Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.
For Athletes First NFL agent David Mulugheta, it started right after Seattle won the Super Bowl in 2014.
His client Earl Thomas, a Seahawks safety, was getting tweets on Twitter from all kinds of people offering and asking about business deals and appearances. Mulugheta suggested that Thomas put his Twitter tag, @DavidMulugheta, on Thomas’ Twitter bio on his profile page to provide a new point of contact.
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Earl Thomas’ Twitter bio includes a link to his agent, David Mulugheta.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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“That’s how it started,” Mulugheta said. “I said, ‘Put me on there so you don’t have to go through your thousands and thousands of mentions.’ And when that happened I had a couple of other guys put me up there, too.”
Mulugheta’s clients have received deals — including appearance deals, free merchandise from startup companies and opportunities to do charity work — as a result of being able to reach the agent through Twitter. Mulugheta has made new contacts with a lot of people at a lot of companies and organizations he did not previously know existed. “Social media has made it very easy to have a direct link to people that normally you would not have a direct link to,” Mulugheta said.
Mulugheta is not the only agent doing this. As athletes and sports personalities are becoming more accessible to the general public, more agents and managers are putting their contact information, be it their email address or Twitter handle, on their clients’ Twitter profiles, usually in the bio. Although the vast majority of endorsement deals and commercial work still come through traditional channels, more opportunities, especially from startup companies, are coming to athletes through social media channels, especially Twitter.
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More athletes and executives on Twitter are adding information linking to their representation.
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All-Star Washington Wizards guard John Wall has listed the email address of his manager, Ty Williams, on his Twitter page. John Elway, general manager of the reigning Super Bowl champ Denver Broncos as well as a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback, lists the email of his agent, Jeff Sperbeck of The Novo Agency, as the contact for business inquiries.
Twitter declined to comment for this story. As a matter of policy, Twitter doesn’t comment on individual accounts or bios.
Mike Mikho, chief marketing officer for Laundry Service and Cycle, a Wasserman-owned social media agency and media network of influencers that works with hundreds of pro athletes, said he’s noticed the trend. “I’ve seen it with athletes,” he said. “We also represent 1,000-plus social media influencers, who are basically famous for creating great content and who have millions of followers. And they do the same thing.”
It’s not surprising, Mikho says, because Twitter is just the digital representation of the real world. If athletes want you to know the name of their agent or manager, they are going to put it on the profile pages for their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media accounts.
“I don’t know that the trend is something that is drastically different than what has evolved [in the way people use Twitter] over the last several years, but I see that absolutely,” Mikho said. “I think if anything, it’s athletes recognizing what a massive opportunity their social media channels are.”
Sperbeck, founder and CEO of The Novo Agency, has his name not just on Elway’s Twitter profile page, but the pages of his active NFL player clients. It is a way to bring deals to clients, but it is also a way to cut down on the negative noise they deal with on social media, he said.
“Of course we get the complaints, advice, and second guessing as well,” Sperbeck said. “So better we act as a filter than the players having to sift through themselves.”
Mulugheta views adding his name to clients’ profiles as both a service as an agent — players get many dozens of mentions that they do not have time to deal with — as well as a potential for business opportunities.
While Sperbeck has clients list his email address, Mulugheta has his clients list his Twitter tag.
Mulugheta figures the people trying to contact the athletes are on Twitter already and not on email, so it may be a more direct route. “If you don’t have a Twitter tag, they are likely to just mention the player, rather than going through email,” he said.
When Mulugheta receives a Twitter mention for a client, he follows the tweeter and then is able to receive a direct message from that person. Some are real deals, but more of it is merchandise gifts and requests from charities. Requests, too, are coming through startup companies, as people at established firms generally know how to contact an athlete’s agent through traditional channels, Mulugheta said.
Denise White, CEO and founder of athlete public relations and marketing firm EAG Sports Management, has many clients, including Miami Heat guard/forward Joe Johnson, Washington Redskins wide receiver DeSean Jackson and San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates, who have listed her as a contact on their Twitter profiles for years. Like Mulugheta, her athlete clients list her Twitter tag rather than her email address.
“I don’t want everybody to have my email address,” White said. “I have people wanting jobs, people wanting autographs. There are people who want to do business with an athlete but it’s a guy in his mother’s basement with a T-shirt company. He’s probably not a guy to give your email address to.”
White has also received requests from people through Twitter who are asking that her clients be “a producer” on their “movie,” she said, chuckling. What that generally means, is the person wants the athlete to “invest” in their movie, White said.
Once she receives a request for a business opportunity through Twitter, White said she tries to vet the person through other channels. If the person or business is legitimate, then she emails or calls them. White said some of the offers involve barter deals, but there are paid speaking engagements that have come through Twitter, as well.
“There are definitely some real deals, too,” she said. “But not as many as I would hope.”
