Super Agent Leigh Steinberg

May 26, 2012|By Leigh Steinberg via The Daily Pilot

Last year I had the pleasure of speaking on the field at the awards presentation for the Daily Pilot Cup. It was heartwarming to experience our community coming together to support third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders as they competed.

Daily Pilot Editor John Canalis, Sports Editor Steve Virgen and all of the giving volunteers are to be complimented for the way in which they have created this bonding event. And, major kudos to Kirk McIntosh, who takes time away from his busy law practice to serve as tournament director.

This year’s 13th annual tournament will start Tuesday and concludes June 3. The games are played in Costa Mesa on the fields at the Jack Hammett Sports Complex, Costa Mesa High and Davis Elementary School.

My children Jon, Matt and Katie spent a collective 22 years playing soccer in Newport Beach AYSO. That meant that I had years of Saturday mornings on the sidelines.

Soccer is the first organized sport that most children ever play. It is the first time they have a chance to be measured against their peers. It can be a time of extraordinary empowerment or a traumatizing crushing of their self esteem.

Coaching plays a major factor in creating the perceptual prism that kids view the experience with, and so does parenting.

Because I am concerned that how to parent children in youth sports is a rarely discussed or taught skill I co-wrote a book with Dave Smith on the subject that will be published later this year. No one instructs parents as to whether they should encourage their kids to be young Vince Lombardis and win at all costs, or if enjoying the experience is the key.

There is no “parenting license” that is required. If your son or daughter is not getting major play time, the team is losing, they are playing an undesirable position, or the coach is not nurturing – should you counsel your kids to assert themselves with the coach to improve their situation? Or, should they accept the situation and build character?

Parents can confuse their own desires to have their children be a star with the child’s actual needs.

Type A parents may try to live through their kids and be unduly prideful with success and embarrassed with anything less.

I wrote earlier this year about a time when my daughter Katie was crying on the field after her team lost in the playoffs. I ran out on the field to console her. She looked at me and said, “I’m not crying because we lost Dad, I’m crying because this means I won’t get to see all my friends on the team as much.”

We need to be careful as parents to allow our kids to chart their own paths and not impose our own reactions on theirs. Time spent watching games on the sidelines is important to our children, but not as important as one-on-one time spent with them.

Children tend to be more focused on how their parents act than on what their parents say. Kids are easily embarrassed by over-the-top parental behavior. Even worse is the parents who berate the referees or coaches. The people who coach and officiate are also busy parents who care enough to volunteer their unpaid time and energy to providing a productive learning environment for the young players. It’s about the kids, not the parents.

Some of the sideline behavior has been so distracting and negative that the Pilot Cup has actually enforced a new rule which allows the referee to penalize a team for their fans’ behavior.

Soccer can teach invaluable life skills to young participants. They can learn self-discipline, teamwork, performance under pressure, resilience and never quitting. It shouldn’t be about the winning at that young age.

Please come out and support the community spirit, good parenting and youthful exuberance that the Pilot Cup experience offers.

LEIGH STEINBERG is a renowned sports agent, author, advocate, speaker and humanitarian. His column appears weekly. Follow Leigh on Twitter @steinbergsports or blog.steinbergsports.com.

USC’s Matt Barkley of Newport Beach is returning for his senior season. (ally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

By Leigh Steinberg - Click here for the article

“High school players are role models. It is incumbent upon them to behave in a decent fashion on and off the field. They have more responsibility than the average student and waiving the penalty does them no favors.”

– SPORTS AGENT LEIGH STEINBERG

Evan Weiner is an author, speaker and television-radio commentator on “The Politics and Business of Sports.”

NINE Wayne Hills High School football players were charged early last month with assaulting two students from Wayne Valley High School. The Wayne Board of Education suspended them from football activities, which included playing in the championship game at the Meadowlands.

Some of the parents of those suspended players turned to the media to decry what they called the unfairness of it all. The accused were denied a chance of a lifetime to play in a championship game, even though they had the assault charges hanging over them.

The parents said that it was too much punishment and that the players were presumed guilty before they were tried. They also expressed fears that college football programs might turn their backs on the players because of the suspensions.

Of course, anyone who has been around big-time college sports programs knows that some athletes come with criminal records into programs and that the NFL is filled with players who have been through the legal system.

The nine didn’t play, but it was the right call.

Role models

The powerful sports agent Leigh Steinberg, whose clients included Troy Aikman and Steve Young, was in agreement with the players sitting out.

“High school players are role models,” said Steinberg. “It is incumbent upon them to behave in a decent fashion on and off the field. They have more responsibility than the average student and waiving the penalty does them no favors.”

