Oregon daily emerald., November 28, 2000, Page 12, Image 12

. Steinberg
continued from page 7
the perspective that this is how a
Trov Aikman and a Terry Bradshaw
started out. This is the natural matu
ration and growth of a young quar
terback.
What drew you to Akili from
♦ watching him play at Oregon?
A^He had a bazooka. It was just
♦ stunning. It was like watching a
throwing machine. He was so big and
tough and had so much confidence.
Under coach [Mike] Bellotti, Oregon
has turned into a big offensive football
power. [Offensive] coach [Jeff] Tedford
and coach Bellotti know what they’re
doing so the bloodlines, as we say,
were good with Akili. He had it all and
he came about a half an hour away of
being the first pick of the draft. He was
still the third most desirable player
from that ‘99 class, but I believe he was
the best quarterback. That will be
judged 5 years from now.
04 So far, Leigh, has this been a
♦ normal year for you?
A4 This is my 26th year and the
♦ most frustrating aspect of what
I do is the injuries. Some Sundays I
feel like I should have gone to med.
school instead of law school be
cause it feels like ER. And probably
the most disturbing part of it all is
the concussions. I have held several
concussion seminars because I
want our players to understand the
dangers. I went through this all last
year with Steve Young, and this
year in the first game, there was
Troy Aikman getting one.
Some of the guidelines I would
like to see implemented include new
helmet technology, ripping Astroturf
out of all fields, having a neurologist
on the sidelines and having a manda
tory one game absence following a
concussion. But the NFL is not seri
ous about the issue. Monday Night
Football has two helmets crashing
against each other, which obviously
would produce a concussion. So
that’s a very frustrating aspect.
1 know that one of the impor
♦ tant parts of your relationship
with your clients is to get them out
in the communities for charity
work. How nice is it to see the ath
letes get excited about that?
A4 Very. I just believe very strongly
♦ about the power of role modeling
and triggering imitative behavior. And
if Bruce Smith stands up and says that
real men don’t hit women, I know that
it triggers a behavioral change. Part of
what’s been fun with Akili is that we’ve
set up his charitable foundation al
ready. The whole founding spirit of my
practice is the concept of role model
ing and that the athlete can make a dif
ference and retrace his roots.
Q^One of the major factors in
♦ athletes being role models is
the television image. So when the
audience views a clip of Kerry
Collins walking out of jail with sun
glasses and a cigar after being ar
rested for drunken driving, how do
you help build Collins back up?
A# The thing there is redemption.
♦ Now here is Kerry Collins in
the present day who recognizes that
he was an alcoholic and he has
changed. People have the sense that
off-field behavior for athletes has
degenerated since the pristine days
of Babe Ruth’s time. Well, when
Babe Ruth got stopped for drunk
driving, the cop told him just to go
on and when he got arrested for
drunk driving, it never got printed
in the paper. And when Ty Cobb
beat his wife, which he certainly
did, he was never arrested. But hav
ing said all that, I still feel that role
modeling is critical.
0^ So then, what was your opin
♦ ion of Charles Barkely’s com
mercial a few years ago when he said
that, “I am not a role model” and that
we should look to our parents?
See, with that, he’s speaking to
♦ a whole set of kids who come
from single parent households. And
I "> 1
to tell inner city kids that their fa
ther ought to be their role model
when there is no father in the
house? Yeah, it’s a nice concept,
Charles, but it's unrealistic. Televi
sion brings home the imagery
which will make these athletes larg
er than life whether we choose for
that to happen or not.
Do you find it tough to tell the
♦ average folk that you can be
money oriented as well as make it
all personal and real?
No, I don’t think so. I don’t see
♦ any contradiction between be
ing compensated for one’s craft and
trying to be a decent person that
makes an impact. I do think being an
athlete carries a special responsibility
with special obligations. The athletes
get great benefits out of being charita
ble. It forces them to stop being so ab
sorbed and gets them thinking about
the community and it really makes
them better rounded people.
Q4 Everywhere you look now,
♦ there’s ridiculous money fig
ures. There’s Shaq and his big con
tract and then A-Rod and his free
agent demands. How do you keep
it all in perspective and keep these
athletes level headed?
