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Cindrich renounces NFL agent business

After a successful career as an NFL agent that spanned more than 30 years, Ralph Cindrich had been considering the idea of quitting the business.

But it wasn’t until this year, after a contentious meeting between agents and union officials at the NFL combine, that Cindrich made his decision to give up his NFL Players Association certification.

“When I went to the combine this last time and I saw the disastrous state of the agents, I felt like an outsider,” Cindrich said. “That was the turning point for me to say, ‘That’s enough. I don’t want any more of this.’”

At the meeting, agents and union officials raised their voices in a heated question-and-answer session over whether agent fees would be cut.

The union player representatives eventually decided not to cut the maximum fee from 3 percent, but instead to make 1.5 percent the default fee.

CINDRICH
Cindrich said he was upset, not so much at what was said, but by the way agents were treated.

“I felt a wall between the NFL Players Association and the agents like I have never seen or felt before,” he said. “I thought the agents were getting royally screwed because they were treated so poorly. … I walked out of that meeting and said, ‘I’m done. Thank God.’”

The annual deadline for NFL agents to pay fees and insurance was Oct. 1, and the number of certified agents has dropped to 795 from about 820 last year.

BARTELSTEIN
Only agents who are certified by the NFLPA may negotiate playing contracts.

Cindrich was one of a few prominent agents who did not renew their certification, though others made the decision for different reasons.

Mark Bartelstein, founder and CEO of Priority Sports & Entertainment, had been an NFLPA-certified agent since 1987 and represented many NFL players, including Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner. But in recent years, Bartelstein has been spending more time running his company and working as an NBA agent. His NBA player clients include Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal and Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward.

Priority Sports & Entertainment has six NFL agents who will continue to represent players, Bartelstein said.
“Nothing’s changed. It just made sense to do it,” Bartelstein said. “For the last five to seven years, I have been focused on running the company and not dealing with the day-to-day representation of football players,” he said.

Mike Moye, founder of Moye Sports Associates, had been NFLPA-certified since 1988 and represented players such as hall of famer Cortez Kennedy and former Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel, but gave up his certification for similar reasons. He wants to concentrate on his baseball practice, where his clients include Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton.

“Since around 2005, my firm’s NFL practice began slowing down while our MLB representation practice was thriving,” Moye wrote in an email. “Prior to this year’s deadline for renewing my certification, I reached a decision to focus 100 percent on MLB players and coaches.”

Unlike Bartelstein and Moye, Cindrich does not represent players in other sports, so for him, this is the end of a career. He started representing NFL players in 1977 and was certified when the NFLPA started certifying agents in 1985.

Asked how many players he had represented, Cindrich wasn’t quite sure of the number. “Two hundred or three hundred,” he said. Cindrich worked at IMG for a while, but mainly ran his own firm, Cindrich & Associates. Clients included Herschel Walker and Will Wolford.

Cindrich, who went to the University of Pittsburgh on a football scholarship and played linebacker in the NFL before becoming a lawyer and agent, said he is thankful for football and his career, but said he has empathy for the agents now trying to make a living with the pressure on fees. “The agents are suffering and I am telling you, football, the players, need agents,” he said.

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