REVIEW OF LITERATURE The role of the sports agent is said to have emerged almost a century ago in the mid 1920s when football player Red Grange hired a “personal representative” to negotiate a contract based upon performance. Grange was the first professional athlete whose contract was based upon his performance along with the fans that his celebrity attracted to the games he played in. Since then most professional athletes hire personal representatives known now as sports agents to work out the details of their playing contracts along with securing other forms of income with the agreement that the sports agent will be paid a percentage of the contract that is completed. Though a sports agents primary role is to maximize the value of what …show more content…
their client is to be paid all the services to which an agent serves a client are known as fiduciary duties. Ultimately, it is a sports agent’s job to serve their client’s best interest without considering their own personal interest. In the United States case of Sims v Argovitz a “particularly egregious conflict” between the agent, Jerry Argovitz, was held to have breached his fiduciary duty to running back Billy Sims of the Detroit Lions while negotiating his client’s new contract with the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League. This is because Argovitz was the partial owner of the team (Houston) that he was also responsible for having Sims sign to (Johnson, 2006 p. 110). The sports agent industry has been widely scrutinized throughout the years because of the agents that neglect the ethics of the profession by breaching their fiduciary duties for personal gain as in the previous mentioned case of Sims v.
Argovitz. In another instance while working for IMG, sports agent Bill Henkel, secured a memorabilia deal for Pro Bowl running back, LaDanian Tomlinson. Henkel received a substantial personal kickback from the company hiring Tomlinson, but did not inform Tomlinson's or IMG (Heitner, 2010). How this presented an issue was that Henkel breached his fiduciary duty in order to secure the deal with his own personal interest in mind. “Some American commentators describe the player agent business as “one of the most deceptive and unethical aspects of the sports industry’ and ‘responsible for much of what is wrong with sports today” (Johnson, 2006 p. 104). In order to understand what makes the lack of professional ethics possible in the sports agent industry one must consider the current regulations for governing professional conduct and each individual agent’s own ethical bases for decision making regarding those …show more content…
regulations. One of the biggest ethical issues within the sports agent industry has been that of agents paying athletes and/or providing athletes with improper benefits in the form of gifts while they are still in college in an attempt to “buy the client.” Several sports agents like the well known super agent William “Tank” Black, the infamous Josh Luchs and the man behind the University of North Carolina agent athlete scandal Terry Watson have each admitted to or were found guilty of “buying clients.” Competition between sports agent recruiting the client who will be the next Lebron James or Odell Beckham Jr is fierce. “Consequently, this industry has experienced a downward spiral of morals and ethics (Malone & Lipinsky, 1997 p. 413).” The Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act (SPARTA) makes certain activities of sports agents come within the regulations of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and considers sports agents who entice student-athletes with misrepresentations and gifts to enter into agency contracts in violation of the FTC’s Regulations regarding the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) an act that was passed by Congress to protect businesses against unfair competition and deceptive acts. Ultimately, SPARTA holds sport agents within the law of the FTCA by not allowing agents to entice an athlete into becoming a client by providing them money or gifts. There are three main sports agent duties embedded in SPARTA's regulation of unfair and deceptive acts and practices in connection with the contact between a sports agent and a student athlete. The duties are: 1) A duty to be truthful, 2) A duty of disclosure, and 3) A duty to refrain from "buying" an athlete (Ramsey, 2017). In his own words from an excerpt out of his book Tanked!: behind the scenes with the NFLs biggest stars by the games most infamous super agent:, Black mentions, “One fact that will always be true, almost all agents give and loan players things of value because that is the nature of the business. Any top agent who claims to never have given a player or loaned a player something is simply not being honest.” Black pointed out how he co-signed for car loans and advanced cash prior to athletes signing contracts with his agency. Black’s most notorious violation was using his clients money for investment in a ponzi scheme which is a breach of fiduciary duties. There are several things to consider that make the case for stricter punishments for unethical agent behavior. Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, a sports agent may receive punishment of as much as $11,000 for violation of an unfair or deceptive act or practice. “Tank” Black stood to make millions off of first round draft picks like Jevon Kearse, Fred Taylor, and Ike Hillard. Would an $11,000 fine be an effective deterrent of unethical behavior when recruiting those athletes? “From the agent’s perspective, the penalties in place are not sufficient to deter this unscrupulous activity from occurring; the potential to be made from a top athlete far outweighs the penalties, fines, and sanctions in place (Wnuk, 2010).