The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game Paperback – August 25, 2015

Very insightful book and story. If you're at all interested in the Sports Industry you would enjoy the story of Leigh Steinberg. I had the pleasure to attend his traveling seminar program, "The Agent Academy" and his career is beyond comparison. I learned a lot from him and this book can give you a glimpse into the Sports Agency industry. Its fascinating to read about Leigh's rise to the top and how he truly reinvented the sports agent industry. The Hardcover version is great, it makes a cool addition to my bookshelf as well.

This is a solid book. Leigh Steinberg revolutionized the sports agency business. From the mid 70s with his first client UCal QB Steve Bartkowski who was only slightly younger than Steinberg to the 2000s, Leigh Steinberg was the Go To Guy. Agent who controlled the QB position. This book is very interesting in providing the backstory to his rise to fame, his philosophy on running the agency, his many relationships with athletes and specific stories of player negotiations. He eventually transcended player representation bridging into multimedia and ownership.But this book is at it's best just recounting how he got in the business, how he grew it and how he negotiated it. I had some dealings with his agency. As a CPA I interviewed to handle the finances for Walter Lewis, an AL QB who signed a million dollar contract with the USFL in 1983. We were selected by Steinberg's partner, Mike Sullivan. I specifically remember a year later when Mike called announcing he was leaving. That period is covered well in this book and needless to say, Steinberg felt mistreated by his former partner. Mike was a real pro I enjoyed meeting but I had no involvement with Leigh.If you are interested in pro football and the agency business, grab this book and read it! But there is another part of Leigh's story and there have been newspaper articles that go into further detail of his alcoholism which broke Steinberg completely and ruined his reputation with many clients. But as you would expect of a marketing person, that is somewhat glossed over. Yes, it's covered. But relatively quickly and always with an angle to make him the hero. That's my only complaint with this book. Steinberg is a shell of his former self in the agency business but you would never know it form reading this. In some respects I wonder if he wrote this because he needs any money he can get.Irrespective to my ramblings and guesses, I thoroughly enjoyed this read and with the caveats mentioned can definitely recommend it.

This book was extremely interesting and would be a great read for anyone interested in the business of sports. The in depth look into contract negotiations, the life of players and agents and the personalities of owners and GMs was fascinating. The best thing about Mr. Steinberg was that even though he was the biggest and best agent he wasn't in it for the money. He was interested most in helping others, improving lives and making a difference in his community. He is a role model and his perseverance through his alcohol problems further demonstrate that. I couldn't put this book down!

Steinberg has lived an incredible life. So it is really interesting and it gives us a glimpse into what life as a big time sports agent is like. But Steinberg is a very classy guy and he doesn't really give a lot of gossip and go into some of the dirty things I am sure he has seen in his career. He does it a little bit with Ryan Leaf, but for the most part he talks about the clients he likes and a few negotiations and leaves out the clients I am sure made him earn his commission.

I met Leigh Steinberg recently at a PowerTeam International Rainmaker Summit hosted by #1 Business Mentor, Bill Walsh, that is an entrepreneur’s dream. I was amazed at how giving Leigh was in sharing his story & struggles of becoming sports agent for many more of the top professional athletes. I wanted know more about his life and how he came to advocate for his clients as though he was a trusted family member. Reading this book filled in a lot of the blanks in how he came to live life operating from his heart space & not just in the sports industry for the money. His charitable work in various organizations is further testimony to gifts of his time & energy as he keeps giving back to heal humanity.

While there certainly are interesting stories, hardly a few pages go by without the author talking about how great he is. I obviously knew when I bought it that it was going to contain many stories about his successful negotiations. What disappointed me was him constantly either taking credit for people's successes or explaining people's failures resulting from him not being involved. Heck, he even tells a story about his intellect being compared to Einstein's. Everything in this book is "look what I did," or "look who I know." On the Kindle version, almost 5% of the book are photos of him with athletes. Who cares!! I don't want to see pictures of Leigh. While reading it, I actually started to mark the pages where he puts another plug in for himself or talks about how awesome he is. It became quite comical. I actually quit doing that when I reached 50. I would pass on this one.

I've had the privilege of interviewing Leigh Steinberg twice on our show Thursday Night Tailgate. He's not only a great interview but a fantastic person. His new book "The Agent" gives you great insight and detail into how he got started and the inside stories into what it was it like on the way up and the way down. This is a great read and you'll be glad you bought it.

Leigh Steinberg is the original Jerry Maguire. He tells some really interesting stories and sometimes, i wish he didn't try so hard to repair his reputation and show what a straight shooter he was. Maybe he was. I wish there were more stories about the side dealings in professional sports and the shadiness of the sports business. Overall, a great read, and it's cool to see some of the iconic names like Warren Moon, Steve Young, etc. be mentioned in the book.