remarkable.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Can you tell me a little bit about saving the
San Francisco Giants and what earning the least Steinberg.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Day meant to you.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
I've always thought it was wrong professional franchisers to claim
to be civic treasurers. So their year Los Angeles Dodgers,
their year Los Angeles Rams and ask for fans to
come when they lose or when they win and to
give support actually for a private business, and then leave

(40:21):
the area. I mean, it goes all the way back
to the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn. We'd have been happy
in southern California with an expansion team. So I don't
want to break the hearts of young fans. And Mayor
Jordan of San Francisco asked me if I could help
lead an effort to save the Giants. They had already

(40:41):
signed a sales agreement with a group in Tampa Bay.
So we had to turn that around, find a group
of new buyers, convince the National League to disapprove the move,
and ultimately found all that and I got sued for

(41:01):
three billion dollars by that owners group. Talk about oh,
talk about blood out of a turnip, but at any rate,
we were able to do that, And then did the
same thing again with the Oakland A's in nineteen ninety four,
where I helped Mayor Ellewhu Harris. Unfortunately, the Oakland's lost

(41:21):
all of its teams. Now it's so sad that town is.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
It's just so sad how they've all left.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
It takes a leader. It took Frank Jordan, It took
a leader to or ellewho Harris. It takes a mayor,
head of border supervisors to lead the effort. But they
just sat there and acquiesced to losing things that gave
them their identity.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Definitely in the community, it really greatly affected it. How
do you view the current the current landscape of athlete
activism and social justice initiatives.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
I think it's important for athletes to not see themselves
as disconnected from the rest of the community. I think
that that advocacy teaches important leadership skills all for it.
Where I have problems is when the stadium is used,
because if you use a stadium and protests to fight racism,

(42:24):
then that the next group that will occur will be
anti abortion activists who say that abortion is murder, and
then you have them demonstrating, and then someone else and
someone else. Part of the premise of pro sports is
it gets people together from different racial, age, political perspectives,

(42:47):
and everybody tosses that all aside because we have the
collective collective ability to follow the sport and we're all fans,
and I would hate to see that broken because if
we make a stadium or arena too much like what

(43:09):
goes on a news channel, people are not going to
be excited. They leave that world behind to come and
root for sports. Right.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
What motivates you to keep you pushing boundaries in sports representation.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
The feeling like we can constantly progress and so take
an issue like the environment. I created a Sporting Green
Alliance which took sustainable technology and wind, solar recycling, reservicing,
and water to staate arena and practice fields, drop carbon

(43:49):
emissions and energy costs, and transform those venues into teaching
platforms where a fan can see a waterless general, see
a solar panel and think about how to make a
difference in their own homework business. So it's it's how

(44:11):
can we keep progressing on fundamental issues? How can we
push back on racism, push back on domestic violence or bullying,
or solve any of these problems? And we can do
it through athlete romotly m.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
What lessons about resilience have you learned that you share
with your clients They've shared with you.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
Main process. Instead of thinking about the ultimate result, stay
in the motion of preparation practice that will get you there.
Instead of obsessing about am I going to win this case?
Am I going to make this sale? Am I going
to u? Stop thinking about that and keep taking the

(45:02):
steps that will augur well for success.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
Who is the person on the out of the sports
sector that you're at Liberty discussed that you that that
would most be most surprising if you're not at Liberty
to say what industry are they in?

Speaker 4 (45:21):
Well? I grew up in My grandfather ran Hillcrest Country
Club and he played Jim Rummy every day in the
fifties with Jack Benny and George Burns and George Deessel
and the rest of it. And so I sat on
his lap and that was my environment. And because it

(45:43):
was the center of the entertainment industry. I have a
picture of me or Marilyn Monroe's lap.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
I have, Oh my god, that's iconic that we.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
Cut a record George, Gretcha Marsh and his granddaughter Melinda
to any get your gun. Anything you can do, I
can do better. So I've pretty much always been surrounded
by people that do interesting things.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Did you think when you were growing up that you
were going to get into entertainment or law or entertainment law?
I mean, like, what did you think when you went
to cal and you were studying. What did you think
you were going to What law did you think you
were going to do.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
I thought I would do public interest law, that I
would try to be someone who would fight for positive change.
And I thought, well, maybe I'll get some experience and
I could do it with the Alameda County District Attorney
where I could cases. But it was goodbye District Attorney,

(46:56):
Hello NFL.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Advice would you give to young athletes entering the field today.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
Again? To do an internal inventory, so they understand what's
most important to them. So how important is short term
economic gain, long term economic security, spiritual values, family, geographical location,
How important is being on a winning team, being a starter,

(47:27):
the quality of coaching the system to prioritize before they
ever enter the sport. What is fulfilling to them? Not
what the world thinks, but what their own values really are,
and so that would be important.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
What do you do when your day isn't flowing? When
my day isn't when it's not flowing, it's just like bumpy,
What do you do?

