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Loading... The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Gameby Leigh Steinberg
None No current Talk conversations about this book.  ceg045 | Feb 19, 2014 |  no reviews | add a review
"Leigh Steinberg is renowned as one of the greatest sports agents in history, representing such All-Pro clients as Troy Aikman, Bruce Smith, and Ben Roethlisberger. Over one particular seven-year stretch, Steinberg represented the top NFL Draft pick an unheard of six times. Director Cameron Crowe credits Steinberg as a primary inspiration for the titular character in Jerry Maguire, even hiring Steinberg as a consultant on the film. Lightyears ahead of his contemporaries, he expanded his players' reach into entertainment. Already the bestselling author of a business book on negotiation, the original superagent is now taking readers behind the closed doors of professional sports, recounting priceless stories, like how he negotiated a $26.5 million package for Steve Young--the biggest ever at the time--and how he passed on the chance to represent Peyton Manning. Beginning with his early days as a student leader at Berkeley, Steinberg details his illustrious rise into pro sports fame, his decades of industry dominance, and how he overcame a series of high-profile struggles to regain his sobriety and launch his comeback. This riveting story takes readers inside the inner circle of top-notch agents and players through the visionary career of Leigh Steinberg, the pre-eminent superagent of our time"-- No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)338.47796092Social sciences Economics Production Secondary industries and services Services and specific productsLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3)
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Wikipedia in English
1
Representing an impressive range of athletes, mostly in football but in other sports as well, Leigh Steinberg was the main inspiration for the Jerry Maguire character. Having fallen into sports agency somewhat by accident, in the ensuing 40 years, he has gone on to represent an impressive portfolio of athletes, developing personal relationships with them along the way.
In the age of sports scandals ranging from performance enhancing drugs to concussions, Steinberg is a breath of fresh air in his principled approach to the game, and it was interesting to learn about the player/agent relationship from the latter's perspective, one that we rarely get insight on. We also get to see some of the greatest superstars in modern sports--Steve Young, Warren Moon, Troy Aikman, Drew Bledsoe, Ben Roethlisberger--as young men in and just out of college, navigating their first taste of fame.
Steinberg's life was marred by difficulty in recent years, including a bout with alcoholism and financial troubles. While it's undoubtedly a difficult period for Steinberg to relive, I would have liked to hear more about his struggles in this regard (it only about 25 pages near the end of the book), if for no other reason than he is living proof that someone can conquer addiction and thrive in its aftermath. Still, an interesting read for a time when sports and athletes are coming under an increasingly powerful microscope. (