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Speaker 1: This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.

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Speaker 2: What is up? Straight Fire? It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight

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Speaker 2: Boyer for Friday, March the sixth. Programming Note, Your boys

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Speaker 2: hosted The Herd today. It's only one hour. Though there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of World Baseball Classic happening, It's only a

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Speaker 2: one hour show.

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Speaker 1: Should be a fun one.

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Speaker 2: A lot of Lakers talk, yes, a lot of Spurs talk.

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Speaker 2: How about the Spurs beatdown of the Piston Spurs best

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Speaker 2: team in the league. Guys, come on, if we're being real.

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Speaker 2: And then the big news, Jason Tatum returns tonight. How

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Speaker 2: about that? Fired up for Tatum coming back, A little

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Speaker 2: nervous for him, but to celebrate. We have a great

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Speaker 2: guest on power agent Lee Steinberg currently reps Patrick Mahomes.

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Speaker 2: He was basically the role of Jerry McGuire modeled after

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Speaker 2: Lee Steinberg. So just some interesting insight from a legend.

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Speaker 2: He's now, I believe seventy six years old. He's got

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Speaker 2: a new book coming out. I think you'll like the

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Speaker 2: the discussion. Should be a good weekend. At college basketball,

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Speaker 2: some good games, Duke, Q and C. We'll see about that.

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Speaker 2: College basketball went pretty good last night. I think it

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Speaker 2: was two and one, maybe three and one. I forgot,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, I'm firing the picks that don't go on

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Speaker 2: the site. It's just smaller stuff goes on Instagram. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: lynden Wood covered linden Wood first half airfield. Yeah, three

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Speaker 2: and one, So back to back, three and one. So hope,

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Speaker 2: hope you guys are happy, because yes, the peanut gallery

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Speaker 2: does pipe up. When your boy has an off night

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Speaker 2: or two or three, and it's gonna happen, You're gonna

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Speaker 2: have good nights. You're gonna have bad nights. Boot and

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Speaker 2: rally baby. Anyways, without further ado, let's get to our guest,

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Speaker 2: Lee Steinberg, big time sports agent.

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Speaker 1: You know, guy Jason likes to think he knows everything

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Speaker 1: when it comes to sports.

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Speaker 2: I know what sports fans want, but for.

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Speaker 1: Everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.

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Speaker 3: Let's just say I know a guy who knows a

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Speaker 3: guy who knows another guy.

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Speaker 2: All right, let's welcome back to straight Fire. One of

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Speaker 2: the biggest names in the agent industry. He's been at

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Speaker 2: it for fifty two years. He was the inspiration for

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Speaker 2: Jerry Maguire. He reps Patrick Mahomes. Lee Steinberg the powerful agent, Lee,

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Speaker 2: how are you, man?

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Speaker 3: I'm doing great, so I'm excellent.

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Speaker 2: I cannot complain the NFL combine has done. Free agency

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Speaker 2: is on the horizon, a lot of moves happening around

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Speaker 2: the league. I was wondering if you could just we'll

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Speaker 2: start with the easy zoom out. And you know, obviously

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Speaker 2: NIL has changed the college game, and now you got

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Speaker 2: a lot of guys coming into the draft who actually

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Speaker 2: made decent money in college, so maybe stayed longer than

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Speaker 2: they should have. I'm just wondering, how much have you

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Speaker 2: seen the game change? Lee? Here over the last fifteen years.

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Speaker 3: Frankly, there have been three fundamental changes that relate to

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Speaker 3: college and pro football that alter forever what we understood

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Speaker 3: to be the principals. The first is NIL. So now

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Speaker 3: you have someone at age fifteen thinking about talking to

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Speaker 3: marketing directors and they're already doing marketing in high school,

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Speaker 3: and then high school and college it's become a wild

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Speaker 3: wild West of different colleges offering huge pack packages to recruits.

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Speaker 3: And then there's a fence reportal which is another bide

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Speaker 3: at the apple if you combine that with gambling, and

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Speaker 3: which I think is an ext essential threat to sports

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Speaker 3: and conference realignment. Very little is the same. And in

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Speaker 3: the pros you have the biggest one year increase in

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Speaker 3: cap money, which is going to produce explosive contracts, both

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Speaker 3: for draft fees and for this upcoming group of free agents.

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Speaker 3: And then every team is trying to get under the

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Speaker 3: cap before March eleventh, and so we're seeing a bunch

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Speaker 3: of restructured contracts at preepcap room.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw at your well, I think the some

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Speaker 2: of the teams are restructured. I think the Cowboys are

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Speaker 2: number one. They've had like three guys including Dak Prescott restructure.

