SmashMouth

The NFL Players Association regulates agents for the purposes of negotiating contracts with NFL teams. The NFLPA does not regulate agents for the purposes of handling marketing rights for players. That loophole could soon be creating an interesting dynamic, with several states (like Texas and Florida) poised to allow college athletes to generate revenue from their names, images, and likenesses as of July 1.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, some agents already have begun approaching college players regarding the possibility of representing them in their efforts to market themselves. Some agents, per the source, already are offering six-figure marketing guarantees to college athletes. Some players have been offered, we’re told, $500,000 as an advance on future marketing earnings.

For example, an agent will offer to represent a player for marketing purposes, and the agent will advance an exorbitant sum against which the player’s future marketing earnings are credited. For years, some agents have provided such marketing guarantees as part of the broader effort to sign players for NFL contract purposes. With NIL laws soon becoming effective in several states, agents are focusing solely on marketing deals for now, with those same guarantees.

For the agents, it provides an introduction to the players for future business dealings — specifically, their NFL contracts. If a player who remains multiple years from entering the draft hires an agent for marketing purposes, that agent already has a clear foothold for the potentially more lucrative relationships once the player turns pro.

Efforts are underway to make the NCAA, the NFLPA, and various state legislatures aware of the issue, in the hopes that rules will be promulgated in order to prevent agents from essentially funneling cash to players that will be credited against marketing earnings, and that as a practical matter will make those players more inclined to hire those agents when the window opens for entering the draft. Right or wrong, those agents will gladly fork over significant sums now under the guise of marketing advances in order to lay the foundation for representing those players when they head to the NFL.

Not direct Saints content, but it could play a factor going forward.
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