We have discussed the lockout and its effect on the undrafted college players quite a bit lately. The following link looks at Wisconsin running back John Clay who was not drafted last week. Clay's situation is similar to many other players.

 

The question that needs to be asked from the agent standpoint is, "what should an agent do if the player after not being drafted still wants the agent to provide for his workout expenses?" The agent will surely realize that even if the player gets into camp later on, he (the agent) will most likely never be able to come out even on the money spent for training and other incidentals.

Now the player is looking for more money to continue training during the lockout. The agent can say yes, which will in all likelihood dig a bigger hole in his wallet.  From a business standpoint, that may be throwing good money after bad. The trap will be if the agent declines to pay for any more training expenses, in effect cutting his loses. If this happens it could damage the relationship the agent has with his player, and raise the question in the player's mind that the agent no longer believes in him. Surely, this result is not a positive for the agent, as it places the agent in a situation where he may be terminated. So the trap is:  do you continue paying money for the player to train, or risk ruining the relationship with the player?