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Speaker 2: The Chiefs, your client Mahomes restructured. What was interesting I

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Speaker 2: noticed is that so everybody goes to the combine, not

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Speaker 2: all the coaches and gms, but all the scouts. For sure.

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Speaker 2: They talk to the players, they get the lay of

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Speaker 2: the land, and we come back from the combine and boom,

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Speaker 2: the Rams make a huge play for Trent McDuffie. And

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Speaker 2: then the next day, boom, we got the Bears moving

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Speaker 2: on from DJ Moore. I wonder LYE is part of

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Speaker 2: the reason the trades went down because people went to

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Speaker 2: the combine saying, hmm, we need this, we get this,

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Speaker 2: and then they look at the players they interview them,

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Speaker 2: and I think, I don't I don't know that he's

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Speaker 2: gonna be the impact guy we think or is it

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Speaker 2: just confirmation bias. Talk to me about that process.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think that some of what you say has solidity,

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Speaker 3: But they also are looking at their cap and trying

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Speaker 3: to figure out how to make improvements, knowing that they

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Speaker 3: have to restructure certain players. And then what goes into

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Speaker 3: that mix is can we add a veteran through trade

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Speaker 3: before the beginning of the league year so that preci

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Speaker 3: is the timing.

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Speaker 1: Also, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup

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Speaker 1: in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports

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Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR

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Speaker 1: to listen live.

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Speaker 2: On the agent front, I try to tell my kids

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Speaker 2: I got you know, young kids both now teenagers. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's not it's not what you know, sometimes it's who

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Speaker 2: you know. And when I was researching you, I saw

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Speaker 2: when you were at Berkeley, you were like a resident

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Speaker 2: advisor and on your floor was a future NFL quarterback

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Speaker 2: in Steve Bartkowski and the co founder of Apple In

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Speaker 2: Steve wo was the act I mean, I don't know.

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Speaker 2: Obviously you're a people person, you making wheeling a dealing

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Speaker 2: for decades. Could you just talk about how is that

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Speaker 2: like a soft skill you can acquire or is it

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Speaker 2: just innate just getting to know people in chatty.

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Speaker 3: I think the most important skill in life relationships is

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Speaker 3: listening skills. So if you can draw another person out

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Speaker 3: and get below their surface responses, so you really understand

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Speaker 3: what their deepest anxieties and fears are and greatest hopes

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Speaker 3: and dreams, it allows you to bond with people. And

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Speaker 3: so people always think it's squass and how you talk,

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Speaker 3: but a lot of it is how you listen and

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Speaker 3: probe and cut below the surface and peelback the layers

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Speaker 3: of the and well, Steve Parkowski was not only fortuitous

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Speaker 3: in moving into my door, but he ends up the

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Speaker 3: first pick in the first round in nineteen seventy five

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Speaker 3: drafts and asked me to represent them, and here we

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Speaker 3: are fifty years later.

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Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Also, you got a new book coming out called

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Speaker 2: The Comeback, and it's an interesting tale. Obviously, everybody loves

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Speaker 2: your connection with Jerry Maguire and the movie which was

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Speaker 2: just iconic. The title is a playbook for turning life

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Speaker 2: setbacks into victories. I'm assuming everybody wanted you to write

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Speaker 2: a book because you're a legend, But it was just

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Speaker 2: a tough one for you, or kind of an easy

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Speaker 2: one given your history.

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Speaker 3: No, it was tough because I had struggled with alcohol

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Speaker 3: twenty years ago, and I thought everyone in life comes

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Speaker 3: up again setbacks. Everybody comes up, whether it's merit or romantic,

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Speaker 3: whether it's money and finances, whether it's health, whether it's addiction,

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Speaker 3: and so inevitably something comes along and upsets the alpha cart,

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Speaker 3: and then the question is what do you do then?

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Speaker 3: And so in the Comeback, I tell about my own

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Speaker 3: story and recovers from alcoholism, but I also lay out

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Speaker 3: stories from Patrick Mahomes and Steve Young and Troy Aikman

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Speaker 3: and Warren Moon and give people a sense of some

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Speaker 3: of maybe they didn't know where these people's lives were

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Speaker 3: overturned and how they coped with it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I do like the Steve Young stuff you mentioned

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Speaker 2: in the book. People forget like Obviously, Steve Young was

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Speaker 2: a great college quarterback, ended up in the Hall of Fame,

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Speaker 2: but he was buried behind Joe Montana for years and

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Speaker 2: the idea that you know, in the current era, nobody

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Speaker 2: sits behind anyone. You want to get out and you

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Speaker 2: want to star, whether it's in college or the pros.

