Most #longreads contain plenty of fluff that simply add to the word count and require a magnifying glass to ferret out the scarce tidbits of actual news. A new one from Kalyn Kahler of ESPN.com on the influence of agents on coach and G.M. hires has very little fat in and around the meat.
If you’re interested in how the NFL sausage is made, make some time to read the whole thing. The biggest takeaway is this: After years of not noticing or caring about the fact that agents are kingmakers when it comes to NFL coaches and General Managers, the league is paying attention — and hoping to effect change.
Kahler explains that it started in earnest in Indy, two years ago. Six coaching agents (Trace Armstrong, Bob Lamonte, Jimmy Sexton, Jason Fletcher, Brian Levy, and Kennard McGuire) met with Commissioner Roger Goodell and others to discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion in the hiring process.
The problem, as the league sees it, is that the habit of “package deals” involving clients of the same firm makes it even harder for minority coaches to get fair chances to ascend to top jobs.
“The fix is in,” Fletcher told Kahler. “I think that, a lot of guys — I’m not pointing fingers — I think there is a strong energy where if this person gets a G.M. job, he is going to hire someone from that same brand. That happens a lot in this business.”
Indeed it does. Much of the article focuses on Armstrong’s longstanding influence over the Bears, where he currently represents G.M. Ryan Poles. Armstrong’s firm, Athletes First, also represents (per Kahler) former Bears head coaches Matt Nagy and Eberflus and former Bears offensive coordinators Mark Helfrich, Luke Getsy, and Shane Waldron.
Armstrong also represents Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, one of the many candidates for the vacant head-coaching job in Chicago.
“The business is completely contaminated,” Fletcher told Kahler. “It is a relationship-driven business, and you are going to have individuals that are experienced and deserve opportunities not receive them. And then you are going to get people who didn’t deserve these opportunities, get opportunities.”
The NFL has begun informing teams of this dynamic, with this message included in materials distributed to the various franchises: “Look outside of your ‘usual suspects’ or the ‘hot person’ of the season. . . . Ask specifically for a diverse set of names. . . . Pay attention to conflicts of interest and bias from any referrals, particularly agents or media.”
At some level, the league has only itself to blame. With no appetite for the coaches to have the same kind of union that the players maintain, there’s no one to directly regulate the agents who represent coaches. A union would be able to implement rules regarding the representation of coaches, such as preventing agents who represent coaches from representing General Managers.
That said, the NFL Players Association doesn’t prevent agents from representing players and coaches, so there’s no guarantee a coaching union would even address the issue.
The deeper problem is that, when it’s time for owners with little or no direct knowledge of the sport need to make a hire from a broad group of candidates, other factors (like relationships with agents) could impact the final analysis. That’s one of the basic realities of multi-billion-dollar football operations being run like family-owned food trucks. Many owners don’t know what they don’t know, so they find people they can trust to help them develop the confidence necessary to make decisions.
And so while the league office can complain about the influence of agents on the hiring of coaches and General Managers, the core problem is that, no matter how hard it tries, 345 Park Avenue will never be able to sufficiently herd 32 felines who routinely ditch their Fancy Feast for catnip.
Read the full article here
