Super Agent Drew Rosenhaus on Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan and more. The future of NIL.

Intro NFL super agent Drew rosenhouse joins me on the festar flex he's going to talk about his initial impression of nil how he had to shift his business and what would he do if LeBron James called him for advice on coming to the NFL all that and more on the fivar Flix Drew how you doing man doing great great to be with you tonight man thank you so much all right so we know that we're in a a brand new era a brand new world with name image and likeness in college football what was your reaction the first time that you heard that nil was a reality I was very excited about it this is my 37th year as an NFL agent and really my entire career going back to 1988 I've been uh hoping to see uh College athletes and college football players in particular especially at the moneymaking programs um be able to earn on it you know make money and and do deals endorsements and marketing I thought it was uh absolutely ridiculous that you know the colleges and the NCAA made you know billions of dollars off of uh you know the college football players and you know they would get in trouble if they uh got a meal you know I mean it's it's great so I'm ecstatic about it how did as a as an n agent and we How did you shift your business model heard like all of the stories agent can't do this agent can't do that how did you have to shift your current business model from the old business model in order to be compliant well it is very different you know um prior to n we would recruit Juniors and seniors uh exclusively and when we recruited them it was really just in preparation of the NFL draft now we can recruit uh freshman sophomores um even High School uh prospects for nil in certain States so uh it's entirely changed where now we can go to work for them uh to help them earn money to deal with the collectives to be active in guiding them with transfer portals and um helping guys pick colleges and maximize what they can get uh help them get involved in the community and involved with charitable Endeavors so uh we're really doing a lot of work for our clients uh when they hire us compared to the old system where we didn't go to work until their college eligibility expired so it's extremely different what what what we've done at rosenow sports is we've added an nil division so we've added new members to our team on the agent side and on the marketing side because we have the same commitment to our Uh current clients are veteran NFL clients but we brought in extra Personnel to help us manage our new clients on the nil front we certainly didn't want uh nil to take away from what we're doing for our our current clients in the Whats the relationship like between agents and NFL GMS NFL so when we look at T TV and movies there's this narrative that there's a contentious relationship between agents and NFL GMS when it comes to business is what what's the relationship like between nil agents and collectives and is it similar to what people think it may be well um you know to kind of touch on your first uh Point um I think to be a successful NFL agent you have to work well with the NFL general managers and the team Executives if you want to have longevity um you you must have the ability to work with with all of the the teams and the executives and be able to get deals done and representing your clients not just in negotiations but trades and have conversations about injuries and playing time and the relationships with coaches so relationships matter matter immensely um in the NFL um and it's no different with nil we we've got to uh get along well with the collectives the uh NCAA Personnel that are involved whether it's administrative or coaching I personally am not as involved in the ni dayto day as I am with the NFL um you know my expertise is less on the marketing side and more on the onfield management uh Visa negotiations and um as I mentioned the management of our of our professional clients but from my perspective and everything I've been exposed to our philosophy is to have a great relationship with the college administrations the coaches and the collectives and a win-win type of Whats your opinion on the NIL ruling relationship what's your opinion on the lat this ruling that college athletes can become employees of their colleges well I I think that would be great and and then that would allow uh College athletes to unionize it would allow for a more structured approach to nil what we have right now is a uh a very fragmented system there's not a lot of uh rules and and and regulation there's not a lot of uh uh I think structure um I I believe in nil and I think it's great for everyone involved but I do think that there needs to be structure that all colleges um in major conferences should operate with a uh a salary cap like we have in professional sports and uh I think structure would be great to give everybody a fair shot of being competitive and we're not just uh seeing the collectives with the Deep Pockets dominate recruiting it it would be outstanding to see more of a Level Playing Field and everybody operate uh within the same rules and How much does NIL affect the product on the field structure from last year's playoffs you saw a Michigan who's not really seen as this nil giant come out on top they beat Alabama you had Georgia there you have multiple teams there how much do you think nil has how much impact do you think nil has on the product that colleges are putting on the field well right now I think it's huge um you know if you're not successful with nil uh you're not going to field a winning football team if you cannot recruit with nil with the collective signing top players out of high school with with your transfer portal I think it's virtually impossible to compete um I think every successful program is Allin on nil and is working uh extremely hard with all their resources to provide players on their team with the best deals um to assist them in getting marketing and endorsements to the best of their abilities and working very closely to promote their athletes and help them build their brand uh their name image and Who would have garnered the most money in NIL likeness Drew from Antonio Brown to to to Michael lvin to now Tyreek Hill you've had some of the biggest personalities ever in the NFL of all of your client including those I just said who do you think would have garnered the most money in nil it's a good question uh I I uh I'd have to say Rob groni um you know Rob Rob is such a colorful is such a colorful personality um but you know Rob wasn't really