Summer Reading - August 2023
As the summer lull in sports winds down with NCAA football kicking off today and NFL Week 1 right around the corner there's certainly a buzz in the air. I'm looking forward to the start of the upcoming football season but during the offseason I've been reading up on scouting as well as the agent and front-office side of the game.
Here's what I've read so far:
Becoming a Sports Agent by Gary Rivlin
Out of all of the books on my list, this was by far the easiest to read. This book was more anecdotal relative to the others that I've read. I would classify this book as very beginner friendly when it comes to learning about being a sports agent. It doesn't go very deep but scratches enough of the surface to give you a general idea of what life as an agent might be like. The biggest things I took away from the book was
- Athletes are unpredictable and incredibly high maintenance
- It's an extremely competitive industry and difficult to succeed against larger firms
If I'm being honest, I was hoping for more out of this book but again, I think the book's intended audience is more for people who are casually interested vs people looking for an extreme deep dive. Overall, it was a pleasurable read that I was able to complete in a couple of hours.
The Business of Sports Agents by Kenneth L Shropshire, Timothy Davis, and N. Jeremi Duru
Now, this book is the polar opposite of Becoming a Sports Agent. Whatever Becoming a Sports Agent lacked in depth, this book more than makes up for it. This book takes a closer look at Legal and Ethics side of the sports agent business - truly examining the nature of the relationship between player and agent while dissecting the nuance of a multitude of gray areas. Like the previous book, this book paints the sports agent industry as one filled with shattered dreams and bitterness.
However frustrating the industry is, the authors do a great job providing concrete examples and exercises for the reader to think about. This was an eye opening read because it taught me how much agents are responsible for outside of contract negotiations. There is so much additional work that they have to do with respect to endorsements, partnerships, and other relationships they help the athlete manage, all in the pursuit of helping the athlete (and themselves) achieve the best possible financial and professional outcomes.
As someone who dreamt of being an agent one day, this book has certainly made me question whether that's something I still want to pursue. The Business of Sports Agents is definitely one worth reading if you want to dig deeper into the world of sports agents. One thing I'll note is that the book was published in 2016 so some of the information might be outdated - particularly as it pertains to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Since the book's publication, a new CBA was reached on March 15, 2020 which won't expire until March 2030.
Crunching Numbers by Jason Fitzgerald and Vijay Natarajan
Crunching Numbers was a great follow up to The Business of Sports Agents because it takes the perspective of an NFL front office. As an agent, you're operating on behalf of your client which means your number one focus is on your client's best interest. It's a much different vantage point when you're on the opposite side of the table focused on constructing the best 53-man roster to win a championship.
This book details all of the different nuances of the salary cap, contract structures, and all of the different elements of the contract equation. NFL contracts aren't like a typical job offer. Sure, players receive a salary but they can also receive compensation from a variety of different bonuses ie signing bonus. Sometimes the bonus might be prorated or considered LTBE or NLTBE. As you can see, there are many potential factors that teams need to consider when building their rosters.
When NFL front offices are constructing their teams they have to be dialed in on how they are spending their money because there are penalties for spending too much - also known as going over the salary cap. The salary cap is the limit on the amount of money an NFL team can spend on player contracts (including base salary and bonuses) - the salary cap for the 2023 season is $224.8 million. However, the way contracts are structured have implications on longer term team building as well. This book taught me the importance of being able to zoom out and see the bigger picture.
Football Scouting Methods by Steve Belichick
When I learned that (arguably) the greatest coach in NFL history, Bill Belichick, was the son of another legendary coach I knew I needed to read what his old man had to say. This book details the author's approach to scouting opposing teams. Scouting is something as old as the game itself but even as the game has evolved there are some things that never change.
The book provides deep insights into how to approach scouting from how to organize your notebook, watching players during warm-ups, all the way down to what to watch for during the game and how to document your findings. While the pen and paper methodology might be a bit antiquated today it is my summation that this book still provides a great baseline level for understanding how to be a better football scout. Also worth noting is that the style of play as changed substantially from the 1940's (when the book was first published) to today. So, some of the formation diagrams might not be very prevalent for today's game but the underlying principles as described in the book still hold true today.