3 posts
  • 1 / 1
 by BobCarl
6 years 1 month ago
 Total posts:   4283  
 Joined:  Mar 08 2017
United States of America   LA Coliseum
Superstar

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/02/22/free- ... ayers-mmqb

long article ... but interesting read ...

The Farce of Free Agency’s Tampering Period

By ALBERT BREER February 22, 2018

You’ll hear a lot about free agency and the rules over the next three weeks. There will be breathless speculation over what will go down during the NFL’s so-called “tampering period,” a 48-hour stretch when teams and agents can legally negotiate for the first time. There’ll be clocks counting down to March 14 at 4 p.m.

Just know this: Pretty much all of it is for show. The deals that will be done in 20 days? Those are real. But most of the other stuff you’ll hear between now and then isn’t much above fiction.

Listen to the words of one prominent agent, who’s going back with us through a timeline from a few years back, when a client of his hit the market. At this point, the agent is recounting leaving the combine in Indianapolis, with a week left before the legal tampering period, and how he absolutely knew by then that: A) he had his financial figure, and B) at least two teams would pay it.

“I knew they were all in, like all in, more than before the combine—way more in,” said the agent. “There was still a smattering of others, but I wasn’t feeling overtly confident that we were going to have five or 10. All I cared about was, Do I have the number that I predicted? By then, you don’t care who. The week before free agency, it’s more about, ‘Hey, I got my number.’ Everything else is smoke and mirrors.”

The made-for-TV song and dance will have you thinking there’s some furious dash to squeeze everything that goes into franchise-shifting and life-altering decisions for teams and player into those two days. The truth is what the agent here is saying: He knew what he had.

In this week’s Game Plan, we’ll delve into the Dolphins’ dilemma with the franchise-tagged Jarvis Landry; break down the idea of adding a bye week to the regular season for the sake of Thursday Night Football; explain why Jon Gruden is just what Derek Carr needs; look at the Panthers’ call to stick with no-longer-interim GM Marty Hurney; give you the two best players in the draft; and much more.

But we’re going to start with how that agent knew what his player was about to get, and even had a pretty good idea of where he was going, even though he wasn’t supposed to be talking to anyone except the rights-holding team about that player.

If you follow the NFL closely, and you were born before yesterday, you probably know that teams and agents alike treat the rules governing free agency like glorified yellow lights. What you might not know is to what degree everyone has their foot on the gas in advance of being able to legally contact the proverbial belles of the ball.

To illustrate that, we enlisted this agent to take us through the process he went through to make one of his clients wealthy beyond his wildest dreams a few years ago. Because of the sensitivity of the subject matter, we granted anonymity. It was the only way to write this story, given how blatant the rule-breaking is.

So we’ll start with the summer before the final year of the Player X’s deal.

• JULY: A position coach from (NFC Team 1), who previously worked with the player, calls the agent: “Hey, what are you up to? I wanted to come (there) and visit with some agents of guys we’re interested in. We’re looking to build relationships.” Strange, the agent thought, since he had no clients on (NFC Team 1). But it was intriguing enough. So he took the meeting.

The ensuing lunch lasted almost three hours. On the way out, the agent said, “I guess the old adage holds true, If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” The coach responded that (NFC Team 1) was trying to think outside the box. But the agent took a distinct feeling away after seeing what this team had just done for his player. “No matter what (Original Team) told me, I knew I’d have multiple suitors.”

• LATE AUGUST: The agent gets a message from the GM of (Original Team) saying they plan to meet with his player the next day about the contract, which sets off the agent. “Drove me nuts,” he said. “Those meetings are done to drive a wedge between the agent and player. They should be illegal.”

Nonetheless, before the start of the meeting, the agent lays out what he expects over the first three years of a new deal, and the team’s offer comes back with a full guarantee totaling just 28 percent of that figure. To that point, other teams haven’t called much. But he cuts off talks with (Original Team) after 28-percent offer. And word gets around.

• EARLY OCTOBER: On this Sunday, (Original Team) is playing (AFC Team 1), and the head coach for the (Original Team) is standing a few feet away from the head coach and a coordinator for (AFC Team 1). The coordinator, who previously coached the player, brazenly walked right up to the agent, in front of everyone, and said, “I saw my boy! Keep him fresh for me. I’m coming for him!”

Later in pregame, the agent went to his player. “Bro, (the AFC Team 1 coordinator) just came up to me.” The player cut him off, answering, “Yeah, yeah, we talked.”

A few weeks later, the agent is at another game, and a cap manager for (NFC Team 2) approaches him: “So what are going to do with (the player)?” The agent answered, “What are you going to do with him?” Which is met with, “I think we go after him.”

• NOVEMBER/DECEMBER: Such conversations at games pick up. By the end of season, the agent is being asked by almost any decision-maker he sees on the field about what (the player) will do in March. (NFC Team 3) tells the agent they’ll meet with him at the combine, and two officials from that club make a point of staying in constant contact. (AFC Team 2) has its general manager on it.

