 |
| JAY-Z |
Now? The 34-year-old attorney from Johnson, R.I., has left a lot of NFL agents crying foul, while wondering if she and her new business partner will revolutionize and dominate the league’s agent community.
Miale’s business partner, of course, is the real headline-grabber — famed rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, whose entertainment company, Roc Nation, has gotten into the sports agency business this spring.
His company, which also has a partnership with powerful sports agency CAA, lured Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano away from Scott Boras, gave Skylar Diggins a new Mercedes-Benz recently after she was taken third overall in the WNBA draft, and now has signed Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith after he dumped his agent earlier this month.
Jay-Z’s appeal as an agent is obvious — he has all the top connections in the entertainment world, and has amassed a fortune estimated at around $500 million.
“It’s the rock-star thing,” former NFL All-Pro Trevor Pryce told USA Today last week. “If you’re one of his guys, it affords you a lot of opportunity to do things off the field.”
But Jay-Z’s involvement in the NFL has many in the agent community up in arms. And that’s where Miale comes in.Jay-Z hasn’t been certified as an agent by the NFL Players Association, and probably won’t be any time soon — certification requires studying the minutiae of the league’s collective bargaining agreement and passing a two-day test.
In the eyes of several agents we spoke to last week, that makes Jay-Z a “runner” — someone who helps secure clients for an agent but isn’t a certified contract negotiator. In 2012, the NFLPA passed a resolution banning the use of “runners,” with the threat of fine, suspension or permanent banning for any agent who uses one.
Miale, though, is a certified NFLPA agent — just not one who has much experience. Before signing on with Roc Nation, her only two clients never played an NFL snap or even signed a contract — former University of Florida linebacker Brandon Hicks and current Arena Football League kicker Carlos Martinez.
But Miale, listed as an associate at Heifetz Rose LLP in Needham, gives Roc Nation a legitimate pretense to recruit and sign NFL players. She will be listed as Smith’s official agent, not Jay-Z. And if CAA doesn’t want to sign one of Jay-Z’s clients, Miale allows Roc Nation to sign them on its own.
Of course, the idea that Miale is doing the recruiting and not Jay-Z is a bit hard to believe. Smith’s adviser, former NFL player John Thornton, even told CBS Sports recently that when Smith was looking for a new agent, “I was in those meetings, and Jay-Z connected with him on many levels.”
Jay-Z’s involvement is a big no-no, and Thornton later backtracked, saying he was misquoted. But many agents are wondering if Jay-Z and Roc Nation are getting preferential treatment from the NFLPA. The organization declined a request for comment.
The NFLPA has already stated that it is OK with Jay-Z’s recruitment of Giants receiver Victor Cruz, given that the two had a “preexisting relationship.” But there’s little reason to think that Smith had any sort of relationship with Jay-Z prior to the pre-draft process.
Of course, if the NFLPA were to come down on Roc Nation, Miale would likely be the one in trouble, not Jay-Z — she’s the regulated agent, after all, while he’s just the “runner.”
From what we can tell, most agents aren’t too threatened by Jay-Z. Roc Nation figures only to pursue the choicest clients.
But Jay-Z could put a dent in the business of high-profile agents such as Joel Segal or Drew Rosenhaus, who often represent multiple first-round picks.
And if the NFLPA doesn’t look at the Jay-Z/Smith relationship closely, what’s to stop Rosenhaus from partnering with, say, Miami rapper Rick Ross?
“The process is being made a mockery of,” said one agent who spoke under the condition of anonymity. “If the PA doesn’t regulate it, it opens a Pandora’s box. They’d have to throw out the runner rule.”
The real head-scratcher in all of this, though — why does Jay-Z even want to get into the NFL agent business?
There’s little money to be made in the NFL, where player contracts aren’t guaranteed and agent commissions are capped at 3 percent.
Even if Jay-Z charges 15-20 percent on marketing commissions, he’d likely only make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year on a stable of rookie clients. The 3 percent commission the agent will get from Smith will net $148,110 — and that’s over four years.
“He makes that in one night of performance,” another agent pointed out. “Unless he gets a Tom Brady or an Aaron Rodgers, he’s never going to see the kind of money he’ll get in the NBA or baseball.”
No comments:
Post a Comment