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Speaker 2: Don't any lessons you could glean from that Steve Young story.

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Speaker 3: I think that in his case, it was a religious

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Speaker 3: faith that helped sustain him and going to law school

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Speaker 3: on BYU, so he had something to occupy him in

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Speaker 3: the off season. But here he is in San Francisco

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Speaker 3: behind Joe Montana, and the very fact he came there

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Speaker 3: resurrected Montana's career because he was supposed to retire because

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Speaker 3: of a bad back. Well that was obviously overstated, but

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Speaker 3: having that young next best quarterback behind him fired him up.

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Speaker 3: So there was a period of time where Steve was

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Speaker 3: the fifth highest paid player in the league and the

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Speaker 3: backup Joe Montana, and he would have started for visually

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Speaker 3: any team else in the league, but he felt there

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Speaker 3: was something unique about the San Francisco structure and offense

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Speaker 3: where he should wait it out. But there was for

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Speaker 3: some frustrating years.

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Speaker 2: I can only imagine looking at the landscape right now,

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Speaker 2: we're seeing an interesting thing happen in the NFL, where

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Speaker 2: you know, guys got their chance the first round picks

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Speaker 2: the quarterback. Then they got extended, they got an even

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Speaker 2: longer chance. And if you didn't, if it didn't pan out,

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Speaker 2: they're moving on. It's just too big of a cat

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Speaker 2: at Kyler Murray, a guy you've worked with, two a

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Speaker 2: tongue of iloa. I'm just curious, do you think this

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Speaker 2: is this any different than it used to be? Are

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Speaker 2: they getting a longer leash a shorter one? Teams don't

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Speaker 2: seem content now to be in the mix, Like you know,

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Speaker 2: two has been in the playoffs twice. People forget that

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Speaker 2: just because he was heard he missed one of them.

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Speaker 2: But like it used to be, Hey, if you're seven,

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Speaker 2: seven and nine, seven and ten, that's not the end

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Speaker 2: of the world. Now, if you're not delivering instantly, it

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Speaker 2: feels like you're gone.

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Speaker 3: It isn't become more and more critical to have a

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Speaker 3: franchise quarterback to have any chance of getting through the

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Speaker 3: playoffs and to the super Bowl. And if a team

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Speaker 3: doesn't have one, and then the question is when are

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Speaker 3: you throwing good time after bad? And it is amazing,

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Speaker 3: given what she talked about with the massive scouting system

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Speaker 3: that about half of the quarterbacks drafted at the top

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Speaker 3: of the first round of the other performer, don't make

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Speaker 3: it part of that situation. So that it was really

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Speaker 3: important in Mahomes's career that he went to a place

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Speaker 3: with a where Alex Smith was a great mentor, where

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Speaker 3: he had Andy Read, where he was with a good organization.

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Speaker 3: So some of this is situational because you look at

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Speaker 3: what happens with a Baker Mayfield, where you look at

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Speaker 3: Sam Donald. These quarterbacks flourish because football is a systemic game.

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Speaker 3: And let's say baseball, you can hit the ball on

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Speaker 3: Yankee Shame and probably hit it in Dodgers Stadium. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: but you might be a great quarterback for the Rams

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Speaker 3: and very poor for the New York Giants.

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Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

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Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio

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Speaker 1: dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to

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Speaker 1: listen live.

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Speaker 2: I want to talk about one of your former clients.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if you still wrap Ben Roethlisberger, but

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Speaker 2: you know in a post in his post career, you know,

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Speaker 2: obviously you have options as a former star quarterback, right

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Speaker 2: you could go into media. You could start a podcast,

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Speaker 2: which is new. It didn't exist I don't know ten

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Speaker 2: years ago. Ben has kind of branded himself as like

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Speaker 2: the Pittsburgh Steelers, not insider, but he is talking a

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Speaker 2: lot about his former organization for better or for Worse,

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Speaker 2: and it seems like it's divided some former players. I

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Speaker 2: guess there's like a code, hey man, don't go again

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Speaker 2: the franchise. And he's speaking openly, which I appreciates as

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Speaker 2: a media guy who needs chaos. I appreciate the candor,

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Speaker 2: but some of his former teenmates haven't. I'm just curious,

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Speaker 2: where are you on former players building their brand after

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Speaker 2: their time in sports.