A^I think it comes from an em
♦ phasis in the very beginning
on good fundamental values. Some
one can be wealthy and still have
good values. It comes from an un
derstanding and a sense of respect.
Being wealthy doesn’t necessarily
equate to happiness. There’s a lot of
wealthy people making a lot of psy
chiatrists wealthy.
People need to learn to deal with
success in a way that when the cheer
ing stops and when they’re not the
big star, they can handle that. Fame
and glory are fleeting. So what we’re
doing is preparing people for a sec
ond career and using the offseason to
figure out what else they can do in
life. Like Steve Young, who ends his
career, and he moves very quickly
into being the chair of a high tech start
up company that has 140 employees.
Q^How important for you was
♦ the movie “Jerry Maguire”
and how it portrayed agents with
personality and a human side?
A 4 That’s the reason I agreed to
♦ spend so much time with direc
tor Cameron Crowe. When he called
me up and asked me in 1993,1 knew
that that would probably be the most
prominent movie to run with the
sports agent theme. I’ve read his work
in Rolling Stones, and I’ve seen “Fast
Times at Ridgemont High” (also di
rected by Crowe) and thought it was
hilarious, so I agreed. He started out
going with me to the NFL Draft in ‘93
where Bledsoe got drafted and went
through that experience. He went
through the NFL meetings in Palm
Desert and that’s where he went up to
[former NFL safety] Tim McDonald’s
room, who was a free agent then.
That’s where Cameron picked up the
scene where Cuba Gooding Jr. and the
Maguire character walked through
the media circuit at the hotel. He was
upstairs and asking Tim what he was
looking for in the experience and
CNN was on in the background with
the show, “Moneyline” and Tim said,
“Well, it’s the money” and Cameron
wrote, “Show me the money.”
Cameron took everything out of
my office and put Tom Cruise’s
head in all my pictures. And I was
on the set for quite awhile and actu
ally showed [actorl Jerry O’Connell
how to throw a football.
Warren Moon and I have been to
gether for 23 years. Cameron saw
that. He saw the real way in which
we interacted. He saw me hug War
ren after a game. I wanted to help
make the movie as reality based as I
could.
Q4 Have you worked on any oth
♦ er films since?
A^ After that, I went on and was a
♦ technical advisor for Kevin
Costner’s movie, “For Love of the
Game” and I did Oliver Stone’s “Any
Given Sunday.” I worked with
Cameron Diaz there [laughs]... that
was a tough role. And I spent time
with Al Pacino. I just try to help bene
fit the reality aspect of the movies.
04 After so many years, are you
♦ still as excited each morning
as you were way back when?
A^Oh yeah, I’m still excited.
♦ We’ve expanded into other
fields now. A lot of what we do is
content supply. It’s not just the
games. It’s television, Internet, radio
and video games. So that means
how many ideas can we think of
that could be good sports content?
And that’s fun and exciting. That’s
where a lot of our business is going.
Q^We have a prominent sports
♦ marketing program here at
Oregon, as well as a good law school,
and a lot of students obviously want
to know if it’s still possible to crack
the sports agency business?
A^Yes, it is possible be a sports
♦ agent. My advice would be to
go to business school or law school
and garner basic skills. Athletes
want specific skills in their life.
They can be legal skills, negotiating
skills, business management skills
or marketing skills. The second
thing that’s important is to really
have a caring for athletes. Remem
ber that the services of an athlete
usually occur when the rest of this
world is at rest: in the evenings and
on the weekends, so it requires a
real strong commitment.
And I would also encourage peo
ple to think about not simply the
area of representation. There’s all
these different avenues that one can
go into. They can be the marketer or
the person who does the endorse
ments. They can be the financial
plan advisor, or someone that strict
ly represents legal services.
Q^Well, I know you’re a busy
♦ man, so I’ll let you go. Best of
luck to you.
A ^ OK, take it easy.
DUCK HEAD.
*'
% .
Stop by our table in the Erb Union
on Wednesday, November 29th.