Steinberg said it is a privilege, not a right, to play high school, college or pro sports. Students learn teamwork, self-respect and self-discipline from sports and pass that onto society.

Initially, the school board seemed determined to let the accused Wayne Hills players participate in the championship contest, until school district residents said, “Wait a second.” The players did compete in two playoff games, but the school board on Nov. 17 suspended the nine.

The Duke precedent

The players’ lawyers could have used the Duke lacrosse case in the court of public opinion to help get them reinstated. On March 13, 2006, three players from the Duke University lacrosse team were accused of raping a stripper at a party. The fallout included the resignation of the university’s lacrosse coach and the cancellation of the season.

But the case was dropped 13 months later following a faulty investigation by the Durham, N.C., prosecutor. Careers and reputations were ruined under false pretenses.

The championship game is over, and now the judicial system will deal with the Wayne Hills players.

Wayne Hills seems to be just another stop on the tracks of ignoring alleged criminal behavior in sports.

On Dec. 7, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested again on various charges alleging improper sexual conduct with two underage boys. Sandusky already was facing 40 counts of sexual misconduct involving eight underage boys.

Steinberg thinks the whole sports idolatry system played a role in overlooking Sandusky’s alleged actions.

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By Leigh Steinberg via National Football Post

“There is a time when to be silent is to lie, now is such a time.”

Seeing the television images of Penn State students destroying their campus in protest of the firing of head coach Joe Paterno was a deeply disturbing experience.

The fact that their campus facilities were used by a former coach—who had an office on campus and hung around the football program—to rape helpless young boys was not an important concern to them.

The fact that their administration covered up the facts in a way that allowed this predator to destroy the lives of more “at risk” children was also irrelevant.

The fact that their venerated football coach—the most powerful figure on campus and in the community—made one cursory phone call and then protected his friend, was not an issue. The students cared only about the fact that their vaunted football program was being attacked.

Joe Paterno became a God-like figure in the student’s minds. For 61 years he ran a program that prided itself on ethics and character building. He has won more games than any college coach and brought his team two national championships. There were very few embarrassing off-the-field incidents.

The NCAA did not find violations in the way Penn State operated. Paterno was held up as a symbol for all that was right about collegiate sports. He was the most dominating figure on the campus and a draw for student applications. He raised millions for the football program and the campus and he gave money back to the university.

Penn State produced legions of NFL players who were generally role models. I represented running back Ki-Jana Carter and quarterback Kerry Collins from the 1995 Rose Bowl team. Kerry donated $250,000 to the university to establish a perpetual scholarship fund. I met dozens of quality individuals and business leaders who were Penn State alums.

College football has the ability to teach many powerful values. It encourages a sense of self-respect, self-discipline, courage and performance under adverse circumstances. It is an invaluable link between alums, who use their love of football to stay involved with each other and the community. The giving it generates becomes a great source of funding for the university in general and less popular sports programs. It can be a unifying force for students.

But when the program and the coach are exalted to divine status and victory becomes the most critical factor in its’ supporters lives, it can distort the concept of what is critically important in life. It creates a climate where no critical scrutiny is permitted and challenging the program constitutes a disloyal act.

Penn State and the ardent defenders of the actions of Joe Paterno and his close friend lost any sense of perspective.

Mastering physics, history and business may be important pursuits on a college campus, but fundamental values have to come first. Many Nazis had exemplary educational backgrounds and then engaged in the Holocaust. Empathy, a sense of fairness and honesty are vastly more important. Feeling the pain and torment of a young child—abandoned by a powerful and uncaring system—is what we hope college helps nurture.

The critical judgment necessary to see the complexity of human behavior—how someone who does valorous deeds can also be guilty of a major ethical failing—should be the mission of a university. Creating citizens who will act rather than turn away in the face of injustice is an important role for an institution with integrity. Miguel Unamono once wrote, “There is a time when to be silent is to lie, now is such a time.”

When an institution displays students before a national audience who show slavish and unthinking adherence to the proposition that the football team and its leader are more important than anything—something needs changing.

I have greatly admired Joe Paterno and his accomplishments for years. It is with no joy that I write these words. A coach is a shaper of young men, an exemplar of values. He impacts those young men for the rest of their lives.

At the end he should have taken a stand for decency and accountability over power and athletic success.

Follow Leigh on Twitter: @SteinbergSports

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By Jean Rickerson of www.sportsconcussions.org

Nicholas Harris, 17, was allegedly sent back into a junior varsity football game last year in Medford, Oregon, after telling his coaches he had sustained a concussion.  That could cost the Medford School District $585,000, according to a lawsuit filed by his mother on Oct. 17.

