Peter Schaffer, Sports Agent Featured on Esquire's "The Agent", Separates Fact From Fiction

We sit down with an NFL agent to learn what it's really like.

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We all know the NFL agent stereotype: Greasy, ruthless vultures with slicked-back hair and plastic smiles who through some combination of dishonesty and greed manage to screw our heroes out of millions.

Well, thanks to Esquire's new reality show The Agent (Tuesdays at 10|9c on Esquire Network, first episode can be seen here), the assumptions we've made about the men and women who represent our favorite athletes may soon have to face reality.

The Agent focuses on four agents—Jeff Guerriero, Sunny Shah, Ed Wasielewski, and Peter Schaffer—and takes viewers on a behind-the-scenes journey through the parts of NFL life they rarely get to see. From scouting potential clients to negotiation to nervously watching games like the rest of us, the life of a sports agent is often very much different than the agent caricature that's usually seen in pop culture. 

In an attempt to learn who these people really are—to separate reality from Rosenhaus—we sat down with Authentic Athletix's Peter Schaffer to talk football, contracts, and even the effects of marijuana legalization on athletes.

Interview by Maurice Peebles (@tallmaurice).

What can fans expect from The Agent?
At first, when Josh Mamann the producer approached me about the show, there was an initial reluctance only because you watch reality TV and you see a bunch of people that just wanna get on TV by doing the craziest stuff that they can. And that certainly wasn’t something that I needed, or wanted, or was interested in. So when Josh and the Esquire Network showed me that their goals were to truly and accurately depict agents in a positive light, I said, “Okay, I’m in.”

I really think that the agent community has a very bad rap, a very negative connotation and stereotype. And I think there’s a vast majority of agents that are really hard-working, ethical, conscientious, creative, intelligent people. If I can do something to help change that stereotype, then I’m all in.

How do you think they got that stereotype? In all the fictionalized things, the agent is a slimy, negative character. Even in some real world [situations] you’ll hear players' horror stories of dealing with agents when they were younger. Why is it that agents have gotten that negative connotation with them?
Didn’t you just answer your own question?

there’s a vast majority of agents that are really hard-working, ethical, conscientious, creative, intelligent people. If I can do something to help change that stereotype, then I’m all in.

Because of the media?
Because of media stereotypes, the horror stories. Looking for car crashes is a lot more appealing, it [sells] a lot more newspapers than the boring stuff I do everyday. What we do is not very glamorous. In my opinion, it’s a lot of hard work, nut and bolts, a lot of keep your head down and grind. So I think the people tend to prey on that. We’re an easy foil, we’re an easy target. We’re not very sympathetic group. We have nice lives, and people aren't sitting there saying we need to do rallies and picket for sports agents. It’s just the way it is. I just want to make sure people understand that the vast, vast, vast majority of agents are just hard-working sons of bucks.

Fans tend to take ownership’s side when it comes to contract negotiations, as opposed to the players’ side. And that always seemed backwards to me because, financially, fans are closer to the players than they are to the owners.
They root for the teams—when the player leaves in free agency because they got a better offer, then the players are the bad guys. A lot of times the agents take the proverbial professional bullet for the client, as opposed to making player look like the bad guy. Teams are like, “We lost this player in free agency,” but you didn’t lose the player in free agency. If you offered him the right amount of money before his contract came up, he would never have left. So it’s just an excuse for not wanting to pay.

In a perfect world, because management treats players properly, pays them properly, and all that stuff, you don’t need a union and you don’t need agents. But I don’t see that happening. And certainly history, if it’s any indication, is replete with situations where that’s not happening.

I don’t think any of us should look forward to a time where billionaire owners are paying their players and their coaches exactly what they deserve to be paid.
And the other thing is that most of the time the teams control the vast majority of the media. So they are able to sit there and say, “This player did this, and this and this,” and fans will take their side. There are a lot of bigger deals that go on everyday—lawyers and businessmen are negotiating hundreds of millions of dollars in building deals, and mineral rights deals, mergers, and acquisitions, everyday. But they don’t have Adam Schefters, and John Claytons, and Jason La Canforas outside their office reporting on the deals as they go.

That’s interesting. I’d love to see a day where the casual fan was able to see the work you guys put in the back end and how much effort it actually takes to get these deals done.
That’s what the show is all about; that’s what we’re looking to accomplish. The same thing that [HBO's]Hard Knocks did for the average NFL player, where the fan really gets to see the stress, the toil, the anguish, the exertion, the effort, that goes into making a 53-man roster, is really what I hope the goal of this show is. And by all indications that's what the Esquire Network is putting out there. And if you’re not just a casual fan, but an avid fanatic of the NFL, I think this is gonna be a show that will interest you.

If they want to [smoke marijuana], then let them do it. If they need it for pain management, let’s teach how to use it properly. Let’s be smart, let’s make sure to educate them.

From your perspective, what would you say would be the no. 1 thing that agents and players understand that most fans do not?
How much work really goes into the product that’s sold. On the field, off the field, what agents do, what players do, what trainers do, what doctors do, what financial planners do. There’s just so much that goes on. There’s just so much hard work by a lot of people that toil in anonymity. Even from the team’s perspective—scouts, and contract negotiators, and lawyers for the teams. There’s a lot of fine people in this industry that get no recognition, and hopefully this show will change that. 