The agent comes out of the season with a list of a half-dozen teams he believes will be strong suitors for the player’s services.

• MID-JANUARY: For the first half of the month, while a host of teams get aggressive in courting the agent, (AFC Team 3) in particular asserts itself. This started with a simple text message in November. As time went on, the agent was told the team’s analytics department loved the player coming out of college, and the GM felt like he’d fouled that up. And the GM now wanted to fix his mistake.

The agent was starting to get ballpark numbers, and so he implored (AFC Team 3) to “post a score.” But they wouldn’t. So he knew at that point that he had a host of contenders, and a lead dog. What he didn’t have was a definitive price.

The agent made the call not to go to the East/West Shrine Game or Senior Bowl. He felt, for that point in the calendar, he’d done what was necessary and didn’t need the solicitation that comes at those events. It’s right around then, too, that teams retreat. Pro staffs are putting together their free-agent boards, teams with new staffs are teaching scouts what they look for in players, and budgets are being set.

• SUPER BOWL: The agent and his wife run into the GM of (NFC Team 4) at the Nike Suite in a Super Bowl hotel. They had this exchange:

“Are you drinking?” asks the GM.
“Hell yeah,” the agent answered.
“I love you,” the GM responded.
“I love you too,” the agent shot back.
“Will my love and friendship get me (the player)?” the GM said.
“Yeah, that and (gigantic dollar figure) per year,” the agent said.
“It’s gonna be that high, isn’t it?” said the GM.

The figure the agent threw out was 15 percent more than the three-year outlay he proposed to (Original Team) five months earlier. And the GM’s acceptance of the figure served as a turning point. “It was the first time my number made sense,” the agent said.

The two had been tepidly talking about the player for a couple months. They left the suite with an agreement to keep talking.

• MID-FEBRUARY: The agent sets up meetings with all 32 teams for Indianapolis, as clubs come out of their personnel meetings and the lines of communication reopen. And the trip is made to Indianapolis with the agent having ballpark knowledge of what the player is worth, and an idea of who the suitors will be.

• LATE FEBRUARY: When all’s said and done, 27 meetings happen on a variety of the agent’s clients. All brought (the player) up. Who’s serious crystallizes. (NFC Team 3) and (AFC Team 2) are clearly out. (NFC Team 1) is out too, after a coaching change and moves to re-sign its own players. And so is (NFC Team 4), which has taken care of its need. That said, there are two meetings that stand out.

The first happens at a bar in Indy. An exec from (NFC Team 5), which hasn’t shown previous interest, says, “Buy a drink.” The agent asks, “Aren’t we having a meeting?” The exec comes back: “No, we’re not having a meeting, get a drink,” before bringing in another team exec. Then, the exec says they’re at the same per-year number the agent had proposed to (NFC Team 4) at the Super Bowl, “So get a drink.”

The second was with negotiators from (AFC Team 1). The agent and an associate get interrogated about what they’re looking for to the point where, in the middle of the meeting, the agent writes on a legal pad for his associate to see: I’m telling you, they’re spies for (the GM of the Original Team). Five minutes after the meeting ends, (Original Team) calls the agent and makes a verbal below-market offer.

• POST-COMBINE: The agent leaves Indy knowing roughly what his client will get, with a good idea of where he’s going. He sees (NFC Team 5) and (AFC Team 3)—one a new contender, the other a favorite throughout—as the leaders in the clubhouse with, as he described at the top of this story, a handful of teams hanging on the fringes.

The agent tells his player that in the interim, those days leading into the tampering period, things will likely be quiet, a dynamic he believes teams use to make players uneasy and drive down prices. He assures his client they know his worth, and it can only go up from there. And it does.

• TAMPERING PERIOD: A third serious suitor emerges. It’s (AFC Team 1), which comes with a strong proposal. As a result, the price rises. But the whole thing comes down, as expected, to (NFC Team 5) and (AFC Team 3). The deal is finalized on the back end of the tampering period.

The player’s three-year take winds up being 38 percent better than what he asked from (Original Team) in September, and 20 percent better than what (NFC Team 4) and (NFC Team 5) said that they were willing to pay in the weeks prior.

The winner? It was the latecomer to the party, (NFC Team 5). And by latecomer, we mean that team got involved at the combine. Which, of course, is still before anyone is supposed to be talking.

Just another yellow light that everyone speeds through.

 by sloramfan
6 years 1 month ago
 Total posts:   1581  
 Joined:  Jun 09 2015
United States of America   cen coast cal
Pro Bowl

cool...

sort of a confusing article, but in the end you kinda see the light...

i sorta suspected this stuff was going on...

go rams

slo

 by BobCarl
6 years 1 month ago
 Total posts:   4283  
 Joined:  Mar 08 2017
United States of America   LA Coliseum
Superstar

sloramfan wrote:cool...

sort of a confusing article, but in the end you kinda see the light...

i sorta suspected this stuff was going on...

go rams

slo


I wonder if the Patriots do anything like that ... probably not ...they probably do

  • 1 / 1
3 posts Mar 28 2024