Just Don’t Call Him an Agent : Sports Attorney Doesn’t Fit Huckster Image of His Peers : LEIGH STEINBERG : Q

Leigh Steinberg’s career began in 1975 when a college acquaintance asked for help. Steve Bartkowski, a quarterback at the University of California and the top NFL draft pick, was unhappy with his attorney and asked Steinberg, who was senior class president at the Boalt Hall law school, to represent him during negotiations with the Atlanta Falcons.

Bartkowski ended up with the richest contract ($650,000 for four years) signed by a rookie and Steinberg ended up in a new profession. But please don’t call Steinberg an agent. It makes him wince. He prefers sports attorney.

After all, he hardly seems the right guy for the job. This a field where scoundrels, bunglers, sleaze bags and sometimes criminals run amok. Yet, somehow, in a world of flashy cars, silver suits and crocodile smiles, Steinberg has become one of the most influential people in professional athletics while driving a Pinto and wearing jogging shorts and a sweat shirt. (The Pinto has passed on and Steinberg now alternates between driving a 10-year-old Mustang and an 8-year-old Mercedes, both, of course, equipped with cellular phones.)

Some of his colleagues sarcastically refer to Steinberg as the “angel agent,” because he won’t take a client who doesn’t promise to donate a portion of his salary to charity. And even client and close friend Steve Young, the 49er quarterback who is still collecting on the $40-million-plus personal services contract Steinberg negotiated with the now-defunct Los Angeles Express, shakes his head when asked about Steinberg. “Here’s a guy who has made his reputation by giving away his clients’ money to charity,” he says.

As much as he hates the idea of it, Steinberg is the quintessential role model for the Me Decade. He has offices in Berkeley and Los Angeles and a panoramic view of Newport Bay from his seventh-floor office near Fashion Island. He has negotiated more than $45 million in contracts in the past two years alone and his client list includes some of the richest names in pro sports--Will Clark, Troy Aikman, Jeff George and Andre Ware, to name a few.

He has been on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” He even modeled in GQ magazine.He is able to pick and choose his clients and most of them are high-priced quarterbacks. He is sought after as a speaker and writes movie and book reviews for a local newspaper. He also has been encouraged to run for public office, an idea he admits is intriguing. “Lucy (his wife) pretty much took care of that, though, when she convinced me to buy our house in Corona del Mar (last summer),” he says. “We’re in the only district where a moderate Democrat has absolutely no chance to win an election.”

But Steinberg does his best to dodge any upper-class snob image. He is still more yippie than yuppie and says he simply tries to maintain the values taught by his father, a teacher and principal, and reinforced at Berkeley.

In a recent conversation with Times staff writer John Weyler, Steinberg discussed the sometimes sorry state of his business, his efforts to keep the dream of the counterculture ‘60s alive, the future of professional sports and the future of Leigh Steinberg.

Q. Let’s go back to the late ‘60s to start. Describe your feelings during the Days of Rage at the University of California as you experienced the violence in People’s Park and what lasting effect it has had on your life.

A. I felt very strongly that the Vietnam War was the wrong war in the wrong place and the wrong use of American resources. And yet, watching students killed and beaten, I had the feeling that unless we worked through the system and tried to change people’s attitudes, the eventual result would be tremendous bloodshed. So I broke with the radicals at that point.

It wasn’t that I didn’t feel strongly about the issues we were fighting for, but to me, I didn’t think you could convert someone by spitting on them or burning down a building.

I learned a lot about negotiating really. I saw the effect of yelling and screaming and cursing and putting people into a conflict mode. Human beings are complex and when you push someone into a confrontational corner, they become almost suicidal rather than give in. With macho pride and ego at stake, people behave irrationally, they become locked in and intransigent, and they lose sight of ultimate goals.

Whether it’s a heated negotiation or part of the political process, I think I learned some very valuable lessons about problem solving back then.

Q. You sort of fell into this profession when Steve Bartkowski asked for your help. Do you recall when you made the decision to give up the idea of a law career and become a full-time sports representative?

A. When Bartkowski asked me to represent him, I had graduated law school and was choosing between some political offers, some jobs in television news and some opportunities in corporate and entertainment law.