I was looking through your history of talent roster, and I noticed that you had, at one time, gotten Barry Sanders the largest contract (at the time) in NFL history. Have you ever had a situation where you had a “nice guy” player that you’ve had to push to be more hard-line in terms of what they demand for a contract?
Most players, they know the numbers. But I had one player, Aaron Smith, who played for the Steelers for almost a dozen years—he would’ve played for free. I said, “That’s great, and  I love you to death.” He’s the greatest guy in the world, saved every penny he’s ever made, he’s got a beautiful wife, a great family. I said, “You can have that attitude, but just please don’t tell the team that’s how you feel.” [Laughs.]

I also noticed from your Wiki page, it linked to an ABC story where you where were quoted as saying you don’t represent NBA players because they were “high maintenance.” Would you like to elaborate on that? 
I’m hoping that we can find a few NBA players that aren’t going to be high maintenance. These young men are—somewhat tragic—from age 10 on are treated with kid gloves or pampered to the point where they really lose a lot of perspective. But I’m still searching. I’d love to find a couple NBA players that aren’t going to be like that. They’re gonna be like hockey players and football players, and work hard, [be] appreciative, and keep their head down and grind. Not only would they be great clients to have, I think they’d be successful in the NBA. There are guys—[like] Chris Paul and Stephen Curry—that are gonna change the model. I think that you are seeing players like that, that are coming out, that are very educated, very articulate. And hopefully, that model changes. Like I said, they would not only be great clients, they’d be great ambassadors for the game. 

If and when college athletes become contracted and paid athletes, how do agents fit into that? How does that process work? Have you had discussions with other agents about—?
Piggybacking on what I said earlier, college players wouldn’t need agents if they were truly getting their true value. An agent’s job is to make sure we level the playing field, because teams have accountants, lawyers, negotiators, CPAs, MBAs...the whole thing negotiating on the team’s behalf. It’s a way to even the playing field; you don’t take a knife to a gunfight.

[Agents are] a way to even the playing field; you don’t take a knife to a gunfight.

Right now, forget about a knife to a gunfight in college sports, you’re talking about a small pin facing an armada of heavily armed nuclear submarines. And ideally, that shouldn’t have to happen, and agents shouldn’t be needed. The University of Texas [has] a hundred million dollar budget—that’s not being made by accident. It’s being made by the sweat equity of usually minority students who are brought in from the inner-cities, and the lower socioeconomic regions of our country. It’s like the tail wagging the dog when you have volleyball players and field hockey players who are coming from affluent parts of the nation, who are getting scholarships off the sweat equity of minority students who have nothing, while field hockey and volleyball players have parents that can pay their entire tuition.

When Nick Saban’s making $7 million a year and these athletes can’t afford to buy groceries and take a girl out to a movie and have a normal college experience—I don’t think that’s fair. I think that they do need agents because somebody’s gotta fight for them, because they don’t have the knowledge, the wisdom, the education, the experience, to take on the University of Texas, the University of Alabama. 

What steps, if any, have the teams of Colorado or Washington taken recently in terms of Marijuana legalization? Have teams taken any steps to assist players in staying out of trouble? Have they hired new positions to keep opposing players from buying Marijuana in-state and taking it out of state? I’m just curious how professional sports has [reacted] in regards to these new laws.
I think the legalization of Marijuana—and this is coming from someone who doesn’t smoke Marijuana—[is] a great example [of] the archaic thinking of the NFL. The idea of suspending players for doing what the majority of the people [in the] country are doing is archaic, it’s barbaric, it’s not good for the game. Last year, when they were negotiating the new policy, I was an ardent supporter of having a new policy. There’s no need to have a policy against Marijuana. If a player disgraces the National Football League for getting arrested with it, you don’t need a drug policy for that, you’ll get disciplined under the personal conduct policy. But to suspend players for what 51 percent of the people in Washington, 51 percent of the people in the District of Columbia, and 51 percent of Colorado [agree with] makes no sense to me at all.

Players in college are getting suspended because they’re smoking marijuana. So they have wake up 6 a.m., they gotta run sprints, and do all this other stuff, they go back to the dorm, where everybody else in the dorm—except for the dorks like me in college—are smoking marijuana. They sit there and say they want you to have a normal college experience, but they’re not. To me, I consciously don’t smoke marijuana, I don’t want to. That’s because I’ve been educated and made my own decision. Let’s focus on pros and cons; let’s educate them. If they want to do it, then let them do it. If they need it for pain management, let’s teach how to use it properly. Let’s be smart, let’s make sure to educate them. No smoking and driving; let’s not go out there and hurt somebody. To me, suspending players for doing things that everybody else is doing in society hurts the game. It segregates the National Football League’s greatest assets—the players. Punishing the players publicly...I just don’t see any benefit in that. 

Pretend I’m a fellow agent, we’re out at the bar, stories are being tossed around, we’re having a good time. Keeping necessary parties anonymous, what story in that situation would you tell?
There’s one agent, I just do not respect his business practices at all, and we’re flying back from the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, and he got on the plane with his fiancé​ or wife. They were sitting a little farther up in the cabin. My family, we were sitting in coach where we always fly. My eight-year-old son went on the plane with me and we walk back and get to the seat, and he’s got a big smile on his face. I ask, “Why are you smiling?” He says, “Well I just crop dusted Agent X back there.”

“Good for you, son.”

 

The Agent is on Tuesdays at 10|9c on Esquire Network.

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