“ Next, there is technically no fiduciary relationship existing because the agent and athlete have yet to enter into an agreement. What this means is that the sports agent doesn’t have a responsibility to act in the best interest of the potential client at that time due to the fact that they are not officially a client yet. “SPARTA serves an important role in creating duties for sports agents with respect to their relationships with athletes before agency law would kick in to protect athletes. The key to the effectiveness of SPARTA is enforcement, and many critics point out that area, in particular, as the statute’s weakness (Heitner, 2010).” By causing a student athlete to forfeit amateur status a sports agent has created another ethical issue for the university of playing a then “professional athlete” on the collegiate roster. In order to eliminate this from happening the Uniform Athlete Agent Act (UAAA) was established in the year 2000 and has since been revised and amended in 2013 and 2015 to strengthen the regulations. The UAAA is a model state law that provides a means of regulating the conduct of athlete agents that 40 states have enacted. In most states the UAAA requires an athlete agent to register with a state authority such as the Secretary of State in order to act as an athlete agent in that state. During the registration process, an athlete agent must provide important background information, both professional and criminal in nature. The UAAA has four main components that: 1) Prohibit an agent from giving false, misleading information, or promises to get a student-athlete to sign an agency contract. 2) Prohibit an agent from providing anything of value to a student-athlete before signing a contract. 3) Requires written notification to institutions when student-athletes sign an agency contract before their eligibility expires. 4) Require an agency contract to contain a notice informing student-athletes that signing a contract may cause them to become permanently ineligible for intercollegiate competition (Ramsey, 2017).
Though the requirements are made of the sports agent for disclosure, the UAAA's primary purpose is to protect educational institutions by creating a uniform code of rules and regulations. While student-athletes were a concern for the drafters of the UAAA, their primary goal was to protect educational institutions' financial interests against the practices of unethical agents who will do anything to sign a new client to an agency contract including acts that may jeopardize a student-athlete's NCAA eligibility and/or thereby disrupt the the educational institution's sports programs compliance with NCAA rules. Though the UAAA protects the educational institution it doesn’t serve as an effective deterrent for unethical sports agent behavior. “In essence, the Act only regulates interaction between the agent and the student athlete and does not address the dealings of the sports agent and the professional athlete, which then fails to protect the professional athlete (Neiman,
Unknown).” Even before considering those rules one's ethical bases determines their moral reasoning as with the infamous sports agent Josh Luchs. Ethical bases are defined by deontology (based on rules or what is right), teleology (based on consequences of action or what is good) or existentialism (based on the individual or intentions, motives or character) (Malloy, D. C., Ross, S., & Zakus, D. H. 2003). Luch’s claims to have paid the first player that he ever tried to recruit and seemingly many after by justifying his actions as necessary because it was a part of the business. "People should know how the agent business really works, how widespread the inducements to players are and how players have their hands out. It isn't just the big, bad agents making them take money” (Luchs, 2012). CONCLUSION What seems to hold true is that regardless of the regulation by acts like SPARTA, UAAA and others there are unethical sports agents that will create ways to gain an unethical advantage in recruiting athlete clients and those that will breach fiduciary duty. SPARTA and UAAA can only protect the athlete and the institution while the agent is recruiting the athlete. Once the agent signs the athlete as a client only the NFLPA’s Code of Conduct is protects the athlete and as Luchs puts it, “The NFLPA is mostly powerless.” “The number of problems resulting from the athlete-agent interaction has swelled almost as fast as the ranks of the agents themselves” (Wnuk, 2010). Based upon the literature reviewed it seems that most agents do in fact follow the rules and regulations for ethical behavior but a select few which happen to be some of the more successful and well known agents have been in fact caught using unethical tactics. SPARTA and the UAAA set standards but do not serve as effective deterrents for those unethical tactics and at least 66 schools from 32 states have had athletic officials sign a petition that calls for stricter penalty for unethical agent behavior and a broader scope of the law. As there have been revisions and amendments made to the current regulations already in the past 30 years, the question for further review would be is making stricter rules the answer to stopping unethical sports agents or is making it harder to become a sports agent the answer to eliminating the unethical? The answer lies not only within stricter regulation but also making sure that there is enforcement of those rules (Martin, 2012).