So we went to do the negotiation, but nothing had quite prepared me for getting off the plane in Atlanta. There were klieg lights in our faces, a crowd pressing against the police lines and the first thing we hear is this guy say, “We interrupt ‘The Johnny Carson Show’ to bring you a special news bulletin. Steve Bartkowski and his attorney Leigh Steinberg have just arrived at the airport and we switch you there for a live interview.”

There were 50-foot-high billboards welcoming Steve to Atlanta. The entire environment was amazing. At that point, I got a real sense that sports figures were the real celebrities in some communities. They were the heroes. I began to see the enormous opportunities for athletes to serve as role models.

And I began to understand in that experience how athletes trigger imitative behavior, especially among the young. One can argue whether they should, or whether they should have the burden of that responsibility, but, in point of fact, they do. I realized, by encouraging athletes to give back to the community, I could help make an impact.

I was also intrigued by the teaching element, of being able to work with a young man toward trying to fulfill his dreams. With all the stories of the ruination of athletes, I thought I could stimulate the best in Bart and other people, help them see themselves as whole human beings and see all their potential as a human being. Adulation, clippings, money, all of that fades, but ultimately, a sense of self-respect is most important.

It was an exciting time, it was fun and we got the largest rookie contract up until that time. Had it not been Atlanta, had it not been that dramatic, I don’t know what I might have done.

Q. When did you realize that you would have to make a concerted effort to carve out a respectable reputation in a sometimes sleazy business?

A. That very first year, after having done Bartkowski’s contract and while thinking about the seniors coming out, I realized that if I wanted to be an attorney as opposed to an agent, I would have to wait for the athletes to contact me. And then I saw agents approach athletes on college campuses and offer money, cars, loans, women, all to sign a representation contract in violation of NCAA rules before their eligibility was up.

It shocked me. I thought it was horrible. It treated the athlete like a commodity. Instead of scrutinizing a potential agent, the athlete was reduced to merely taking the most money, going to the highest bidder. That’s when I started pushing for tougher regulations, crusading to try and clean up the profession. I didn’t want people saying to my mother, “Your son seems to be such a nice boy, how did he ever turn out to be a sports agent?”

The problem is that many agents have too narrowly designed their focus to stacking one dollar after another into a bank book. I don’t see it a lasting legacy that I negotiated Troy Aikman or Jeff George X amount of money. Each of those contracts will be eclipsed. I don’t want to send athletes out into a community that doesn’t respect them.

Q. You have often been described as one of the best of an unsavory lot. Some gross violations--payoffs, etc.-- by agents have come to light recently. Were you surprised by these revelations or merely saddened?

A. The early signings have always been with us and yes, it is sad. Part of the problem stems from the competitive nature of sports representation. When I was going to school, it was entertainment law, but sports law is the hot deal of the ‘80s and ‘90s. It’s viewed as a glamorous and highly profitable field and there’s some very unrealistic expectations. When I give a talk, the first question is usually something like: “I saw you on ’60 Minutes’ and I saw you model in GQ. How do I get to do that?”

For those agents at the tip of the pyramid, it is a very fast-paced and profitable existance. I love it and find it enormously exciting, but 90% of the people who set out to be agents go out of business in the first four years. They end up representing low draft picks and free agents and the economics just don’t work out.

Still, there were probably 10,000 agents competing to represent the 336 football draftees last month. Some only have a business card that says they’re an agent. Until the recent certification efforts by some of the players’ unions, anyone could represent a player without any legal or financial background. Having a rapport with an athlete was all that was necessary.

So, that level of competition pushes agents to try to sign players with more aggressive techniques. At the current rate, I think there soon will be agents visiting Orange County obstetric units looking for large babies to sign.

Q. So, with all the money to be made, it’s not shocking that criminal activity would surface in sports representation, but what sorts of shady-but-legal tactics do some of your colleagues employ that you feel give the profession a bad name?

A. Part of what most agents don’t understand is that fans look for release in the fantasy-alternative world of sports. It’s a respite from day-to-day life. But strikes, contract hassles, drug problems all replicate too closely the things fans are trying to escape from so they can be the death knell of the popularity of sports.

