Agent Leigh Steinberg back in business after overcoming demons
FOR NEARLY 25 years, Leigh Steinberg was the king of NFL agents. Over the course of his career he represented 60 first-round draft picks, including eight who were the top overall selection.
FOR NEARLY 25 years, Leigh Steinberg was the king of NFL agents. Over the course of his career he represented 60 first-round draft picks, including eight who were the top overall selection.
He represented virtually all of the league's top quarterbacks, including Hall of Famers Troy Aikman, Steve Young and Warren Moon. He was the inspiration for Tom Cruise's character in Jerry Maguire.
Then he lost it all. Became a drunk. His partners bolted on him and took most of his clients. His wife divorced him.
He lost all of his money and declared bankruptcy. The NFL Players Association decertified him.
Now, at age 66, Steinberg is making a comeback. He is representing one of the top quarterbacks in this year's draft, Paxton Lynch, of Memphis.
Steinberg, who is six years' sober, regained his NFLPA certification two years ago. Last year, Lynch's father, David, was researching agents to represent Paxton and his baseball-playing son Evin and gave Steinberg a call.
"I didn't even know who he was back then," Steinberg said. "He was trying to do research for his sons. We kept in touch. The values matched. The role-modeling. The charity and community programs (that he always has encouraged his clients to get involved in). Second-career (emphasis)."
Steinberg was brutally honest with Lynch and his father. Told them about all of the demons he had battled. Told them he hadn't been actively representing players since 2007.
"I knew I would have to deal with all of those questions," Steinberg said. "The best way to deal with them is up front. Define myself before other agents had a chance (to define him)."
The agent business is generally considered a young man's game. Trying to resurrect your career at age 66 isn't easy. But Steinberg said he's up for the challenge.
He doesn't expect to ever be the super agent he was in the '80s and '90s when his firm repped more than 90 NFL players and another 60 baseball players.
"I wouldn't try to compete with my past," he said. "I have no desire to do it. But if I can just help a smaller number of young people achieve their hopes and dreams and get them into second careers, it's really enough.''
This and that
* Count Brad Childress among the many who think the Eagles got it right when they hired Doug Pederson as their new head coach. Childress, who was the Eagles' quarterbacks coach in 1999 when Pederson was a player and has spent the last three seasons with him on Andy Reid's staff in Kansas City, believes Pederson will make a good head coach. "When you talk about quarterbacks, you always say you want a flatline guy," Childress said. "Never too high, never too low. I think as much as anything, that's what Doug's got going for him. Plus, the fact that he knows this (offensive) system forward and backward. He's seen it from its infancy in the Mike Holmgren era to where we've grown it now. Every West Coast team grows it in a different direction. But he'll be creative. He'll take stock of what he has there. Whoever ends up being the quarterback there, he'll play to their strengths and do a great job."
* While many people in Philadelphia have wondered why Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott didn't draw more interest from teams such as the Eagles when they were filling their head-coaching vacancies, a bigger mystery is why the Panthers' offensive coordinator, Mike Shula, wasn't asked to interview for any of the seven openings.
The Panthers finished sixth in total offense and scoring, and quarterback Cam Newton is expected to be named the league's MVP, even though they lost their best wide receiver (Kelvin Benjamin) to a knee injury in the preseason and don't have a big-name running back. Phil Simms, who will broadcast Super Bowl 50 with Jim Nantz on CBS, said Shula did an exceptional job of designing an offense around Newton's skill set.
"He built the perfect offense for Cam," Simms said.
So why didn't he get any head-coaching nibbles then? "Mike doesn't seek a lot of publicity," Simms said. "If I asked even people that follow football to name the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, they would most likely not know the answer. Mike is very low-key. Also, I think a lot of people may view what they do in Carolina (offensively) as gimmicky. Which it is truly not. It's power football, both running and passing. Which will always have a place in the NFL."
Figuring the Eagles
* Zach Ertz was the second of six tight ends taken in the first three rounds of the 2013 draft. A breakdown of the 2015 pass-catching numbers of those six, including red-zone (RZ), first-down (1D) and third-down (3D) numbers:
RZ RZ 1D 3D
Rec. Yds. TD TD Rec. Rec. Rec.
Tyler Eifert . . . 1/21 52 615 13 11 12 38 12
Zach Ertz . . . 2/35 75 853 2 1 3 40 10
Gavin Escobar . . . 2/47 8 64 1 1 2 5 7
Vance McDonald . . . 2/53 30 326 3 3 4 17 11
Travis Kelce . . . 3/63 72 875 5 4 6 40 23
Jordan Reed . . . 3/85 87 952 11 10 16 55 24
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* In 2007, the Eagles finished first in the league in red-zone defense, holding opponents to a 36.4 touchdown percentage inside the 20. Since then, they've finished higher than 17th only once (12th in 2013). They finished 31st this season (65.6). That was their worst red-zone percentage since 2010 (78.3).
* The Eagles were outscored in both the first quarter (64-87) and the first half (176-223) this season. It was only the third time since 2000 that has happened.
* Darren Sproles' 89-yard punt return for a touchdown against the Jets in Week 3 was the longest punt return in the league this season.
* The Eagles finished 24th in yards per play (5.3), their worst average and ranking under Chip Kelly. They were 11th last year (5.6) and second in 2013 (6.3).
* There were a lot of reasons for Sam Bradford's improvement in the second half of the season, including the chemistry he developed with Zach Ertz. In Bradford's first seven starts, Ertz had only 24 receptions. In Bradford's last seven, Ertz had 49. Ertz averaged 4.8 yards after the catch in Bradford's last seven starts, compared with 3.2 in his first seven.
* Jordan Matthews and Darren Sproles led the Eagles in third-down catches this season, each with 23. Matthews also led the team in third-down catches that resulted in first downs (10). Zach Ertz's reception total increased from 58 last year to 75. But his 10 third-down receptions were 13 fewer than he had last year. He had a team-high 21 third-down catches for first downs last season. This year he had six.
Tar. Rec. Yds. TD 1D
Jordan Matthews . . . 43 23 271 3 16
Darren Sproles . . . 28 23 197 1 10
Zach Ertz . . . 24 10 116 1 6
Riley Cooper . . . 14 9 106 0 7
Josh Huff . . . 13 8 57 1 5
Brent Celek . . . 7 6 70 2 5
Miles Austin . . . 14 4 76 0 4
Ryan Mathews . . . 4 3 34 0 2
Nelson Agholor . . . 11 3 28 0 3
DeMarco Murray . . . 4 2 12 0 0
Jonathan Krause . . . 2 1 7 0 0
Kenjon Barner . . . 1 1 2 0 0
* Over the last two seasons, only 32 of the defense's 86 quarterback sacks, or 37.2 percent, have come on blitzes. That's a significantly smaller percentage than in 2013, when 48.6 percent of the Eagles' sacks (18 of 37) came on blitzes. A three-year breakdown of the Eagles' sacks:
2013 2014 2015
Rush 3. . . 3 3 2
Rush 4. . . 16 28 21
Rush 5. . . 15 12 12
Rush 6. . . 3 4 2
Rush 7-8. . . 0 2 0
Total 37 49 37
-Paul Domowitch
On Twitter: @Pdomo
Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian.com