Tank Black's book, 'Tanked', Part II; Mediation for Pacquiao-Mayweather
For a young aspiring agent Tanked should give you a good idea of what you are competing against when recruiting players. On page 222, Mr Black states,
Just about every agent carried wads of cash that found its way into the pockets of promising college players most to curry favor in advance of eligibility. (author's note, Mr. Black throughout his book speaks of eligibility, but in a rather different way. Instead of speaking of a player having college eligibility, he uses the word eligibility to mean being eligible for the NFL draft) You couldn't buy a player's promise, but the money got his attention long enough for an agent to make his case for why he'd be better than others.
Throughout the book, Mr .Black continues to talk about some of the ways he grabbed a player's attention,
Like virtually every other agent, I played the game too. College athletes I was interested in recruiting would sometimes ask me if I could help them with Christmas money or cash for some other incidental need. In most cases I gave them what they asked for with the verbal understanding that they would pay me back whether they signed with me or not. I knew it was against the rules, but I enjoyed the role of benevolent provider.
Black's book also gives you a look at how he struggled to overcome a tough childhood, and how, as a player, his football career took him from a small town in eastern Tennessee to almost making the Atlanta Falcons roster in 1979.
And the book is not light on the sensational; he did some interesting things with his sports agency, and you can definitely call it a "full service" agency based on the following:
We had a list of call-girl services we trusted and could rely on to find someone in most any city. These women tended to be the type that loved spending time with athletes and loved getting paid richly for doing it.
Eventually the NFLPA investigated Black and that, combined with alleged money laundering for drug dealers and problems with the Securities and Exchange Commission, resulted in his downfall.
Tanked is a recommended read. If you want to learn more about the agent business it should be on your list along with other must-reads, such as Robert Ruxin's An Athletes Guide to Agents, Drew Rosenhaus' A Shark Never Sleeps, and Marc Isenberg's Money Players. It will give you one more piece to the agent puzzle.
These days Mr. Black is seeking to get on the motivational speaker circuit.
Mediation may save a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight
According to their mediator, Daniel Weinstein, "After discussions with representatives of all parties I am satisfied that the parties are approaching the mediation in good faith. Neither side is insisting on pre-conditions to its participation in the mediation, and both sides will present their positions in an effort to resolve the dispute."
Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, sounded a hopeful note about Mr. Weinstein's abilities to get the job done. "This guy was successful resolving our nutty problem before and hopefully he can be successful this time. He's a guy who is a big fight fan and loves the sport, and I found him last time to be a delight to deal with. Everybody did."
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4794912
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