Scott Schulte

From Sports Fan To Sports Agent!

ATOP A 10-STORY GLASS COMPLEX IN NEWPORT BEACH SITS THE OFFICE OF THE world's most recognizable sports agent. Upon entering Leigh Steinberg's corner office at Steinberg Enterprises overlooking Newport Bay and the Pacific Ocean, the feeling of deja vu is inescapable.This was, after all, the backdrop of a memorable scene from Cameron Crowe's award-winning movie, Jerry Maguire.

Actual Alticle: From Sports Fan To Sports Agent!

"They used a copy of my office for the scene where Tom Cruise is on the phone trying to keep his clients after he's been let go by the big sports agency," Steinberg explains. "It was a pretty interesting experience."

Most people in sports and film know that Jerry Maguire was based loosely on Steinberg. Crowe chose to shadow Steinberg for three years to learn the ins and outs of his business while creating the story of the sports agent with integrity. Jerry Maguire brought the best of both worlds together for Steinberg and proved a prophesy of sorts.

"The merging of sports and entertainment has been going on for a long time," Steinberg says. "This integration will someday include television, websites, video, everything. They're all eventually going to be one." The evolution of sports is hard to miss, but Leigh Steinberg is undaunted; he remains at the forefront of the industry.

"Being a sports agent is a lot of fun," Steinberg says. "I think most guys at a young age want to be professional athletes or the guy in the movie car chase scene.When they realize those things are not in the cards, the next best thing is being an agent."

A groundbreaker in sports, Steinberg actually grew up surrounded by entertainment's biggest names. His grandfather operated the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles, thus developing friendships with Hollywood movie stars. Young Leigh literally grew up on the laps of legends including George Burns, Groucho Marx and Jack Benny.

"The first professional baseball game I ever went to was with my grandfather and George Burns," he says.

Steinberg's family loved sports so much that his father took him out of school so he could attend the first game the Dodgers played in Los Angeles. That game against the Giants remains Steinberg family lore-the elder Steinberg had excused Leigh from school by claiming an "urgent family necessity."

"I think it's great when I see parents and their kids at a ballgame," Steinberg says."I see that and I know they are building memories that will last forever."

Watching such family scenes also brings a note of concern to Steinberg's voice. "I hope ticket prices and concessions don't get too out of control that the average family isn't able to attend professional sporting events," he says."If it were to get to the point where parents couldn't take their kids to ballgames, teams would eventually lose their fan base. That would be a tragedy to everyone involved."

Steinberg should know. Even in today's ever-changing, growing world of sports, his name still carries some of the industry's biggest personalities. He has represented eight number-one National Football League draft picks (including Troy Aikman and Steve Young)-more than any other agent in history. His most recent catch, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, captured the 2004-05 NFL Rookie of the Year Award and led the Steelers to within one game of the Super Bowl.

"Ben is a great quarterback for many reasons," Steinberg says. "He's a big, strong young man and he can run, but the best thing about Ben is his ability to use his intelligence and the way he can remain focused on the job at hand. Ben is someone young fans can relate to and that's good for the game."

Grabbing Roethlisberger shows the innate ability that Steinberg and those at Steinberg,Tollner & Moon possess for evaluating talent. The most anticipated football player coming out in the '04 draft was Eli Manning, brother of All-Pro signal caller Peyton and son of Archie. While agents clamored for Manning, Steinberg and company landed the lesser-known but stronger player in Roethlisberger.

"When you evaluate the talent of someone coming into the NFL from college, there are lots of things to look for, as we mentioned earlier," Steinberg says. "Ben had them all in college and he has proven he has them on the professional level as well."

Steinberg's rise into sports agency prominence began up the California coast at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was student body president. After graduating with a law degree in 1975, Steinberg didn't have to look far for his first client. Steve Bartkowski, Cal's Golden Bears'all- American quarterback was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons, and Steinberg stepped in and helped negotiate a significant contract for the young man who was once Steinberg's dormitory resident advisor. From that happy marriage, two legends were born-one on the football field in Bartkowski, and another behind the scenes in Steinberg.

The secret to Steinberg's longevity in his competitive field is no secret at all, according to Steinberg client and Hall of Famer, Steve Young.

"The thing people don't understand about Leigh is that when he negotiates he always works for his clients, but both sides come away feeling as if they got a great deal,"Young says. "In all my dealings with Leigh, I can honestly say he did what was best for me and the teams I played for.He always wants everyone to come away feeling positive about the final numbers."

Steinberg took his experiences negotiating in the fast-paced world of high stakes sports and turned them into a bestseller with Winning With Integrity in 1999.The book examines how Steinberg and others in the industry can work together from opposite sides of the negotiation table and come away satisfied. "Business dealings shouldn't be about sticking it to people to get what you want," Steinberg says. "It should be about working together to find a balance for success."

He believes that most people, if they look hard enough, will discover they share much in common with the people they face across the table. One of Steinberg's favorite sayings is, "Never underestimate the capacity of another human being to have exactly the same shortcomings you have."

His ability to understand and work with two polarized sides is one reason that the recent situation involving Ricky Williams and the Miami Dolphins still has the potential to turn out successfully. Williams chose to leave the Dolphins just prior to the start of the 2004-05 season for personal reasons, shocking the team and the sports world. As the clock ticks and the 2005-06 campaign approaches, the end of this drama remains unclear.

As sports and entertainment gradually meld together, Steinberg keeps things in perspective.He remains committed to accepting and enjoying the changes that are taking place.

"Sports have always been entertainment. Just like people who go to the movies to lose themselves for a couple of hours in a story on the big screen, people who go to sporting events do the same thing," he says. "Sports are a way for people to leave the real world at the door and enjoy the event playing itself out on the field or in the arena. The two are one in the same."

Jerry Maguire isn't the only movie that Steinberg has been involved in. He worked with Kevin Costner on For the Love of the Game and assisted Cameron Diaz and Al Pacino with character development on Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. And when the sports agentthemed series Arliss launched, HBO came calling for Steinberg's services.

But as far as his involvement with Hollywood, Steinberg will always be remembered for Jerry Maguire."To this day I walk through airports and someone will yell, 'Hey Steinberg, show me the money!'"

Demonstrating his knowledge of film, Steinberg recalls a conversation he had early in the development of Jerry Maguire.

According to Steinberg, as he looked at Crowe's project with Cruise in the leading role, he recognized Cuba Gooding Jr.'s tremendous potential in the movie. "You can't go wrong with Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger, but I knew Cuba was the perfect person to play the part of this cocky football player, Rod Tidwell," he recounts."I told Cuba if he worked hard to truly understand and become this athlete they wanted him to portray, he could win an Oscar."

Steinberg's intuition about talent onscreen may be as sharp as his instincts about talent on the field. It is, as he says, all entertainment. - Scott Schulte