at a a major program at Arizona you know Arizona wasn't competing for championships and um you know I think that's important uh you know really to to truly capitalize on nil you're you're dealing with programs like Georgia and Alabama Texas Ohio State um these These are the programs right now that I think uh are are showing the most potential uh economically for players so you know the the Personalities in the NFL don't always equivocate to college many of the as you mentioned played at smaller schools like Central Michigan and Tennessee Chattanooga so just because they were you know uh electric Personalities in the NFL they would have been hidden in college playing at smaller programs so it's a thoughtful question and you know more than likely it would have been my clients from the biggest programs um because that's just the reality of the business Whats been the craziest benefit of NIL as one of the first Super agents I know you you pretty much know everybody and you hear a lot now all the chatter isn't true and I want to preface this question by saying that what's been the craziest benefit that you've heard a college player getting in the nil era I really haven't heard anything crazy um and uh you know to me it's it's been pretty vanilla at least in terms of of it's really about money you know uh from my standpoint you hear huge numbers and millions of dollars but I haven't really heard of any you know crazy uh off you know off the normal path stuff I think you know for the most part all the deals that I've been involved with have been on the narrow um and are relative to paying guys money you know guaranteed money structuring in that capacity for top 10 player nil ballpark what do you think the yearly average should be well I think it also depends on the position right and so it's going to depend on uh the program as well so program position quarterbacks always make the most um look in the NFL quarterbacks are the highest paid position and you've got wide receiver up there right now and you've got pass rusher and offensive tackles and I think that's probably going to be emulated in nil relative to um the highest paid guys and it's just different you know in the NFL the right highest paid players are the ones that produce on the you know throughout their career um or at least for the first three or four years of their career in nil a lot of it's based on um guys coming right out of of uh high school so it's a very different system you know as far as the amounts that'll just depend on the school and the position makes sense so we always Financial responsibility hear about the horror stories of NFL guys who don't take care of their money talk to me about a client that really took care of their money and was really fiscally responsible that you've had well we've had a lot of clients uh that we we take a lot of pride in working with our clients we're not financial planners uh NFL PA contract advisers are not allowed to also be financial planners um so we don't give Financial advice or manage money but what we do early uh whenever we sign a client in N uh an NFL client we work with them on life after football we emphasize uh the importance of Education we emphasize the importance of preparing for Life uh outside of Football Life After football a second career away from football we encourage our clients to work with the most reputable um and and most conservative financial planners um to put their money away to uh to stay away from a risky investors ments and not get caught up and and and and of course doing too much too soon so uh we've had a vast majority um recently we've had a lot of success in helping so many of our clients do good things with their money with life after football continuing their career preparing for when football's over it's really got to start when guys break into the business football is so dominant to so many of our clients that we want to get them thinking about what's next what will you do in conjunction with football you're more than a player you're more than an athlete uh build your brand build your your profession a second career away from the football field whether it's coaching whether it's uh being an executive uh whether it's uh in business whether becoming a doctor a lawyer um we encourage our clients to um go for it with the same Zeal outside of football that they attack their NFL career because most guys are going to be done by the time they're 30 if they're lucky they've got the rest of their life to do things away from uh on the field activities and actually playing so we invest a lot of our time and resources at Rosen Now Sports to help our clients tackle that what good is it do to be a first round pick to get a huge contract to play for tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars and then you just don't have much to show for it when football's over or you're not happy or you're not well adjusted or your family falls apart because you're not thinking about life after football so we have u a tremendous focus and our firm to work with guys in that capacity NIL impact speaking of sound financial decision how much have you seen nil impact potential NFL draes who may not have to rush a decision because they're already making money it's very prevalent right now there are a lot of guys that return to school that we were talking to on an nil basis many guys decided to stay they were making hundreds of thousands of dollars they felt like they needed more time to develop on and off the field uh felt like another uh year of Education uh more growth personally uh professionally would benefit them before tackling the NFL draft one of the great residuals of nil as we're seeing fewer players enter the draft as underclassman and more players fully taking advantage of the college experience developing from a maturity standpoint both in terms of on the field and off the field I think it's tremendous we're seeing fewer players come out early that go late or go undrafted really what we hope is we get into a system where the players who come out early are drafted in the first three rounds um and everyone else does well enough in nil to stay in school and build their uh you know their career and hopefully become a higher draft pick The Following Season or at least set them up to have more success in the NFL the uh NFL is such a tough business it's so demanding it's a huge step up from college football in every capacity that I certainly encourage players to maximize their college experience and make sure they're absolutely ready physically mentally spiritually maturity wise before entering the draft and now players don't