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Labor and Agents

NFLPA president: Agents will get say before rules are changed

NFL agents will get a chance to voice their opinions to the NFL Players Association before it makes any major changes to agent regulations, union President Eric Winston said last week.

The union has formed a committee of players to study lowering fees and creating a union resource for players who want to negotiate their own deals, Winston said. But if any changes are made, it will not happen until after players vote at the union’s annual meeting next March.

“This isn’t something we are going to rush,” Winston said. “We are going to get plenty of agents’ opinions, not just about fees, but about everything else. Whether they like it or not, they are going to have their chance to lobby for it, against it, or whatever.”

News of the committee’s creation and the issues it would study upset the NFL agent community last month. Agents were particularly irked that the resolution was passed in March at the union’s annual meeting in Maui but that they didn’t know anything about it until July.

Winston said last week that he understood the news caught agents off guard. “That’s not the intention, obviously,” he said. “Nothing is going to happen without us getting their input first. They have always been part of our union. They are part of our union.”

Winston said last week that the agent regulation committee is made up of himself, Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis, New York Giants running back Rashad Jennings, free agent guard Chad Rinehart and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman. The committee will study the feasibility of reducing agent fees as well as providing an in-house union service to negotiate contracts, but any such recommendations would not take effect until they are discussed by agents and players and voted on by team player representatives.

Agents can now charge a maximum of 3 percent of the value of the player’s contract.

The union passed other regulations in Maui pertaining to agents that will take effect this season.

Among them, agents will now be required to report to the union within 10 days if they have been arrested, charged with a crime or face civil charges, and they can inform the union by email. Previously, agents were generally required to notify the union of a change in their status, but there was no 10-day limit and they were required to do it by fax or U.S. mail.

The union was caught by surprise last year when agent Vinnie Porter was arrested and charged with mail fraud by federal authorities. Porter was suspended by the NFLPA after the website The Smoking Gun broke the news of his arrest.

Another new rule pertains to the standard representation agreement when two or more agents represent a player. The agent whose name appears first on the document will now get paid any fees in the event of a dispute between the agents.

Agents had not, as of last week, been officially informed of the changes that have been put in place or the committee. In total, the union passed 18 resolutions, although one was tabled afterward. That resolution pertained to reducing the maximum agent fee from 3 percent to 2 percent for contracts involving a minimum salary benefit, but it was referred to the agent committee, Winston said.

Winston, an offensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals, spoke to SportsBusiness Journal last week by telephone as he was driving to training camp. Asked when agents and players would be informed of the resolutions, Winston wrote in a follow-up email, “No definitive date, but I would think by the beginning of the season.”

News of the agent regulations and the committee were first reported by USA Today on July 21, and agents reacted with surprise and anger that they hadn’t been told. Two agents at firms representing large numbers of NFL players told SportsBusiness Journal at the time that they were planning to convene a meeting of agents from rival firms.

One of those agents backed away from that plan last week, saying the idea that large numbers of players could do their own deals was overblown.

But others said an agent meeting was still a possibility. Agents requested anonymity in discussing the matter because the NFLPA can decide who is certified to represent players in contract talks with clubs.

Although tempers had cooled last week, many agents expressed dismay and concern that the union had kept them in the dark on the regulations, saying they had been informed of such matters promptly in past years. The NFLPA usually formally apprises agents of changes to regulations, as well as other matters pertaining to the negotiation of contracts, by email.

Players voted to change the agent regulations at their annual meeting in March, after NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith defeated eight challengers and was re-elected. Many of those candidates were harshly critical of Smith and his negotiation of the current collective-bargaining agreement, which ushered in a rookie pay system and other limitations on what agents could negotiate in contracts.

“Players already got slaughtered on the CBA,” one agent said last week. “Can you imagine them doing their own deals?”

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