Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show, where we
Speaker 1: explore the big money issues in the world of sports.
Speaker 1: I'm Scarlett Folk and Don Damien snass Hour. Michael Barr
Speaker 1: is off for this week, which is too bad because
Speaker 1: it's a big week for Well maybe that's why he's off, right. Well,
Speaker 1: we finally reached the Super Bowl, right, I mean that's
Speaker 1: where we are, Scarlett. I mean we've got Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: and the Eagles against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. So
Speaker 1: to get us ready for the big Game and for
Speaker 1: all the upcoming off season headlines, we welcome to guests
Speaker 1: who can take us behind the scenes of it all.
Speaker 1: Lee Steinberg is founder and chairman of Steinberg Sports and Entertainment,
Speaker 1: a firm that has guided literally the careers of hundreds
Speaker 1: of athletes, broadcasters, coaches, and more, including, of course, representing
Speaker 1: one of the biggest names in this year's Big Game,
Speaker 1: that of Mr Patrick Mahomes himself. Snap to Mahomes pump
Speaker 1: picking now moving to his left and angling wily run
Speaker 1: at heywill at the far side of angle and stretches touched. Lee,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. So Lee last
Speaker 1: year was the year of the wide receiver in NFL
Speaker 1: free agency, but this year appears to be all about
Speaker 1: the quarterback. So let's begin with Patrick Mahomes. You know
Speaker 1: who you advised on his ten years FO dollar contract
Speaker 1: extension back in which at the time, of course made
Speaker 1: him the NFL's highest peed player. Talk to me about
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, Gino Smith, Derek Carr, all the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo, where the most likely landing spots and of
Speaker 1: course who goes to the New York Jets. Well, I
Speaker 1: think you need to start with it with the premise
Speaker 1: that this has become a quarterback censer league, and never
Speaker 1: has that position been so critical, and the game were
Speaker 1: revolved around the concept of a franchise quarterback, and let's
Speaker 1: define that is someone that you can build around for
Speaker 1: tenada twelve years when because of rather than West and
Speaker 1: most importantly in critical, the quarterback has own a couple interceptions,
Speaker 1: the crowd is booing, the games, heating out of hand.
Speaker 1: What does he do now? And he compartmentalized, adopt the
Speaker 1: quiet mind and elevate his level of play to take
Speaker 1: a team to and through victory. And so who goes
Speaker 1: where well, the biggest prop we've ever seen a free
Speaker 1: agent quarterbacks. Um, you've got Lamar Jackson, you have Geno Smith,
Speaker 1: you have Aaron Rodgers making noise, you have Tom Brady
Speaker 1: at least temporarily retired. Twenty pcent of players at the
Speaker 1: end of every season are beat up with dragon, m exhausted,
Speaker 1: and they talk about retirement. And then magically, as six
Speaker 1: months go by in the offseason, the game starts to
Speaker 1: beguile them again and uh, and they change their minds. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's going to be musicful chairs in this off season, right.
Speaker 1: The idea of not being in football is just unheard
Speaker 1: of for for these guys who have spent their entire
Speaker 1: lives preparing for this, uh, this moment in the game.
Speaker 1: I'm curious to get your take on the era of
Speaker 1: the mobile quarterback versus the traditional pocket passer. Uh. Tom
Speaker 1: Brady kind of exemplifying the traditional pocket passer and your
Speaker 1: client Patrick Mahomes as a mobile quarterback. There's deeper value,
Speaker 1: you could argue for traditional pocket pasters because by definition,
Speaker 1: their careers last longer, they're not as dependent on their bodies,
Speaker 1: there's less wear and tear. Um. But I want to
Speaker 1: get your take on whether it's this mobile quarterback moment
Speaker 1: is simply kind of just in fashion for right now,
Speaker 1: and um, it's going to give way to traditional pocket
Speaker 1: pasters once again. I think that when you talk about Pastor,
Speaker 1: he really is uh not a scrambling quarterback. He's say
Speaker 1: of pocket quarterback with a shape ability. Where you look
Speaker 1: at Lamar Jackson, that's a running quarterback. Go down to
Speaker 1: let's today, guys. Here he goes Petunt pease name just
Speaker 1: that hard poking behind. You can just say good touch
Speaker 1: on is a lotfire. When you look at Arizona's quarterback,
Speaker 1: that's a running quarterback. A good part of their game
Speaker 1: is based on running quarterbacks like Petor basically play out
Speaker 1: of the pocket. Um, but they have the ability uh
Speaker 1: to get outside when need arises and they can anticipate
Speaker 1: the rush. So um, he's sort of a fusion of
Speaker 1: both sides. And I think that the problem with the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks who rely on a heavy run is that defensive
Speaker 1: players are so big and strong and fast that you
Speaker 1: see those players that rely on scrambling get injured quite
Speaker 1: a bit. Okay, this is really interesting, So give me
Speaker 1: the argument for why the economics for why mobile quarterbacks
Speaker 1: deserve to be paid more than given that they are
Speaker 1: more likely to get injured and they're putting their bodies
Speaker 1: more risk than the passers. I think that there's a
Speaker 1: couple of ways to look at that. First of all,
Speaker 1: they're not getting hurt UM going to club man, They're
Speaker 1: not getting hurt, you know, UH when surfing. They're hitting
Speaker 1: hurt doing what the team has asked them to do.
