July 17-23

Today, just 23 days into the name, image and likeness (NIL) era, our big board of NIL signings has exceeded 200 players. Even though there are surely many more than just the 201 players who’ve signed exclusive marketing deals, endorsed a product or service, or have made themselves available on a platform such as Cameo or Dreamfield, that’s a lot. We thought it was a good time to make a few observations, so here goes.

·      As of today, 47 of the 201 are Class of 2024. In other words, a quarter of all players “putting themselves out there” have played one (Covid-affected) season. Want more? Eighteen of them (almost 10 percent) are Class of 2025 – they haven’t played college football yet. How long until high school juniors start getting into the act? Seconds?
·      Which school has the most players getting into the NIL act? Bet you’d never guess it’s Central Florida with 15. However, the school with the most players on exclusive marketing deals is easily Georgia with 13. The next-closest are Miami (7) and Alabama (6).
·      Obviously, the new NIL rules have been a boon to NFL agencies, who are not barred from getting into the act. Miami has the highest percentage of players whose marketing deals are with NFLPA-certified agencies (six of seven, or 86 percent). For Georgia, it’s 7 of 13 (54 percent). Of the Tide players signing, four of the six are inked with NFLPA-certified firms. 
·      After a slow start, Miami Beach, Fla.-based Rosenhaus Sports has been the most aggressive NFLPA-licensed firm with 12 signees already, including Miami (FL) OT Zion Nelson and Notre Dame OH Kyren Williams among signees who are already drawing first-round chatter. Others with significant classes already are First-Round Management (7), The Ballengee Group (six, including Alabama IB Christian Harris and LSU DC Derek Stingley) and Vayner Sports (four, including Cincinnati QB Desmond Ridder and Clemson QB D.J. Uiagalelei) and Agency1 Sports Group (four, including Georgia OB Adam Anderson). Of course, we don’t know which marketing-only firms are chummy with NFL agencies, though that will probably become clearer as we march toward the ’22 draft.
·      Keep in mind that we’re just getting started. Roc Nation Sports just signed its first NIL client, Georgia OG Jamaree Salyer, another projected first-rounder, while 1 of 1 Agency (including the player reps formerly with Young Money APAA Sports) signed Miami (FL) DE DeAndre Johnson. That’s two more agencies, along with Rosenhaus Sports, First-Round Management and The Ballengee Group, with at least one top-32 pick since the 2019 draft. 
·      If you’re seeing a lot of names of big firms and not so many names of smaller ones, that’s no mistake. The NIL race has left the smaller fish out of the pool, and while the last chapter on this new era hasn’t been written, early returns are that the rich firms are only getting richer. At the same time, on Wednesday, the state of South Carolina notified registered athlete agents that, pursuant to the state’s new NIL law, registration fees for new agents will triple to $1,500, with the renewal filing fee more than doubling to $700. This means that law-abiding contract advisors will pay fees to handle the greater administration needs associated with NIL tracking, fees that, often, less-principled agencies simply ignore. 

The last chapter hasn’t been written on this new day yet, and we’ll continue to monitor the industry as it is impacted and shaped in unexpected ways. Make sure you’re reading our Rep Rumblings and keeping up with our big board to know where the industry is heading. In the meantime, here’s a look at what else we saw, heard, read and said in the business of college and pro football this week.

Catching Up: Ron Labadie, 72, spent 25 years in scouting, all with the Dolphins. “Nine head coaches and nine GMs, I think,” he said when we caught up with him last week. His career also included eight successful years as the head coach at D-III Adrian College as well as several years coaching on the high school level. 

·      Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “We live in Saline, Mich., a couple miles south of Ann Arbor. For the first couple years – I’ve been retired since 2015 -- I did some consulting work with a couple universities and with Mr. Ross with the Dolphins, but lately, it’s been knee surgery, playing golf and running around with the grandkids.”
·      Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?: “To be honest, I got a little tired of the traveling, and that became hard. The report writing late at night, that was difficult, too. It’d still be scouting if I didn’t have to write reports, but you have to write reports and tell your superiors what you think about these players. I miss a little bit going into colleges and talking to coaches, and I always enjoyed watching film, but it was time for me, and I’m the kind that doesn’t look back. And retirement has been good.”
·     Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “I talk to (Dolphins GM) Chris Grier quite often . . . once a month or so. I talk to a couple scouts with the Dolphins every once in a while, and I talk with (Bears Executive Scout) Jeff Shiver a couple times a year, but other than that, not much. I hear from (former Dolphins scout) Bill Baker every once in a while, but not a lot.”
·      Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “Not many, and when I do, well, I didn’t sit in the stands for 25 years, and sitting in the stands is not for me at this point. I watch my grandsons. One of them is a swimmer, then two are in baseball, so we go to all their games, but not a lot of (football) games. I’d much rather sit and watch my 60-inch TV on Saturdays and Sundays. You don’t have to worry about travel or parking. But I really enjoy watching college football and the NFL on TV.”
·      Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: “I talked to (former Dolphins LB) Zach Thomas on the phone a couple months ago. I called him, and I’m hoping for him to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at some point. He’s the fifth-leading tackler in NFL history. I also went to (former Dolphin DE) Jason Taylor’s Hall of Fame induction. I see players on TV all the time that I scouted or liked. I remember at (former Kent State WO) Julian Edelman’s pro day, after (Akron QB) Charlie Frye was done, I was the only scout there to watch (Edelman), and Julian was really good. I told him, ‘you gotta be a punt returner,’ and he said, ‘I’ll catch a thousand punts,’ and I was back a week later and he had. I’m glad he had a good career.” 