The goal is to achieve the maximum amount of money for the player while not interrupting his career or creating a lot of public acrimony. Strikes are a disaster. Holdouts are a disaster. No matter what the dollar figure is, I consider a negotiation a partial failure if the player misses any training camp.

When an agent violates a player’s eligibility, that, of course, should be dealt with severely. But even the mainstream tactics of agents, to the extent that they embroil a player in controversy and use the withholding services as a bargaining tool without even exploring alternatives, gives the profession a bad name. These people are not taking their proper responsibility as a steward of sports.

Q. When did you settle on the idea that you would accept only those clients who agreed to donate a portion of their earnings to charity?

A. In that first summer, after we got Bart signed. I was determined to find a way to apply the values I was raised with. My father was very much into community service. He had been president of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission a number of times and in our home there was very little focus on money but a tremendous focus on going out in the world and making a difference.

I thought if I was going to (become an agent) then I was going to try and make it a better world too. You have to find a way in your craft to try and set better standards. So I expressed the philosophy that I would only work with athletes interested in role modeling.

Now, these are young men and I’m not judgmental, but we’re just saying that in their planned activities they should set up programs that can make a difference.

Obviously, there are some athletes out there who are willing to do that. If there hadn’t been, I would have done something else.

Q. You have said that you don’t take a client until you have retraced his roots and checked out his character. How many potential clients have you actually turned down over the years and for what reasons?

A. Since I’ve articulated my feelings so strongly and it’s stood there for 16 years, we don’t get approached by people who don’t feel that too. This year we had 40 calls from potential clients in football and I took five of them.

Now, early on that was not the ratio, of course. I remember one very talented running back who walked into my office and I laid out the concept of community and charity. He looked up at me and said, “Leigh, I’m my own favorite charity,” and then he got up and left.

Q. Why do you refuse to do renegotiations?

A. When a player receives a guaranteed contract and the club has taken the risk that player might be injured or his performance may be not up to par, I don’t think it’s appropriate for a player to ask to renegotiate because he has benefited from that guarantee. That doesn’t mean we’ve never renegotiated those contracts, because many times a team finds it in their interest to extend a contract into the future.

Most baseball and basketball contracts are guaranteed, but most football players get a package where the signing bonus is guaranteed but the salary can be terminated at any time. Now, to the extent that a contract is not guaranteed, when the dollar figures are not a floor that protects a player from being injured or cut, in those cases it might be appropriate to bring up renegotiation in a private way.

But it is definitely not appropriate to withhold services that you’re contracted to provide. Rather than make a public scene, it can be brought up privately, and if nonconfrontational means don’t work, then the appropriate time to address it is at the next contract.

Q. You seem to have a knack for keeping contract negotiations from deteriorating into battles of pride. What is the key to avoiding dueling egos?

A. You need to have a fairly keen insight into human nature. All human beings have pride, we all want a sense of self-respect, no one wants to be embarrassed and everyone wants to be valued. You have to remember you’re representing a client and it’s not your ego that’s at stake. Never back a proud person into a public corner with no escape. And there’s absolutely no need to use language or action that stimulates the the flee-or-flight impulse.

I like most of the people I negotiate with. I respect them. I try to find the common bonds, the areas of agreement, and, by good communication, narrow conflict down to the absolute minimum.

Another part of it is to do prodigious research and approach the negotiations with respect for the intelligence of the person you’re negotiating with. What you’re trying to do is give an intelligent man or woman an intellectual framework and a rationale of why a particular signing makes sense. Give them as much compelling information as possible.

But never delude yourself as to the actual talent level of your player. I talk to other players, scouts, coaches and general managers and try to get as honest an accounting of my clients’ talents as possible.

Q. Is it true that you offered to lower Bartkowski’s asking price if the Falcons agreed to lower ticket prices?

A. Frankly, I was a sports fan. I sat there reading the papers thinking, “Wow, these big salaries are driving ticket prices up.” And now here I was doing it, and I was still thinking this way. I wasn’t far enough into the profession to separate it as a job instead of looking at it from a fan’s standpoint. So I said, “Hey, he can live with less if you’ll actually lower ticket prices.” They didn’t think I was kidding, but they didn’t hesitate to say no.