have to uh run into the NFL because they need money to help their families uh or they're hurting for money they can take care of that by staying in school and continuing to develop um on a college level and continue to be a student and get their degree those are all really good Miami Hurricanes things all right now we get we did all the serious stuff let's have a little fun Drew I see the Miami Hurricane Helman in the back what hurricane team was the best one ever which was the most talented and are they the same you know what I don't want to anger a lot of my clients because we've represented hurricanes over the last uh you know three decades um and we also have uh Duke behind me so my background is um I went to uh undergrad at the University of Miami and I went to Duke for law school while I was at the University of Miami that was 1984 through 1987 and I went to Duke Law School from 87 and 90 and I can tell you while I was at the University of Miami one of the reasons I was able to break into the asan business is they had so many great players um 84 to 87 they were competing for national championships they rarely lost games they were absolutely dominant at home you couldn't even think about beating them at the orange ball um and and I became very friendly with a lot of guys on that football team many of which impacted my decision while was to Duke Law School to Veer off from um you know becoming a lawyer or an attorney and rather became a sports lawyer as an NFL agent so I did graduate from Duke Law School and but it was the University Miami football players that uh got me into this business and that error from 84 to 87 was unbelievable okay now I didn't go to Willis McGahee Miami and I'm not going to make anybody mad with my opinion I think the Willis mahe team was probably the most talented ever okay listen speaking of Willis he was one of your clients how did you get him drafted after that horrific knee injury in in the championship game well you know it started off with Will is doing a great job with his rehab having a wonderful physician and John ybi who did the operation did a marvelous job he had a great physical therapist named ed garabedian it was really uh a group effort uh my my main contribution was was obviously my ability uh to work the teams and get them comfortable with Willis's uh physical condition and his future wanted everyone to feel good about the prognosis I think it was clear that Willis was not going to play his rookie season and needed to get teams comfortable that he was a uh legitimate first round pick knowing that they weren't going to get any results or impact his first year and the bills they really believed in Willis and they thought he was going to be a great back and he certainly turned out to be one of the best backs of of his era in the years that he played he was Sensational so it was a win-win it worked out great for the bills worked out well for Willis and he went on to do some great things for the bills and then ultimately the Ravens and and then the Broncos as well Jerry Maguire Drew I've heard conflicting stories I heard that Jerry Maguire was based on you and sometimes I hear it was based on somebody else but you were in the movie how much of Jerry Maguire was really based on your life you know what uh Jerry Maguire is a uh original script that uh was written by the director Cameron Crow it was not based on any agent um I was honored to be involved um in in a limited capacity whereby I had the opportunity to spend time with Cameron Crow with the cast of actors many of The Producers to give insight into a young agent I was a very young agent in my 20s at that time uh very close to my clients I think my relationship with some of my clients was uh not as similar to the relationship that jerem Maguire had with Rod Tidwell the fictional agent and and player that were the focal point of the movie I was just able to lend um some real life insight to a young agent um and it really wasn't based on me or my career um but it was really more where I contributed to some of the more realistic components um and it was an honor to get to know Tom Cruz and the great cast and Cameron Crow a legendary director and screenwriter and uh that was a lot of fun but um that's just a myth when people say jerem Maguire was based on me I I I just was able to be a colorful character that that they could blean some nuggets when they were building Jerry Maguire so you mean to tell me in your single days you didn't get to tell people Tom Cruz played you in a movie I think in my earlier days I took a lot of credit for my involvement with Jerry Maguire I probably would have given you a different answer about 20 years ago now that I'm married for 10 years right uh I'm in my 50s and I've got four little kids um I'll give you the much more conservative answer to my role with Jerry Maguire when I was uh single and and well before my wife and kids I think I took credit for just about every part of that movie which wasn't which wasn't fair but the Poster's right up there and um it was a lot of fun uh being involved with that film all right Drew LeBron James before we get out of here I know you're primarily NFL guy I know you watch a little basketball all right listen hypothetical scenario LeBron James calls you tomorrow and says you know what I'm tired of the NBA can you give me advice on what position I should play in the NFL what would you what advice would you give him you know what uh what I would recommend to LeBron is I think he could be an an outstanding move tight end um I wouldn't use him as an inline tight end but I would play him like at Travis Kelce okay where uh you know he would be on the line of scrimmage but would primarily be a receiving tight end um I don't have any doubt whatever LeBron did he'd be one of the greats I I certainly think he would have gone down as an Allstar tight end uh he's so athletic and so tough and and competitive and smart that great football player you could have lined him up as a big physical receiver uh you could have probably played him as an edge rusher or a linebacker maybe even a deluxe strong safety LeBron can do it all he one of the all-time great athletes of Our Generation regardless of sport I would have would love to see him play football and he obviously would have been an an incredible to represent in the NFL Drew I can't thank you enough hey where can everybody find you uh on social media um I am a very simple one on Instagram I'm agent okay and I believe on Twitter it's Drew J rosenhouse Man Drew thanks so much man talk soon big dog yep great job man enjoy your program keep up the great work