First, illegal recruiting in NCAA athletics is tremendously unethical. “The extremely high stakes of recruiting can sometimes compromise the values that coaches need to teach: honesty, integrity, and loyalty” (Spillane). No matter how high the stakes, there is no reason to put all morals and values aside for the sake of a college sport. Whether it is a low level recruit or a superstar, it all has to deal with the same principle, meaning that if the coach doesn’t regard the two recruits equally he isn’t doing his job right. As expectations for the coach begin to rise and job security decreases, it tempts the coaches to go out and attain the recruits no matter what the cost (Spillane). Although a coach may be susceptible to losing his job, it is better to be fired than to give up all of their morals and integrity. If a person is to give up all of their morals for any reason, it truly shows what type of person they are. Also, as explained in Modern Sports Ethics by Angela Lumpkin, there may not be any moral obligation for a coach or recruiter to make the right choice (66). Therefore, the coach’s character becomes ...
The proposal of payment toNCAA student-athletes has begun major conversations and arguments nationwide with people expressing their take on it. “This tension has been going on for years. It has gotten greater now because the magnitude of dollars has gotten really large” (NCAA). I am a student athlete at Nicholls State University and at first thought, I thought it would be a good idea to be able to be paid as a student-athlete.After much research however; I have come to many conclusions why the payment of athletes should not take place at the collegiate level.The payment of athletes is only for athletes at the professional level. They are experts at what they do whether it is Major League Baseball, Pro Basketball, Professional Football, or any other professional sport and they work for that franchise or company as an employee. The payment of NCAA college athletes will deteriorate the value of school to athletes, create contract disputes at both the college and professional level, kill recruiting of athletes, cause chaos over the payment of one sport versus another, and it will alter the principles set by the NCAA’s founder Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Under Roosevelt and NCAA, athletes were put under the term of a “student-athlete” as an amateur. All student athletes who sign the NCAA papers to play college athletics agree to compete as an amateur athlete. The definition of an amateur is a person who “engages in a sport, study, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons” (Dictonary.com).
...hedules the athletes had, they are still considered just a student. The NCAA cannot continue to allow these schools to work the athletes as much as they do without giving the athletes what they deserve.
6) Clark, Liz. “Athletes Say They Deserve to Be Paid.” Charlotte Observer. (Charlotte, N.C.). April 3, 1994: pg. 4G. Sports. Eleanor Goldstein. Vol. 4. Boca Raton: SIRS, 1994. Art. 65.
In the beginning of inter-collegiate competition and even now the governing body the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) wanted athletes to maintain their amateurism. Being an amateur means, to remain unpaid why competing and performing a c. Athletes were to come from the student body and off-campus recruitment of athletes was prohibited. The problem with the many rules and regulations of the NCAA early on was that they expected schools to police themselves and uphold a certain amount of morality, but without checks and balances corruption was sure to take place and did so. From the late 1920’s and into the 1940’s big-time athletes would be “sponsored” by alumni in order to get them to play for that schools team. The alumni would usually just pay the tuition for the athlete and usually it was seen as a loan but rarely got paid back.
The NCAA prides itself as an organization dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of student-athletes and equipping them with the skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life. In order to ensure that participants are students first and athletes second the NCAA has specific rules pertaining to athlete amateurism. The requirements prohibit contracts and tryouts with professional teams, salary for participating in athletics, prize money, and representation by an agent. (Amateurism) These rules not only limit the freedom of the player but also put the player at risk of being taken advantage of due to the lack of a players union and illegality of employing an agent. Other aspects of the NCAA’s rule book have been under scrutiny as well. Marc Edelman, Professor of Law at Baruch College, wrote in his treatise: Why the NCAA’s No-Pay Rules Violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act that courts are now beginning to overturn certain rules that are deemed anticompetitive. This development is important because according to the Sherman Act “Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherw...
