Darren Urban blog - curious discovery about Boldin's agent

CardsFan88

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i am going to caveat my comments with the fact that i did not read your entire rant. but some of what you said needs to be addressed.

1. it is nowhere obvious that DR was the sticking point. even if Q signs and extension within the next 3 months it could be b/c Q finally softens his position and have nothing to do with DR. we will likely never know if DR's involvement had any impact on these negotiations.

2. outta 90+ clients not every single one holds out or demands a trade. that's a gross overgeneralization.

3. players who don't live up to their contracts are not usually just automatically cut but rather given the option to accept a paycut. for a good player that never quite became great it is ALWAYS what happens. but those players have inflated egos and beleive they are worth the greater money. THAT'S why they are usually cut, b/c they are unwilling to renegotiate. that has NOTHING to do with their agents.

4. agents are generally paid on a percentage of contract basis. that's for an entire contract. if the contract becomes void they are no longer paid. they don't have any more incentive for a new contract than the player has - more money based on the numbers in the contract. it's not like they are stock brokers where they get paid on each trade (or in their case, each contract negotiated). their cash interest is directly aligned with their client's cash interest.

5. completely agree with your assessment of urban. color me impressed. i thought it was just an oversight. something so trivial turned out to be relatively significant. nicely done urban.

1. Yes you're right, I addressed the fact that it might mean nothing, I was simply addressing that this might be the cause.

2. No, not everyone. Gross over generalization, or a liberal read of what I said. Having 10 or so clients, medium to big name stars all demand trades, hold out or threaten to hold out is not the norm. That is a vast escalation of what was going on even a few years ago. Nowhere have I ever read even more than say two or three clients in any given year pulling this stuff. But you can guess which one of the agents was probably one of those guys in those previous years.

Plus not all of his clients are in a position to demand such treatment. Some might not even be in the NFL, however I do not know how the industry breakdown is among his clients...hockey? baseball players? Or strictly football.

Some of his guys got paid last year, some maybe signed rookie contracts two years ago as a top of the 1st round draft pick, therefore they also wouldn't be particularly capable of pulling these stunts.

Therefore 10 out of 90 or so of his clients to me would constitute 'every capable nfl player he represents who either has a 1-3 years left on his contract and that is of medium to high star quality is currently engaged in these stunts'. Unless of course a few of them said, hell no I ain't playing no fool and holding out or whatnot. Of course some deals are also signed, some teams do deals quickly and will pay something closer to the going rate as defined by the agent.

I guess I could have been more specific, but that was my line of thinking when I wrote that, I just hadn't fleshed it all out.

3. Yes, they are offered a restructure (most but not every time), which means an agent makes money from that deal too. So setting up a contract that HAS to or probably most likely needs to be renegotiated OR the guy is cut and signs a new deal elsewhere has the same effect for the agent.

Or the deals hamstrings the fo 'see lf deal', and all told, while it may not directly affect your client, a bunch of agents all doing the same thing eventually strokes all of each other's backs.

It's like the quote from Trading Places, 'whether the stock goes up or down, Duke and Duke still get their commission'

More contracts signed, equals more money.

The person is irrelevant, the agent was paid on the front end for what the $$ amount of the contract is, with maybe slight flexibilities factored in. Restructure or cut, they have the chance to cash in again.

It's an easy sell to cover that in 'I'm trying to get you the most money possible' approach. When it will always benefit him/her but not necessarily the player.

So it does have to do with their agents, especially if their agents sign them to a deal that escalates so much it leaves a team no other choice but to do anything except let that contract be played out. Why? Because the agent wrote it. He could have written or structured it differently, but that's the way he might of done it.

4. As said before, percentage of the signed contract. Not the collected. That's the way I've always heard it, so if I'm wrong on that, my bad. I'm only going off of what I thought to be the true parameters.

There may be some sort of way to say wait for to be paid on the escalator, so what the agent gets might not be 5 percent of 70 million reported, because it's really 50 million, with the possibility of 20 more which he could then get 5 percent of that 20 if the escalators are met.

There's also getting something done, and not. Signing two deals one in 2009 and one in 2015, is better than signing one in 2011 and 2018. You get paid faster, which in the end results in more money for the agent, especially when on any given day over that extra year or two it takes the player can change agents. So it's in his best interest.

5. I agree, it's awesome.


Overall it was not a rant, it's a complex, detailed breakdown of things as I see it that is a possibility. If it is based off the signed deal then there would be a distinct conflict of interest between a player's interest and an agent's interest. It wouldn't affect everyone, but at this point it is getting so ridiculous how many of his and other guys are doing what they are doing, it just wouldn't surprise me if there are a few bad eggs who represent their clients in such fashion.

But I can understand fully not reading it all, so it's all good. They were legitimate questions ouchie, I hope I cleared them up a bit from my perspective.
 
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lauraw

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CardsFan88, great posts, i learned alot from your interaction with Ouchie Clown.. Thank you!
 

Duckjake

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Great point, O! Shut up and make the Pro Bowl2x then we'll pay you...

Just like they're paying Boldin right? The 3 time pro bowler and former NFL rookie of the year.
 

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