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Speaker 3: So we start before, and we start at the very

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Speaker 3: start of a career and ask someone are you interested

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Speaker 3: in being in broadcasts? Are you interested in business? Are

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Speaker 3: you interested in coaching? And trying to lay the foundation there.

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Speaker 3: What she just said reminds me of when Treickman was

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Speaker 3: quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. He was very successful on

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Speaker 3: the field, but people thought, well, he's sort of a vanilla,

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Speaker 3: he's not going to be very good on TV. What

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Speaker 3: they didn't realize is how much these starting quarterbacks have

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Speaker 3: opinions but keep them to themselves because they need the

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Speaker 3: team to unify around them and then probably went on

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Speaker 3: to be splendid as a broadcaster. I think it's difficult

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Speaker 3: to call out individual players and have that be well accepted.

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Speaker 3: And so the tell all book every star player could

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Speaker 3: write is something you have to carefully consider.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the word brand, I know you had mentioned when

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Speaker 2: you meet with clients, you know you think are you

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Speaker 2: interested in media? But now it's like you can become

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Speaker 2: the media instead of joining it. It's just changed so much.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the job a quote unquote job of influencerly

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Speaker 2: that did not that did not exist ten years ago now.

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Speaker 3: But you see, the thing is this next generation grows

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Speaker 3: up with social media, so Twitter and Instagram and TikTok

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Speaker 3: you who are a big part of their life, so

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Speaker 3: it comes naturally to them, and so we help players brand.

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Speaker 3: It's based on their unique personalities and who they are

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Speaker 3: off the field as well as on the field, and

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Speaker 3: their ability to create tiny bits of content that they

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Speaker 3: post regularly. And if they do that. Remember one thing

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Speaker 3: about pro football. It has never been true in this country,

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Speaker 3: but the leading sport, which is in NFL football was

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Speaker 3: also a leading television show. So one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 3: people watch the Super Bowl. I mean they're bragging. When

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Speaker 3: fifteen million people watch something in sports, it's dominating American culture.

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Speaker 3: So the new celebrities in some ways have become NFL quarterbacks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, say NFL. But here's the other thing. I often

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Speaker 2: look at this incitedly. If you look at Instagram following

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Speaker 2: and social media following, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, the largest followers

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Speaker 2: for sports are almost all in the NBA. It's crazy

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Speaker 2: because it's a global sport and they have everybody in Asia,

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Speaker 2: India they love the NBA. They don't really care about football.

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Speaker 2: And it's weird because Mahomes is a massive star in America.

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Speaker 2: You know, I don't know that he could go to

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Speaker 2: Italy next week and not have mobs around him, but

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Speaker 2: Lebron James sure could not. He would be bobbed everywhere

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Speaker 2: he goes.

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Speaker 3: Talk about the basketball. Yes, so basketball is played in

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Speaker 3: the Part East, it's played in the Middle East, it's

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Speaker 3: played in Russian Croatia and all over the place. So

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Speaker 3: they had a head start in terms of branding. The

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Speaker 3: NFL is playing catchup because for most the world, football

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Speaker 3: is soccer, and it's by far the most dominant sports.

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Speaker 3: So the NBA got out front, and because people in

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Speaker 3: China are playing basketball, and because people in South America

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Speaker 3: playing basketball and many other places, it enabled them to

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Speaker 3: extend their brand and create, you know, the Kobe Bryant

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Speaker 3: and Lebron James of the world as international superstar.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I want to quickly go back to like a

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Speaker 2: guy like Travis kelce who's a teammate of Mahomes. So

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Speaker 2: five years ago, Lee, you know, the Kelsey brothers were

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Speaker 2: a fine story, right, Jason Kelcey kind of an anonymous

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Speaker 2: offensive lineman. Travis kelce a tight end, really good, probably

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Speaker 2: on the Hall of Fame track. Now Jason kelce has

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Speaker 2: maybe the most popular podcast of any four NFL player,

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Speaker 2: And Travis Kelcey's getting married to Taylor Swift and is

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Speaker 2: now a global superstar. It's crazy how fast things change.

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Speaker 2: I'm curious when you talk to your clients, are people mentioning, Hey, man,

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Speaker 2: can I start a podcast and become as big as Kelsey?

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Speaker 2: You know I'm dating a celebrity. Do I need to

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Speaker 2: enhance my profile globally? Is that stuff going to help me?

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Speaker 2: Does that matter?