And I’ve done it a number of times since. No one has accepted it, of course, because ticket prices are merely a reflection of supply and demand. But if it would make the sport more accessible . . . one of the things that scares me about the future of sports, especially football, is when we have sold-out stadiums at very high prices, you’re losing the involvement of young people.

Television is already the major single financial factor defining the future of pro sports, but will we sustain the interest of a large percentage of potential sports fans if their only experience is watching it on television? I don’t really know the answer to that.

Q. You seal your deals with a handshake and you were quoted as saying you had no idea how much Steve Young or Warren Moon were going to pay you after they signed multimillion-dollar deals. Really, no idea?

A. I didn’t. I was focused on doing the negotiation and I knew if it turned out well they’d be fair. Usually, about 4% is standard, but my feeling is the relationship is the most compelling aspect and a piece of paper is superfluous. If an athlete wants to have a contract, he can have one; otherwise, it’s just a handshake.

And in some cases, we still don’t set the fee ahead of time.

Q. Have you ever felt guilty after negotiating a big contract for a rookie who didn’t pan out?

A. No. I think athletes earn and deserve every penny they get for several reasons and I feel like Robin Hood getting them that money. First of all, it’s an entertainment business and no one seems to get upset when Jack Nicholson provides the vital function of playing the Joker in “Batman” for a mere $61 million.

And we’re talking about a very profitable business here. (NFL) television revenues for each team in 1976 was $2 million. It was $17 million last year and it’s now up to an average rate of $34 million per team per season over the next four years. In 1976, the two franchises that came into the NFL, Seattle and Tampa Bay, had purchase prices of $16.5 million. In 1988, Seattle sold for $90 million.

Also, the average NFL player plays just 3.1 years and they often sustain injuries that will make them permanently disabled. In 1981, the three top picks I had were Kenny Easley, who is currently retired with a serious football-related (kidney) injury, Curt Marsh, who had a series of back operations and is now partially disabled, and Neil Lomax, who had two hip implants at age 30. It’s a game that does grievous bodily harm and no amount of money compensates for the ability to play with one’s kids.

Moreover, it’s the athletes who are the entertainers. Nobody would pay to see Georgia Frontiere tackle Al Davis . . . well, maybe once.

Q. A lot of juniors reportedly made themselves eligible for the draft this year because of the threat of a wage scale for rookies that would set a predetermined salary for each first-round selection, scaled from the No. 1 pick down to No. 28. What do you think about the chances of this happening and how do you argue against the notion that a player who has never played a down in the pros deserves less money than an established regular playing the same position?

A. I think we have to admit that proven, productive players should make the larger share of the money. But the owners have a system that allows no free agency, so a veteran has no free negotiation opportunity to realize that larger share. It’s only the rookie, who can withhold services and is not yet part of the system, who can more freely negotiate, but even he is limited by the draft.

I accept the system as it is, but I do think it’s irrational.

Q. Would you like to see the NFL draft abolished?

A. I think the sport could exist very well without the draft. The draft does not help competitive balance in the sport. If it did, we wouldn’t see the same teams drafting in the same positions year after year after year. Good organizations win and it has nothing to do with relative draft position.

Would we take a senior business major at UC Irvine and tell him his rights had been taken by the accounting firm of Smith and Jones in Biloxi, Miss., and he would have to go there and be paid whatever they decided?

Players would randomly distribute themselves because starting is the main priority for most of them.

It’s amazing to me that men who won their fortunes in the rough and tumble in a free-agency, no-draft system would turn around and introduce control mechanisms that would cut off the free-market right that’s sacred to this country.

Q. How do you feel about juniors coming out early for the NFL draft?

A. I had tremendous reservations about representing underclassmen. My great hope was that they would all choose to stay in school. But I believe it’s their right to come out and allowing underclassmen to come out in football, like they do in baseball and basketball, will help cleanse the nature of college sports.