Review the latest from other former NFL scouts and executives by accessing our Catching Up archive here. Want to hear from a former scout, or know someone who may be interested in being interviewed? Let us know.

In memoriam –Ellis Rainsberger: The scouting community lost a veteran this week as Ellis Rainsberger, a longtime Dolphins and Titans evaluator, passed away. “Ellis was a wealth of experience and knowledge when he came to the Titans in 2000,” said former Tennessee exec Blake Beddingfield. “Excellent evaluator of offensive and defensive lineman. Very respected by college coaches.” Former Dolphins GM Randy Mueller called him “a true old-school football man who was loyal, detailed and fun to be around. Having been a coach most of his life, he flipped the page and became a very good evaluator later in his career. We had a lot of great discussions during our time together with the Dolphins.” According to his obituary, Rainsberger was 89.

The State of Football gets the ITL treatment: You may have heard that Inside the League will grab the microphone this week and take over The State of Football for the vacationing Ric Serritella. You may have already caught our blog post this week that lists all our guests, where they’ve come from and what they do, and what they’ll be discussing. However, if you didn’t, here are eight reasons you should join us at 9 a.m. ET on the SI.com Twitch channel. 

  •  ITL CEO Neil Stratton has a terrible haircut you don’t want to miss.
  • Stratton’s co-host this week, Bo Marchionte, is hilarious (and will no-doubt make fun of his haircut).
  • It’s anybody’s guess how many of ITL’s products and services Stratton will shamelessly promote.
  • It’s incredible there are this many people willing to join Stratton.
  • Over/under on guests ripping off their microphones and leaving the show: five.
  • Marchionte will juggle chainsaws Thursday. Live.
  • NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell could make a cameo. Will hug Stratton.
  • Stratton has promised to get long-awaited ankle surgery over long before show starts.

The truth is, there are way more than just eight reasons to watch, and we hope you do. We’ll delve deeply into the highs and lows of the agent business, the emerging NIL race, fearless predictions from our NFL experts and plenty more. We promise it will be worth your 60 minutes. See you Monday.

Next week: Thirteen (13) days. After a two-year wait, longest since the NFLPA didn’t hold an agent exam in 2011, testing day is less than two weeks away. Hundreds have already availed themselves of our test prep materials, and many others have used alternative services to get ready. Still, many, many more still are putting off studying for the exam. To those people, we say this: it’s now or never. On the other hand, we would add this: you’re not alone in procrastinating. The 10 days before the exam are always our busiest as far as orders of our practice exams and study guide, and this year, we’re finalizing two Zoom sessions with an actual NFL-certified agent (details next week, but tentatively set for Sunday, Aug. 1, and Tuesday, Aug. 3, of exam week at 7 p.m. CT, $75 per 90-minute session or $125 for both), so we expect a week like no other. Of course, it’s already going to be a week like no other as we shove Ric Serritella out of his The State of Football host chair and take over all week. We hope you can join us live (9 a.m. ET here, live or on replay). Aside from working hand-in-hand with agent hopefuls and trying to single-handedly take down the Sports Illustrated brand next week, it will be business as usual. We’ll feature five more schools (New Mexico State, N.C. State, North Carolina, North Texas and Northern Illinois) in our Profile Repots, and we’ll have a “best of the week in TSOF” report in our weekly blog, Succeed in Football. We’ll also go down the home stretch with four more editions of our newsletter for the 2021 agent class, the Rising Contract Advisor Newsletter, and we’ll have all the news, notes and buzz in our Rep Rumblings. And oh, by the way, camps start next week, so we’ll be all over Twitter and everywhere else for the latest vaccine dust-ups, terminations and other changes in freedoms. Where else can you have this much fun? Join us and see for yourself what’s going on at ITL.