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Megan Alt says her son’s cognitive disabilities are the result of him being forced to play while concussed, by Highlands School District football coaches.  Her lawsuit, filed in federal court in April 2011, cannot specify a dollar amount but is in excess of $75,000, says her attorney.

Concussion-related lawsuits, particularly at the high school level, get a bad rap.  In an unrelated case involving a high school player who required brain surgery, I watched the media coverage, talked to community members, and perused the comments in their local newspaper after this student’s lawsuit was announced.  Overall, the public’s view was quite negative, many believing that the boy’s family should be held solely responsible because they had allowed their son to play football, an inherently dangerous sport. Most felt that the school district and coaches were not to blame.

Right now, with the adoption of new concussion laws pertaining primarily to youth athletes, no one really knows what the legal ramifications will be.  But what I do know is that the impairment can be very real.  I know too many teenagers who have participated in a variety of sports –not just football – who have dropped out or postponed college, dropped out of high school, or are just looking for some relief after years of suffering from post-concussion syndrome.  They need help, and in some cases, compensation. 

In Harris’ case, the lawsuit states that he was struck in the first quarter of the game and then again in the second.  He told his coaches after the second hit that he thought he had a concussion, but was allegedly told to keep playing and was returned to the game.  Shortly afterward, he was struck for a third time, suffered a seizure, and lost consciousness.  Taken by ambulance to the hospital, Harris was placed in a medically induced coma and admitted to the intensive care unit.  According to the lawsuit, he suffered brain damage, along with post-concussive seizures and other symptoms.

Zachary Alt, now 19, is unable to work a full day due to numerous concussions he suffered as a varsity fullback in 2007 when he was a 15-year-old sophomore, according to the complaint. That season he suffered at least three concussions within the span of a few weeks, the last one when he was put back in the game after wandering “aimlessly” on the field from a previous hit.  He has no recollection of his last block.  Taken to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a significant concussion.  Even though he missed much of the following semester and struggled with his schoolwork he was given straight-A’s and graduated on time. The case is being heard in federal court on grounds that Alt was denied the right to an education. Alt’s suit names the school principal, assistant principal, football coach, and athletic trainer as defendants.

My own son’s non-catastrophic injury cost nearly $25,000, and we did nothing over and above the accepted standard of care.  Several ambulance transports, three ER visits including an evaluation at a regional trauma center, imaging, and post-concussion care lasting several months, all added up.

For those athletes that require overnight hospitalization or surgery, the financial burden on the families is tremendous.  Shoring up medical coverage on insurance policies or spending a few extra dollars on secondary coverage is a wise move.  As our trauma care bills started rolling in, I was glad we were “over-prepared,” realizing now, there is no such thing, particularly if you have a child involved in contact sports.

By Leigh Steinberg via Daily Pilot

October 22, 2011 | 11:15 p.m.

The ugly business of peer bullying has been accepted for far too long.

Recent history is replete with examples of harassment of a student who is “different” by classmates leading to suicide or serious injury. The psychological scars which students receive when called constant derogatory names or physically assaulted can last a lifetime. And for what? To allow certain students to be caught up in “Lord of the Flies” type shunning which allows students to take out aggressions and frustrations against a defenseless target?

At worst it leads to the type of twisted “loners” who mass murder at Columbine.

In the wake of an ugly, unaddressed incident at Corona del Mar High, my then-wife and a group of angry parents intervened. They addressed the issue head on instead of hiding it under the rug of ignorance. Creative approaches to promoting tolerance were tried. Challenge Day, which showed students what it felt like to be singled out and isolated, was especially successful. Different groups like the Anti-Defamation League were invited in to help restore a better human relations environment.

Frankly, whether my daughter gets admitted to Harvard or masters calculus is of far less concern than that she develops character. This country has an abundance of skilled, clever businessmen and political figures who are almost sociopathic in their lack of concern for others.

If we allow the cruelest students to control a school, what lessons are we teaching our kids?

My daughter Katie had a boy’s name written in pen on her arm when we had dinner last week. I asked her why. She responded, “Dad, there’s a nice kid in one of my classes who is very smart, but a little nerdy, and has virtually no friends. He keeps talking about his birthday, and I want to remember to do something nice for him.”

Sixteen years old and she has learned empathy.

High school tends to be the time when young people are consumed by their friends and have a level of self-consciousness about peer acceptance. The wrong clothing, hairstyle, expression or behavior causes self-consciousness and embarrassment. The establishing of identity within a group or clique often is unfortunately coupled with a desire to judge or bully those who are different.