Speaker 4 (47:58):
Take a break? In other words, reset and and try
to change the environment quickly. Don't sit in the same seat,
go over a rock and or get some perspective and proportionality.

(48:18):
When I was at my darkest in fighting alcohol, I
finally got an epiphany that said, you know, I'm not
a starving peasant in Darfur. I don't have the last
name of Steinberg and Nazi Germany in the thirties. I
don't have cancer. So it's it's uh. I go into

(48:39):
the office every day expecting, notwithstanding our best efforts at preparation,
something will go awry, some third party something will happen
that frustrates us, and it's just part of life. If
you're prepared for that, then the reverse us from teams

(49:01):
dramatic or upsetting.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
We're going to take one more commercial break. We are
chatting with Lee Steinberg. I'm Christina Flack and I'm too busy.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
I'll be right back.

Speaker 6 (49:14):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent but you're not sure how.

(49:35):
I'm Pamela d Wilson. Join me for the Carrying Generation
radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings, six Pacific,
seven Mountain, eighth Central and nine Eastern, where I answer
these questions and share tips for managing stress, family relationships, health,
wellbeing and more. Podcasts and transcripts of The Carrying Generation
are on my website, Pamela Dwilson dot com, plus my

(49:58):
Caregiving library, online caregiver support programs and programs for corporations
interested in supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and support for
caregivers is here on the Carrying Generation and Pamela Dwilson
dot com.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
Mike Zorich a three time California state champion in Greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
SI's birth was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time national placer, including two seconds, two thirds, and
two fourths. He also won the Veteran's Folk Style Wrestling

(50:35):
twice at one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all
these tournaments, he was the only blind competitor. Nancy Zorich
a creative spirit whose talents have taken her to the
stage and into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father,
a commercial artist, who shared his instruments with his daughter
and helped her fine tune her natural abilities, influenced her

(50:58):
decision to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zori has enjoyed
a fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings
at twelve Eastern with a Nancy and Mike Show for
heartwarming stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Hi Welcome back time too busy. I'm Christina Black and
we are chatting with Lee Steinberg. Lee, what's been the
greatest honor of your career?

Speaker 4 (51:33):
You know, I've been Man of the Year for probably
about fifteen groups, but I'm under no illusion that those
are lasting. I think at the end of life you
have the quality of the relationships you had and whether
you made a difference in other people's lives. But I
think your biggest honor, in a way was Warren Moon

(51:56):
asking me to be his per center at in Canton,
Ohio at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, because he
had been a terrific role model, had done all sorts
of terrible things and played all those years, and we
were together for so long, so it was almost like
the having a player. Because agents are not presenters. They

(52:21):
tend to be family members or coaches or something like that.
So probably the biggest honor.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
That's amazing. Okay.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
I know this is a hard question because I get
asked this as a makeup artist, Who's my favorite? And
I always say whoever's in my chair? But who's your
favorite all time client?

Speaker 2 (52:43):
If there is one?

Speaker 3 (52:44):
I mean, I know they're all special in their way,
but there's some probably that you connect more than others.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
But the more most enduring one is who I just
mentioned more on Morton because over twenty we essentially grew
up together. I mean we were both so young at
the start of it and he plays for twenty three years,
and I think that's remarkable, and in all sorts of

(53:10):
situations we had bonded and I have There's a player,
Rolf Pinershka, who started a charitable program called Kicks for
Critters in San Diego, which was a genius for all
the later programs. But you know, I've got twelve players

(53:30):
in the Hall of Fame, and you think about the
relationship with the Troy Aikman or a Steve Young or
currently with Patrick, I mean, they're all amazing.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
That such a blessing.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
So back to your personal life, what do you do
to like do you have a special diet, do you work,
do you have certain workout?

Speaker 2 (53:52):
What are you doing to take care of yourself?

Speaker 3 (53:54):
Because wellness and you know, self care is so incredibly
important when you're in the position that you're in because
if you're not feeling good and healthy, you can't take
care of.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
All these people. So what do you do that makes
you feel best.

