The NFL Players Association has invited a small group of powerful agents to an unprecedented private meeting next month at the union’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, sources said.
The union invited between 15 and 20 agents to discuss contract adviser regulations that were discussed or passed at the annual NFLPA meeting in Hawaii in March. Agents have not received any official emails from the union on what action was taken, sparking fears among agents that potential changes could hurt their careers and businesses.
When player representatives have voted on agent regulations in the past, all certified contract advisers were informed of the changes soon after the vote.
The NFLPA meets with agents once a year, either at the NFL combine or at the Sports Lawyers Association’s annual conference, but never at its offices during the regular season.
Player representatives discussed or voted on about 20 resolutions in March, including one that created a committee to study lowering fees and creating an in-house service for players who wanted to negotiate their own contracts without an agent, according to sources. Agents were told expressly not to discuss the meeting, and sources requested anonymity because the union has the ability to discipline them.
“We were told not to discuss it,” one source said. “There will be an uproar among the agents who were not invited.”
NFLPA President Eric Winston and other union officials declined to comment last week. But Winston has previously said that agents would get a chance to provide the union with their input before major changes were put into place.
“We are going to get plenty of agents’ opinions, not just about fees but about everything else,” Winston said in July. “Whether they like it or not, they are going to have their chance to lobby for it, against it or whatever.”
The November meeting may be attended by NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, general counsel Tom DePaso and Mark Levin, director of salary cap and agent administration, as well as player leaders, sources said.
A July USA Today article caused a stir in the agent community because it quoted NFLPA player leaders about the union helping Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Russell Okung negotiate his own contract without an agent. In the days afterward, several prominent agents gave interviews about the importance of agents, and agents from multiple firms said privately that they were planning their own meeting to talk about what the union was doing. That meeting is not thought to have taken place, but agents have continued to express frustration about the situation.
There have always been a few players who have negotiated their own deals in the past, agents noted, but “if there are more than a handful of guys trying to represent themselves, agents will be pissed off,” one agent said.
