| Free agency has been called the ruination of | | | | Management agencies and individual agents are |
| professional sports, though it has done | | | | the power brokers of the sports world. Ever |
| little to curb our nations appetite for all | | | | wonder how an athlete's stats match up to |
| things athletic. If anything, free agency | | | | others in his or her salary range? Just ask |
| has managed to attract more attention to the | | | | an agent. Sports management has become such |
| team sports we love, with individual salaries | | | | a popular field that there are now college |
| and performance being scrutinized almost as | | | | degree programs devoted to it, which says |
| much as team play. | | | | something not only about its popularity |
| | | | within our society but about the financial |
| There was a time when baseball writers would | | | | gain that can be garnered from the field as |
| praise the opposing team instead of lament | | | | well. |
| the performance of individual players. Bill | | | | |
| Buckneresque errors aside aside, if the home | | | | Some agents are as popular as the clients |
| team was behind a run with a man on in the | | | | they represent and through their savvy |
| 9th inning of a baseball game or down by | | | | deal-making abilities, have become household |
| three on the opposing teams 40 yard line in | | | | names in their own right. Sports management |
| the in the fourth quarter of a football game, | | | | agents are like any other talent management |
| the onus wasn't on who failed to drive the | | | | agents or business representatives, yet are |
| man on base in or kick the tying field goal. | | | | separated by the variables that surround |
| | | | their clients. Age, previous performance, |
| Free agency put an end to those days, and now | | | | projected stats, injuries, the status of |
| the media and consequently we, the public, | | | | comparable player's salaries and the market |
| demand to know why high paid players aren't | | | | for their player's position are the tools of |
| capable of producing when they're needed | | | | the trade. When those variables favor the |
| most. If one ever wonders how or why free | | | | athlete, they're all that matters. When they |
| agency changed the way we view players | | | | don't, agents are the first to tout the |
| involved in team sports, the first point of | | | | intangibles such as leadership, a team |
| investigation centers around the lucrative | | | | oriented attitude, media presence and |
| business of sports management. | | | | personality. |
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