Speaker 1: So it's not as if they're defining the game plan.
Speaker 1: So the club is part of encouraging them in the
Speaker 1: play that way, and so they should share the risks
Speaker 1: of of the consequences of that way and UH and
Speaker 1: be paid like everyone else. Now, the compensation level for
Speaker 1: the franchise quarterback is now up about fifty million dollars
Speaker 1: a year where Deshaun Watson is, and you're going to
Speaker 1: see that continue to increase because every new quarterback is
Speaker 1: UH is getting that. UM. I'm not sure what is
Speaker 1: happening in the Lamar Jackson situation because generally you see
Speaker 1: those quarterbacks compensation packages come together very smoothly and easily.
Speaker 1: This is one situation where you've got a happy quarterback, UM,
Speaker 1: happy to be in Baltimore. You have a team that's
Speaker 1: happy to have him, and yet I think the rub
Speaker 1: has been that the team is arguing that the Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson on tracked with guarantees for all fifty million hours
Speaker 1: a year with aberration and uh, players are going into
Speaker 1: the new standards well, Lee, I mean, you know, and
Speaker 1: to our audience for those who are unaware. In addition
Speaker 1: to representing Mr Patrick Mahons, Lee also represents to a
Speaker 1: tagio viola for the Miami Dolphins, who earlier this season
Speaker 1: obviously had uh, you know, flirted with concussion protocols right
Speaker 1: quite a bit actually, And so you know, Lee, we
Speaker 1: know you're a proponent of medical innovations. We know your
Speaker 1: your work you've done on that part. But as we
Speaker 1: get into the draft, you know, as we look ahead
Speaker 1: here to um, you know, people like Bryce Young and
Speaker 1: c J. Stroud, you know sort of rushing quarterbacks are
Speaker 1: gonna be entering the NFL. You know what do we
Speaker 1: tell them, you know what, what's in place, what sort
Speaker 1: of protections are there to ensure that, you know, they
Speaker 1: can have a long and viable career in the NFL.
Speaker 1: We're actually having another Confession health Brains summit at my
Speaker 1: Super Bowl uh party um, and it continues to be
Speaker 1: uh the existential threat to football. Um. You've got bigger, stronger,
Speaker 1: faster athletes. Uh. In the g force at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage is much accentuated, and so it's a problem.
Speaker 1: They have a better contestant protocol with people up in
Speaker 1: the press box who are looking for players who appeared
Speaker 1: to be impaired, and he had people on the sidelines.
Speaker 1: They have stricter enforcement of blows to the head and neck.
Speaker 1: They have better protection for the quarterback and other players
Speaker 1: from helmet the helmet. Um, but it continues to be
Speaker 1: a problem. Luckily, there are new brain treatments. One is
Speaker 1: called r t m S. Another is Dr Tommy Shaver's
Speaker 1: with his Necessary program that actually operate around the theory
Speaker 1: of neural plasticity and can start to remediate uh and
Speaker 1: touch sprain and make it better. So that's a good
Speaker 1: movie that we start to have a solution and pursue
Speaker 1: into that. Now that we're kind of going there, Bryce
Speaker 1: young C J. Strout. You know NFL draft right around
Speaker 1: the quarter lea, I mean, who do we think Chicago
Speaker 1: takes at number one? Are they going to trade out
Speaker 1: of that pick? Are they're gonna take an edge resser.
Speaker 1: What are we thinking here? They have a pretty promising
Speaker 1: quarterback and um so that's not their their needs. Um
Speaker 1: so I'm guessing someone moves into that position and uh
Speaker 1: and takes Price Young, who I think is u is
Speaker 1: the top talent. And then she Jay Shroud Uh comes
Speaker 1: next and those two quarterbacks look for me to be
Speaker 1: inner near the top of the draft. And and then
Speaker 1: you have position players sort of sewing it out. So
Speaker 1: again if those quarterbacks are going to be pushed up
Speaker 1: in position, but I think it's the Bright Young sweepstakes. Leo.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how much business gets done during Super Bowl week?
Speaker 1: How how much obviously you'll be meeting with your clients.