Unrealistic beauty and body-type standards and razzing that follow destroys self-esteem. Schools tend to be stratified with different student groups ranked in terms of status and prestige.

Whatever terms are used, athletes tend to be at the top of the social scale, along with a privileged “in” crowd.

“Goths, stoners and nerds” tend to be less desirable. I can’t profess to be totally in touch with modern youth culture, but some things never change.

This is why athletes can play a vital role in setting the trends for tolerance and acceptance on a campus. They are physically strong, respected for their achievements, and no one questions their manhood.

I used many athletes over the years to promote this attitude. Former heavyweight boxing champ Lennox Lewis cut a public service announcement that said, “Real Men Don’t Hit Women.”

Former 49ers quarterback Steve Young and former boxing champ Oscar De La Hoya had a poster, PSA campaign that stressed “Prejudice is Foul Play.”

Athletes can permeate the perceptual screen that students use to tune out authority figures — teachers, police, commercials and politicians — to impact values, especially among our young. If an athlete does something, it must be “cool” and “popular.”

Athletes can be opinion leaders on campus and create a climate that protects students who can’t protect themselves. Tolerance training is an essential part of building character.

My friend, Ken Kragen, who was the force behind “We Are The World” and “Live Aid” asked me to help him in a similar campaign he is designing. I have enthusiastically accepted.

As my Dad used to tell me, “Don’t wait for the amorphous ‘they’ to solve problems because it will never happen. The THEY is YOU, son.”

As parents and students we can create the most healthy, esteem-building academic setting for those we love.

LEIGH STEINBERG is a renowned sports agent, author, advocate, speaker and humanitarian. His column appears weekly. Follow Leigh on Twitter @steinbergsports or blog.steinbergsports.com.

By Jean Rickerson of SportsConcussions.org

One incoherent young man being dragged through a field by medical personnel supporting one side, friend on the other.  Not far away, another lies on a stretcher, head immobilized by a cervical collar.  A third sits nearby, too beaten to continue, looked over by a young man with an arm sling.  Four ambulances with lights flashing create a red/blue blur against which all available medical personnel prepare the wounded for transport.

Afghanistan,…. Or Iraq, perhaps?  No.  Small town America’s version of fun, Friday night high school football.

Is this an anomaly?  Other teams seem to have it all together.  Injured players are whisked off the field by athletic trainers who give them a thorough examination and start treatment immediately or call 911.  But most of America doesn’t have it so nice.

Note:  The volunteer medical staff at this game consider this school district to have a “broken system” of care for their athletes.  There are no known safety systems or procedures in place, they are not provided with players’ medical histories, and the athletes do not have recent concussion baseline test results.  In spite of this, they continue to offer their services to the athletes as often as possible.

High hopes

With a good volunteer medical team in place and trained coaches as per our state law, I sat back to relax and watch my good friends’ boys play, something I have done for the past many years.  My son was the starting QB on this team his entire high school career, but has now moved on to college baseball.

Five minutes into the game, I see a hard hit that causes one of our players’ head to snap back and to the side.  I know those rotational forces can be particularly worrisome, so my antennae go up. Sideline personnel ask him a few questions after the play, he says “I’m fine,” as they all do, and he continues back to the line for the next play.  Thankfully, one of them has a change of heart, runs out onto the field and takes the athlete out of play.  I breathe a sigh of relief as he is evaluated on the sideline.

The athlete “passes” all of the sideline concussion tests and is sent back into the game.  Maybe they were right after all, and he is fine.  I worry.  I know what I saw.  I lose track of him before the half.

Locker room

At halftime, some notice the athlete can’t remember his locker combination and is fumbling for answers to simple questions.  A medic takes his jersey and tells him he’s out.  He walks back to the field to take his place on the bench to watch his team finish the second half, and is checked on frequently.  He’s in good hands so I do not worry.

Things don’t go as planned.  I see the player now hunched over, sinking lower and lower on the bench, covered by blankets.  It is now about an hour since his hard hit.  I’ve been here before, when my son sat on that same bench for 45 minutes in 2008, losing his eyesight, and his hearing, lacking the cognitive ability to cry out for help.  But this young player was being attended to.  I must have faith.

Another 45 minutes passes and I see a staff member and a teammate drag this athlete across the field, heading for the parking lot.  My hopes dim when I don’t see an emergency vehicle, but his mother’s waiting car.  My heart skips a beat.

My first close-up look at the athlete sent me into a state of shock.  He was incoherent, barely able to stand, and could not pick his head up or look up at all.  They placed him in the car and strapped his seatbelt around him.  His head hung down and stayed there.