Speaker 4 (54:09):
I work out with the personal trainer three times a week.
I have an Apple Watch, and I'm very competitive on steps,
so I try to get fifteen thousand a day. I've
discovered a whole new set of modalities that are anti inflammatory,
which I've done hyperbaric oxygen and a process called bamini,

(54:34):
which is hoses in a tub that oxygen ain't the
water comes in. There's a process called nanobye themselves. I
had thirty million implanted in each temple and drop my
glasses on to wear them anymore. So I love the ocean.

(54:58):
I love the water, I love the beach, I love travel,
I love reading. I have a book club on Facebook.
It's got almost three thousand people that are there. I
love movies, television, music. So, and here's the thing. I'm

(55:23):
in the moment. So let's say it's the week one.
I've got people to cover the athletes. I turned my
phone off and I am in the moment. It's not
things are covered. But the point is that with this

(55:45):
modern world, with so many distractions, with the computer and
the internet and cell phone and everything, you simply need
a break where you can focus on that moment, whether
I'm with my family or or girlfriend or whoever it is,
I need to be totally present for them, and that's

(56:09):
one of the ways I have of getting away.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Do you have a special diet that you're loving right
now or do you change because I know I'm constantly
doing the green juice or now it's I'm doing protein
first thing in the morning. What is your special thing
that you're doing?

Speaker 4 (56:27):
So I sort of do intermittent fasting and it so
for years I've been on primarily a vegetable salad protein diet,
and now I've got a group of people trying to
switch me to carnivore and keto, which they say, but

(56:49):
it's sort of counterintuitive. We've been told all these years,
you know, loc it's right now, all of a sudden
they're saying, no, that's wrong. Pat. You know, Angis Khan
in his day his soldiers only eight meat and no vegetables.
So it's all confusing.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
I don't know. I think it's balance, you know, I
think it's both.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
I do think you need the protein, but I think
the vegetables are super important as well, And you know,
in balance in life, where's your happy place?

Speaker 4 (57:20):
It's right now, I'm looking out of my office and
I can see the sun just starting to go down,
and it's water. It's I could live in a meat
town bubble as long as I can see the ocean,

(57:40):
which I can here in Newport Beach. I could in
my Berkeley house could see the thing. So the happy
place is looking out at the water and seeing the
sun reflect on it, and then watching the sunset.

Speaker 6 (57:56):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
What's your vision for the future of Steinberg sports and
entertainment and what legacy do you hope to leave.

Speaker 4 (58:03):
The legacy is just the caring, But the future is
there's all sorts of new interesting projects. I've uh there
are new ways to enjoy sports that bring fans closer.
There are new technologies, there are uh you, I got

(58:24):
talked to a group of jockeys the other day who
want to set up a jockey league. There are niches
and ways to to do new modalities, and there's always
more we can do charitably. And the legacy is just
that that we acted and made a positive difference.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
What's your favorite quote or motto?

Speaker 4 (58:54):
I like that Teddy Roosevelt quote about the man in
the arena. I can't do the whole thing, but fundamentally,
it says that it's not the critical accounts or someone
who can't do the deeds, it's someone in the arena
who's finding as hard as that can striving. And whether

(59:15):
a professor failure knows the meaning of involvement.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
What question have I not asked you today that you
want to share?

Speaker 4 (59:29):
We didn't ask me about our Agent Academy. And we
do that to bring along the next generation of professionals
with values and ethics that we've taught how to negotiate,
how to sell or recruit, how to do different things.
We have the next one coming up March seventh and

(59:50):
eighth here in Newport Beach, and it's my way of
trying to create another generation of sports professionals with values
and ethics that can understand how to use sports to
make a difference.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
I love that so much.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Lee.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
I cannot thank you enough for being on my show today.
It has been such an honor. I've been a fan
of yours forever. You and I are friends on Facebook
and LinkedIn, and I just enjoy you and you inspire me.
So thank you for all you do for the world,
and I look forward to seeing you again. And I'm
Christina Flack and I'm too busy. I'd like to thank

(01:00:27):
everyone that helped with questions for this, Jim Peterson, Vern Glenn,
Bill McDonald, Steve Companio, all of you. Thank you so much,
and both my assistants for helping. I'm very grateful, and
I'm Christina Flack.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
I'll see you next week. And I'm too busy.

Speaker 6 (01:00:48):
This has been I'm too busy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
With host Christina Flack. Tune in each week as Christina
approaches the concept of success holistically, recognizing that achievement is
not so much be measured by financial triumphs, but also
by maintaining a healthy work life balance and focusing on
self care. Wednesdays, seven pm Eastern on the Bold Brave

(01:01:11):
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I'm Too Busy TV - w/ guest Leigh Steinberg

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}I'm Too Busy TV - w/ guest Leigh Steinberg