Speaker 1: Are we speaking with representatives from front offices? But is
Speaker 1: there a lot that can can you how much can
Speaker 1: you lay the groundwork for the kinds of discussions that
Speaker 1: need to be had later on after the super Bowl?
Speaker 1: What what will you look to accomplish in this week?
Speaker 1: We have a big super Bowl party and we give
Speaker 1: you a man of touring the work. So the super
Speaker 1: Bowl is now become a convention of Americanoma, big business,
Speaker 1: big probl say speak sports, big entertainment. So first of all,
Speaker 1: you have marketing and you want to anticipate which players
Speaker 1: are going to jump out of the Super Bowl. So
Speaker 1: it's not a surprise that there's some marketing bonanza and
Speaker 1: so deals are laid uh in in that window. Second
Speaker 1: of all, you have most general managers and owners there
Speaker 1: and UH, so you can anticipate the the free agency
Speaker 1: deals that will happen. You want to lead that process.
Speaker 1: So if if there are free agents, UH, it's time
Speaker 1: to be thinking about what the available UH teams are
Speaker 1: for them. Um. There are franchise tags coming up and
Speaker 1: UH and UH it's it's time for UH free agents
Speaker 1: who we want to stay with teams to be unnegotiated.
Speaker 1: And there's a window there, so everyone's going to be in. UH.
Speaker 1: Everyone has been in UH in Phoenix this last week
Speaker 1: and it will be quite a bit of business. Son, Scarlett,
Speaker 1: you didn't get the invite to lee super Bowl party.
Speaker 1: I did not. I'm waiting for it. Lee. Maybe people
Speaker 1: we'll sets in pictures. Mail service has been slow, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's a wild blame it on for sure. Well, Lee,
Speaker 1: I mean that takes me I guess, you know, to
Speaker 1: really just to work off of Scarlett was saying, and
Speaker 1: so right now, I mean, obviously we've got the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl coming up, But what what happens after that? Take
Speaker 1: us through the calendar. You know, when can we expect
Speaker 1: to see that first free agent quarterback come off the board?
Speaker 1: You know, what are the big dates for you? What
Speaker 1: are you looking at? Well, first of all, there's some
Speaker 1: window here where free agents of still can negotiate with
Speaker 1: their incumbent team. So between now and the week here
Speaker 1: beginning in mid March, those deals can have to the
Speaker 1: first thing they'll come up. The teams have the ability
Speaker 1: to tag a h franchise player. They can do that
Speaker 1: with one player. They'd rather not use that pick, they'd
Speaker 1: rather keep it in reserve, always just a threat that
Speaker 1: they can take one player off their roster and and
Speaker 1: take him out of free agency. Then you've got the
Speaker 1: scouting Combined coming at the end of February, so that's
Speaker 1: the super Bowl of all scouting events, and free agency
Speaker 1: will come in March, as will pro scouting days back
Speaker 1: at the UH University or College of Players for scoutings
Speaker 1: for rookies and draftees is in UH moving along very quickly.
Speaker 1: Free agency starts at the very beginning of free agency.
Speaker 1: That first week you will see the hottest creative come
Speaker 1: off or very very quickly, and they will come off
Speaker 1: the board in a way where in the first three
Speaker 1: or four days the possest free agents will come off
Speaker 1: and free agencies of process where B plus players get
Speaker 1: a plus counting that and by that I mean the
Speaker 1: fact that the through superstars in the league are preemptively
Speaker 1: extended or signed before their contract ever comes up. So
Speaker 1: they will be but those players who get the advantage
Speaker 1: of the free market are are the only ones available
Speaker 1: on teams get real competitive with each other. Well, many
Speaker 1: of our chats dart on a board. Which quarterback goes
Speaker 1: to the New York chats this year? You have to ask,
Speaker 1: I had to ask, um, well, dam be umred? Could
Speaker 1: it be the best looking boarder back? Uh? The San
Speaker 1: Francisto for D nine or quarterback? Interesting? Um uh, who's
Speaker 1: the best looking? I'm trying to give you a hint here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it depends on started It started with the
Speaker 1: Patris um back. Quarterback Tom Brady is not going to
Speaker 1: go broadcasting right away. Maybe he'll come to New York
Speaker 1: and I'm not a chance. Why would he do that
Speaker 1: to himself. I don't know if he's done it before,
Speaker 1: so it could always happen again. Lee, really appreciate your
Speaker 1: joining us today my pleasure. Thank you so much. Lee
Speaker 1: Steinberg is founder and chairman of Steinberg Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. I'm Scarlett
Speaker 1: Fool along with Damon Sassar. Be sure to catch us
Speaker 1: here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, where we
Speaker 1: discuss and dig into the world of money and sports.
Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at Scarlet Food and I'm on Twitter
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