There has been a lot of athletic scandals in colleges in most parts of the world. These scandals have been as a result of the coaches and the directors of athletics in the colleges failing to take the full force of the law and giving their players freedom to do everything even if it is against the law. One of this fatal scandals is the Baylor university basketball scandal that occurred in the year 2003. This scandal involved the players and the coaches of the team. The scandal left one player dead and the other imprisoned for thirty five years. The team was subjected to a lot of punishment by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA is a non-profit organization comprised of 1281 institutions, organizations, individuals and conferences and that organizes the athletic programs of most of the colleges and universities in the United States and Canada (The New York Times, 2003).
According to the NCAA regulations an athlete will lose his/her eligibility if they are paid to play; sign a contract with an agent; receive a salary, incentive payment, award, gratuity educational expenses or allowances; or play on a professional team. The word amateur in sports has stood for positive values compared to professional, which has had just the opposite. The professional sport has meant bad and degrading; while the amateur sport has meant good and elevating. William Geoghegan, Flyer News sports editor writes, “Would paying athletes tarnish the ideal of amateurism? Maybe, but being fair is far more important than upholding an ideal” (Geoghehan 1).
College athletes are manipulated every day. Student athletes are working day in and day out to meet academic standards and to keep their level of play competitive. These athletes need to be rewarded and credited for their achievements. Not only are these athletes not being rewarded but they are also living with no money. Because the athletes are living off of no money they are very vulnerable to taking money from boosters and others that are willing to help them out. The problem with this is that the athletes are not only getting themselves in trouble but their athletic departments as well.
Zimbalist, Andrew S. Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism And Conflict In Big-Time College Sports. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is an association set up to regulate
59). Primitively, scholarships were unheard of and universities were bribing athletes in order to convince them to attend their institution. After the media became aware that college sports were getting involved with fraud and gambling the proposition of offering athletes a free education (i.e. scholarships) was believed to help eliminate this dilemma. The principle of Universalization demonstrates an understanding of how equal respect is due, unless an ethical reason exists for not doing so. This is being violated by the NCAA because a student body president can receive five thousand dollars for his contribution to the institution, but a student-athlete can receive zero for their contribution athletically. NCAA critic, Taylor Branch publicly spoke in 2011 about student-athletes and equal rights by explaining, “[The real scandal in sports] is not that students are getting illegally paid or recruited, it’s that two of the noble principles on which the NCAA justifies its existence ‘amateurism’ and the ‘student-athlete’ are hoaxes…so they can exploit the skills and fame of young athletes…”
The role of the sports agent is said to have emerged almost a century ago in the mid 1920s when football player Red Grange hired a “personal representative” to negotiate a contract based upon performance. Grange was the first professional athlete whose contract was based upon his performance along with the fans that his celebrity attracted to the games he played in. Since then most professional athletes hire personal representatives known now as sports agents to work out the details of their playing contracts along with securing other forms of income with the agreement that the sports agent will be paid a percentage of the contract that is completed. Though a sports agents primary role is to maximize the value of what
The controversy of athletes being overpaid dates back to 1922, when well-known baseball player George “Babe” Ruth received $50,000 within the first year of his career. Ruth’s extensive wealth was bolstered by dozens of endorsements (Saperecom). As it is shown in figure 1, in the Fortunate 50 Tiger Woods takes the number one spot for highest paid athlete. Tiger’s salary for 2011 is $2,294,116 and like Babe Ruth, his endorsements exceed his salary earning $60,000,000 making his total $62,294,116 (Freedman). It’s crazy to think that 89 years ago professional athletes scarcely made more than the average person today. This is of course not counting the inflation that has occurred since the years which Babe Ruth played baseball.
Professional athletes are modern day gods. We idolize and worship their abilities, powers and grace. However, as heartbreaking as it maybe to sports fans, the sports industry cathedral is drowning in lies and deception. The many forms of dishonesty to be found there are legion. Whether super-athletes, coaches or even referees, the lies and deception that are consuming the sports industry can be attributed to three simple causes: self- justification, self-deception and performance pressure.