F
ormer Miami Marlins President
David Samson has signed with Hollywood firm
United Talent Agency for representation in broadcasting, speaking and literary work.
UTA agents Ryan Hayden, Jerry Silbowitz and David Evenchick will represent him.
Samson, who served as president of the Marlins for 16 years before being let go by new owner Derek Jeter in October, has never been represented by an agent.
“I’ve only dealt with agents, never had any,” Samson said, “There is a reason why there are agents and they serve an absolute, important function in our industry.”
Samson hired UTA after meeting with several agencies. Comfort level was the main reason, he said. Samson and his agents are in talks about jobs with networks, including business and sports networks, and he has already begun to do spots on Fox Business Network.
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United Talent Agency will rep the former Marlins president for TV, speaking and more.
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“I have been in front of the media for 18 years and I have a lot of experience in the sports industry and the business industry, and I wanted to see whether there were opportunities to do more in front of the camera or in front of the microphone,” he said.
Samson has also given speeches about leadership and the challenges of running an organization, and he wants to do more of that. He also wants to write a book, but says it won’t be a tell-all.
After Jeter bought the team, there were reports that Samson was asked to fire employees before being fired himself. Of that he said, “I enjoyed working with [Jeter] during the process of selling the team to him, and I had no problem with what he asked me to do.”
As for him being let go, Samson said, “It’s the movie ‘Fletch,’ right? It was a surprise just at the very, very end. I sort of knew he would want to go in a different direction, and I respected him for it and never had an issue with it.”
While Samson was at the Marlins, the team built a ballpark, hosted and won a World Series, and hosted an All-Star Game.
> EX-NFL AGENT SUES UNION, LEAGUE: James Dickey, a former NFL Players Association-certified agent who never represented any players on an NFL roster, has sued the NFLPA and the NFL, alleging one of the union’s rules violates antitrust and other laws.
Dickey was decertified twice under the regulation, which requires agents to negotiate a contract for at least one player on a 53-player roster within a three-year period.
Dickey, who is representing himself, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts late last month. “I obviously think I have good grounds,” Dickey said, but did not elaborate. The NFL and NFLPA did not respond to inquiries about the lawsuit.
The rule was first enacted by the NFLPA in 2002 to cull the number of NFL agents, which numbered about 1,100 at that time. Back then, players wanted to reduce the number of agents because many without clients were trying to sign them.
Since then, the NFLPA has enacted other rules to keep down the number of agents, including increasing the difficulty of the exam, which all new agents must pass to become certified. The number of agents is now 830.
Dickey faces an uphill fight, one expert said.
“The players association has the exclusive authority to delegate who they give negotiating authority to under both antitrust and labor law,” said Bill Gould, former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.
> GFSG SIGNS COLLEGE HOOPS COACHES: Gerard Fox Sports Group has signed several college basketball coach clients, including Matt Kingsley, associate head coach of Yale’s men’s team, which won its first NCAA tournament game when it beat Baylor in the first round last year.
GFSG also signed Tarvish Felton, Utah State associate head coach, and Calbert Cheaney, a former NBA player who was national college player of the year at Indiana in 1993 and who has worked as an assistant coach at colleges and the NBA.
Brian Elfus will represent Kingsley, Felton and Cheaney. They were previously without representation.
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.