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Speaker 3: Let me tell you what's actually interesting if you remember

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Speaker 3: it accurately. The commercials that ran the Big Kelsey here

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Speaker 3: a couple of years ago. We're playing way ahead of

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Speaker 3: when he started to go with Taylor Swift, so they

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Speaker 3: had to be done earlier. So they were based on

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Speaker 3: the success of the Kansas City Chiefs and the irrepressible

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Speaker 3: Travis Kelcey. He just bounced out as a huge personality,

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Speaker 3: very attracted to people. Then you can him with the

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Speaker 3: biggest superstar in the world, and boom and you're right. Offensive. Linemen,

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Speaker 3: for the most part, are only known for giving up

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Speaker 3: sex and holding and are are are largely anonymous to

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Speaker 3: most of the people. But the combination of the two

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Speaker 3: of them and the chemistry between them allowed Jason Kelsey

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Speaker 3: to be like every man, to be like the guy

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Speaker 3: you would have a bear with in the bar, and

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Speaker 3: and he comes out on warm and fuzzy. And so

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Speaker 3: give credit to whoever they're marketing firm bought, because they

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Speaker 3: did a Hall of famer job in elevating them with brands.

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Speaker 2: Let me just ask you, I guess about a quarterback.

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Speaker 2: You know to go back to your guy mahomes. So

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Speaker 2: it's interesting the last couple of playoffs, what we've seen

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Speaker 2: a lot of are teams advancing because their quarterback is

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Speaker 2: not paid that heavily. They're either on the rookie quarterback

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Speaker 2: salary or they're one of these like middle tier quarterback

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Speaker 2: salaries aka Sam Darnold. You know, Baker Mayfield one of

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Speaker 2: the playoffs last year. And it's interesting because your guy

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Speaker 2: Mahomes and Josh Allen and the best guys are making

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Speaker 2: a ton of money, yet Dak Prescott can't get back

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Speaker 2: to the playoffs. Lamar Jackson misses the playoffs. I'm just curious.

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Speaker 2: Do you think we're at a point where quarter there'll

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Speaker 2: be like a correction on quarterback salaries Because Tom Brady

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Speaker 2: famously lee took less. Now I know he had, you know,

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Speaker 2: a supermodel wife at the time, took less and as

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Speaker 2: a result, the Patriots for two decades had to run.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if we're going to see another one

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Speaker 2: of those unless a quarterback is like, hey, I don't

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Speaker 2: need seventy million or seventy million against the cap. I'm

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Speaker 2: fine taking a middle tier salary.

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Speaker 3: So you have to have a sophisticated quarterback client who

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Speaker 3: understands the value of winning to his overall economic base.

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Speaker 3: And nothing beats being MVP of the Super Bowl, and

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Speaker 3: for the quarterback, if they can make it through the

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Speaker 3: playoffs into that Super Bowl, its unbelievable riches will come

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Speaker 3: to them in marketing. And second of all, you have

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Speaker 3: some quarterbacks that are hyper competitive. And third of all,

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Speaker 3: remember when you're talking about quarterbacks who are only making

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Speaker 3: forty million dollars instead of seventy million dollars. These are

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Speaker 3: some of the wealthiest people in the country. So you

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Speaker 3: have someone who's making a decision that they want to

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Speaker 3: have a career satisfaction and be competitive, and they want

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Speaker 3: the left tackle in front of them to be of

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Speaker 3: the highest quality and not spend the whole game getting

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Speaker 3: reading sacks. That's a very rational decision to make, but.

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Speaker 2: It's tough to tell a guy, Hey, man, you know

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Speaker 2: Dak Prescott who has zero MVPs, he's making x you

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Speaker 2: have two MVPs. But if you take twenty million more

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Speaker 2: you can win. Do you want to do that deal

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Speaker 2: for less twenty million, Because then it's also like, hey, well,

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Speaker 2: what's my owner going to do with that twenty million?

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Speaker 2: Is he gonna pocket it or are they gonna spend wisely?

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Speaker 3: Well, except part of the trade off when quarterbacks are

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Speaker 3: taking these deals. I'm sure Tom Brady went over the

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Speaker 3: roster and said, who can we get if I take

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Speaker 3: ten million dollars left? And what will this practically mean?

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Speaker 3: So these are very honest discussions that go on.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder I bring it up because Baltimore Lamar

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Speaker 2: Jackson's sure you so. Anyways, Lie Steinberg, thanks for taking

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Speaker 2: a lot of time here on a lovely Thursday afternoon.

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Speaker 2: The book is the comeback playbook for turning life's setbacks

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Speaker 2: into victories. Great idealy, congrat on an amazing career man.

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Speaker 3: Thank you. You can pre order the book on Amazon

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Speaker 3: or Barnes Noble