He needed to get to the hospital, and fast.  He had deteriorated rapidly over the two hour period, and now his mother was considering taking him home.  I needed to stop her from leaving.  I’m not the hood-sitting type, but it crossed my mind.

My EMT friend ran over to the emergency crews for help.  I was running out of time.  I stalled his mom as best I could, and the crew arrived.  They headed for the ER. Now at least they’ll know if he has a hematoma or a skull fracture.

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Leigh Steinberg was the inspiration for Tom Cruise’s character in the movie “Jerry Maguire.”  He negotiated over $2 billion in contracts for Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Drew Bledsoe, Warren Moon, and more…SportsConcussions.org welcomes super agent and sports attorney Leigh Steinberg to our Advisory Board.

Leigh William Steinberg (b. March 27, 1949 in Los Angeles, California) is the pre-eminent sports agent and sports attorney in the nation. During the four decades that Leigh has dedicated to his craft, he has come to call some of the most elite athletes of this generation his clients as well as his friends. His esteemed client list has included hundreds of premier professional athletes in football, baseball, basketball, golf, boxing, volleyball, and Olympic sports.  Leigh’s client roster has included the likes of Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas, Kordell Stewart, Jeff George, Ben Roethlisberger, Myron Rolle, Matt Leinart, Mark Brunell, Ricky Williams, Howie Long, Eric Karros, Dusty Baker, Lennox Lewis, Oscar de la Hoya and John Starks.

Steinberg Sports and Entertainment is now working to become the premier full service boutique agency spanning the vast market of athlete representation in addition to working to promote several platforms such as sustainability, league and team development, concussion research, youth sports and family development, and philanthropy.

Steinberg Sports & Entertainment, maintains a client roster that is highlighted by some of the most high profile names in sports. Leigh has represented the Number 1 pick in the NFL draft a record eight times, in addition to representing over 60 other first round draft picks just in the NFL, feats unheard of in today’s marketplace.

An accomplished speaker, Steinberg has traveled the world addressing topics he is passionate about ranging from sports and entertainment, concussion prevention, the environment, to political and economic issues. Steinberg has championed the cause of player safety, advocating the removal of Astroturf from stadiums and held symposia on concussions, which promote rule, equipment and diagnostic changes to better protect players.  Leigh has been an agent for change in the arena of concussions, which for so long was filled with ignorance and attitude.  After working in the industry for so long, he has seen the long term effects that professional sports takes on the human body. Often, Leigh can be heard drawing the bleak comparison between a retired athlete bending over to pick up a grandchild who feels aches and pains, and a retired athlete who does not recognize that grandchild because of effects from a career filled with concussions.  “My clients, from the day they played Pop Warner football, are taught to believe ignoring pain, playing with pain and being part of the playing unit was the most important value,” Steinberg said, “I was terrified at the understanding of how tender and narrow that bond was between cognition and consciousness and dementia and confusion.”  Leigh’s experiences have driven him to champion this cause, becoming a keynote speaker at several conferences, including the “New Developments in Sports-Related Concussions” conference hosted by the worldwide leader in traumatic brain injury research, the University of Pittsburgh Medical College Sport Medicine Department.  Leigh was one of the first to shed light on this dirty little secret that face athletes, calling it a “ticking time bomb” and a “health epidemic” while others in leadership roles were apt to sit back and maintain the status quo regarding athletes’ health.

Always one to practice what he preaches, Steinberg contributes his time and efforts to a variety of humanitarian causes. He has actively been involved with the Human Relations Commission, Children Now, Children’s Miracle Network, CORO Fellows Program and the Starlight Foundation. He founded and underwrites the Steinberg Leadership Institute, a nationwide program run by the Anti-Defamation League preparing students to fight racism and inequality throughout the world. Leigh created the Steinberg Leadership Program with the Human Relations Commission of Orange County to give leadership and tolerance training to high school and middle school leaders in a series of one week camps.

Leigh Steinberg is widely recognized as the country’s leading sports agent and one of the most noteworthy sports attorneys in the nation.  Steinberg has pioneered the convergence of the sports and entertainment industries, and is credited as the real life inspiration of the sports agent from the film “Jerry Maguire.” Steinberg was admitted to the California State Bar in 1974 after earning his Juris Doctor from Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley’s law school, in 1973. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science also from UC Berkeley in 1970. Steinberg’s firm, Steinberg Sports & Entertainment, maintains offices in Newport Beach, California.  He resides in Southern California and has three children.

Questions/comments contact Jean Rickerson at jean@SportsConcussions.org