You have athletes sitting prisoner on college campuses who have absolutely no academic proclivity, none. And let’s face it, a mastery of Near Eastern literature is not a prerequisite of cutting off-tackle for a few yards.

It hasn’t ruined baseball or basketball and we’d have fewer juniors coming out. This was a one-year aberration caused by the fear of a wage scale and there is some possibility of a wage scale.

The more discussion there is about a potential collective bargaining agreement in football, the more apparent it is that if they ended up doing a revenue share like in the NBA and then had a minimum/maximum salary cap, it starts to become logical that there would be a limitation on salaries of entry-level players. Who’s going to stand up for rookies? It will be decided by representatives of the teams against representatives of veteran players.

Q. Describe your general impressions regarding your dealings with the Rams and Raiders franchises.

A. I’ve had very positive dealings with both groups. Al Davis is a brilliant football man and takes very good care of his players. The Raiders are an excellent organization to deal with.

(Rams Executive Vice President) John Shaw has taken some fairly tough stances in some negotiations in the past, but in the last several years, when the Rams needed to process their high draft picks in an orderly way, they’ve been very competitive.

One of the hallmarks of both Davis and Shaw is that they’re brilliant and they consider the issues.

Q. You were listed as one of the top five agents in the country in a recent poll conducted by a national football publication, but one agent reportedly said you were “a b.s. artist,” another claimed you “got lucky with your first client” and another said you “nauseate other agents with your public relations machine.” Does any of this sort of criticism bother you?

A. Sports representation is like king of the mountain and I know it’s hard for those agents who try year after year and don’t get clients. They’re competitive people, I understand that. And it’s hard for people in the world to say someone is actually running an ethical sports law practice and is succeeding because they work hard and care sincerely.

Of course, I don’t know who those people are. I surely did get lucky to have Bart as a client and I don’t know what they mean about a publicity machine.

But what nauseates me is the publicity surrounding the destructive agents who have brought a whole field into disrepute.

Q. Your wedding was on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and you do employ a public relations firm on your behalf. What do you say to those who say you spend too much time selling yourself?

A. Most law firms have public relations agencies. The point is there’s a difference between initiating publicity and helping to handle it. After the Steve Young signing, the number of requests were so heavy, we needed someone to screen them.

But there are things that I think are very important in this world and part of what I appreciate about what I do is being able to speak out and express concepts. We don’t need any more business in this practice. We turn away business. I do feel a strong need to set positive examples for society and to say, “Hey look, one person can make a difference.”

I wish these people would deal with the substance of what I was saying. They can argue that a sports lawyer should just be a sports lawyer and keep his mouth shut. That’s fair enough. I just don’t agree.

Q. You seem to specialize in quarterbacks, as does agent Marvin Demoff. Jim Everett, for instance, chose Demoff over you. Is there any sense of rivalry here?

A. You can’t get every player. Marv is a good agent but there have been players who chose me over him. There’s so many athletes, you can’t represent them all. And I’d much rather have them represented by good people.

Q. One NFL general manager, speaking anonymously, said if he were a quarterback, he would choose Demoff over you because he believed Demoff could get him more money. What’s your response to that opinion?

A. In light of the (Troy) Aikman and (Jeff) George deals (George’s deal with Indianapolis this year eclipsed Aikman’s record contract with Dallas in 1989), why would anyone say that?

Q. You don’t dress like an agent. You don’t drive a flashy, agent-like car. Is this just part of an image or are you really just a hippie with a haircut?

A. (Laughs.) Well, you know, the fun thing about sports is that it’s informal and you don’t have to wear a suit. I wouldn’t want to sit and work in a suit in my own office. That’s one of the advantages of having your own law firm.

And it’s not important whether I have an old car or a new car. It’s just a way to get around. Vestiges and trappings are not that important to me

What’s most fun about this lifestyle is the eclectic range of activities that it’s possible to be involved in. I get to meet politicians, interesting business people, cultural figures . . . in a lot of ways, it’s a wonderfully ideal life.

But one day, I’d like to write a book. I’d like to own a newspaper. I’d like to make a movie. And I’d like to have a say about issues like the environment.