Many NFLPA certified Contract Advisors are severely conflicted between representing players and the coaches and/or front office NFL team personnel. No agency might be more conflicted than the newly formed SportsTrust Advisors, which is the result of a merger of Jimmy Sexton’s Athletic Resource Management (ARM) and Pat Dye, Jr.’s ProFilesSports, Inc
No issue when they are negotiating a contract for Phillip Merling, a Miami Dolphins players, and Sexton/Dye are also Bill Parcells’ agents? What about working on a deal for Calvin Pace or Tony Richardson while they have Rex Ryan as a client? On top of the issues surrounding conflicts of representing both sides whoare at least some part of a negotiation, there are questions regarding coach
clients potentially giving preferential treatment to their agents’ clients over other agents clients and/or providing any type of help to their agents in the recruitment of new clientele.
These conflicts are not only a concern with SportsTrust Advisors. Many other agencies represent NFL team executives, including head coaches, and NFL players. This dual representation is currently permitted by the NFLPA as long as there is full disclosure of all entities represented to each client. But should it be allowed in the future?
The NBA takes care of the aforementioned potential conflicts by forbidding agents from representing coaches and players. The NFLPA should do its due diligence and seriously look into adopting similar regulations to root out conflicts of interest.
By Darren Heitner
Mr. Heitner is the Founder/CEO of Dynasty Athlete Representation, a sports agency based in the Florida. He is also the Founder/Chief Editor of SportsAgentBlog.com and EntertainmentAgentBlog.com. Mr. Heitner has been interviewed on numerous occasions by sports radio and television shows including CNN, and has written for sports publications such as ESPN.com. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida.
