9781422285282

“I am honored that Leigh asked me to write this foreword and am privileged to call Leigh a friend, while, in fact, he has been so much more than that.” While the athletes they represent get all the attention, you usually only hear about sports agents when their clients are looking to sign a new contract. In other words, agents are the ones responsible for your favorite players switching teams, or for your favorite team overpaying for a player you don’t think is worth all that money. The fact of the matter is, a sports agent does much more than negotiate contracts. “I’m always working the phones—touching base with the clients, touching base with corporate contacts,” said Russ Spielman, a partner at The Legacy Agency. “There’s always ongoing business. Our clients are doing stuff everyweek—events, appearances, store openings, commercial shoots. So there’s a lot of working on those things—making sure everything is going well. “Sometimes I feel like an air traffic controller.” Spielman isn’t really helping airplanes land, but that might be the only thing he’s not doing in his role as agent. In addition to helping clients sign contracts, an agent must do just about

10 C areers O ff the F ield • Sports Agent